World Switzerland Lugano

S&K's European Vacation

Day 8 Travel to Lugano, Switzerland Jun 8, 2012

Day 7 Our Adventure to Switzerland We were up at our regular time around 7:30 but we had no food or coffee in the apartment. We headed off to a local general store down the street below us to find some food for breakfast. The produce at the store did not look good so we left there and went to check out the 2 restaurants down the street from the store but they were not opened for breakfast so we decided to trek back to our apartment. There was a different staircase on our walk so we headed up this path and at the main street (where our apartment is) we found the bakery that Henry had told us about the night before. So now we had food…some yummy pastries but still no coffee. We came back to the apartment and had our breakfast there. We knew that Henry’s bar had an espresso machine there so then we went and had a café Americano at the bar. (which is what many of the locals do) We had decided to travel to Switzerland today as the city of Lugano was about an hour away. This time we traveled off the beaten path (no major freeways) and drove along Lake Como to Lugano. While if we thought the traffic in Paris was scary you should have seen this drive. Lynda you would have had your eyes closed most of the way to Lugano. The roads were very narrow and at some points 2 cars could not pass through. The villages were beautiful with old clay roofs and typical European villages. There were many times on our route we thought we were going to scrape another car. Boy those Italian drivers do not think anytime about going over the middle of the road. We drove through many small towns such as Brienno, Mezzegra,Tremezzo, Menegglo and Porlezza. We stopped to stretch our legs just outside the Swiss boundary. At this stop there was a restaurant called Pizzeria de Ciro. It was not much of a place but the pizza there was delicious and inexpensive. Stephen and I shared a pizza and had 2 pops and it only cost us 11 euros. We are finding that food is much cheaper here in Italy then in France. We found Lugano but we found that this Swiss city had the same feel as the Italian villages. Unfortunately we could not find any parking in the City Centre (and this was after we looked in a parking garage that must have had 10 floors and no parking spaces). We did not stay long in Lugano and decided to drive back to Tremezzo to look around the shops as it had stopped raining. Yes it rained once again yesterday!! We did find a parking spot in Tremezzo and thought it was paid parking lot but could not find a ticket machine. After shopping for a bit we headed back to the car to find the local police had been there and we got a parking ticket. We were not the only tourists who got a ticket as we seen many cars with parking tickets. How frustrating as the ticket machine is not visible!! We had an early dinner at the Red and White bar looking out to beautiful Lake Como. The pasta was great. Once again the price for dinner with a bottle of wine was reasonable. We tried a sauvignon blanc but it was actual more like a sparkling wine. We just relaxed for a bit after dinner and then went to Henry’s Bar (I know our local hangout these days… but we can get internet access at the Bar) and face timed with Chris and Steph to get caught up with them. We found out that Chris has been accepted in the dual credit program at Conestoga College. He will start in January 2013. We are so proud of you, Chris!! Steph’s training at Herrle’s went well and she will start working on June 20th. She will not have much of a break in between school and work as her last exam is on June 19th. Ciao!!

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