SWITZERLAND! COUNTRY NUMBER 8 ON THIS TRIP!

FRIDAY, 31 MAY 2013

BERNINA EXPRESS

Today we took the Bernina Express-one of Switzerland's scenic rail rides. We started from Lugano, Switzerland where we boarded a bus for a 3 hour ride to Tirano, Italy. It was gorgeous, but busses are not conducive to photo ops. 

Turano, Italy square

In Tirano we boarded the train with huge windows. 

Then came the WOW moments.

It is a long train, and we were in the last (14) car.
Brusio spiral viaduct, single track nine arched viaduct that
serves to adjust altitude.

Our journey ended in the town of St. Moritz, Switzerland, a touristy resort town, whose sister city is Vail Colorado. It is on a lake, about the same size as Lake Bled and provided a nice stroll.

THURSDAY, 30 MAY 2013

ON THE MOVE

Headed towards Switzerland...we would have spent the night there, but reality is Switzerland is really expensive. A hotel in Milan is about one third the price, so we stayed there. Milan is home to Europe's 4th largest cathedral. Finding ourselves with time to stroll to the square we went to see it. Pictures you ask?? Not on this blog today. Why you ask?? Because Jim didn't take his camera (I think he is actually burning out going through all of them every night!). I took some with the cell phone, but until we can figure out how to download them onto this MacBook Air, there will be no pictures of Milan right now.

WEDNESDAY, 29 MAY 2013

FOUR MORE VILLAGES 

(CINQUE TERRE VILLAGES FROM WEST TO EAST: MONTEROSSO-VERNAZZA-CORNIGLIA-MANAROLA-RIOMAGGIORE)

We hopped the train to Monterosso, the most western village of the five and decided to work our way east through the rest of the villages.

The coastal trail is open to Vernazza, so we decided to hike it. It was far more strenuous than we imagined and took about 1 ½ hours. After that we were not at all sad the the other parts of the trail are closed! It was windy today, and the seas were rough which provided some spectacular crashing waves.

We waited for the next eastbound train, which took us to Riomaggiore, the most eastern village.

After Riomaggiore we backtracked to Corniglia, the middle village. It is the smallest village and the only one not on the water (379 steps up from the train station!).