Our trip to Switzerland - Part 3

Instead of taking the William Tell Express from Luzern to Uri we took the regularly scheduled train. I wasn't really looking forward to a two hour boat ride crisscrossing the lake, and the local train uses the same tracks as the scenic William Tell Express, so off we went.

Here's Bob waiting with our suitcases. We had to heave those two big guys up the train steps and onto the train, and it wasn't easy until Bob decided to get on board first and haul my suitcase up after him. Nice!

While we were killing time at the train station I checked the vending machine to see what kind of chocolate they sell. I found Twix and Snickers along with some surprises we wouldn't find in a vending machine in the good old USA. Zoom in on the picture and near the center you can see the MAYBE BABY test kit right over the can of CANNABIS ICED TEA! That made me chuckle the rest of the trip, and it was in every vending machine.  I checked!

When we got to Lugano we happened upon an Alp Horn concert. What fun!

Lake Lugano is surrounded by many small towns, most of which are in Italy.

A park along Lake Lugano.

The first part of the William Tell Express is a bus trip from Lugano to Tirano and it goes through Italy for a little while, so we were able to see a part of Northern Italy too.

We had a short rest stop in Italy, and I noticed that the roof of this house was held down with rocks!

We reached Tirano and boarded our train for this leg of the William Tell Express . I was worried because we needed reservations for the William Tell Express, and we made our reservations just the day before.

When the train arrived we searched for our car and the conductor told us that it was on the end of the train. What a great surprise! We were the only people in the train car. The one next to us was packed, so I guess they added another car for two people!

We read about Switzerland's wonderful arches used for trains to climb a steep grade, and they were fascinating.

Once again, the scenery was beautiful.

We stayed in Pontresina for a few days, and again, we loved it there.

While we were in Pontresina we hiked in the Alps again, and this time we took a funicular to Muottas Muragl, which was at 8,105'.

That's St. Moritz in the distance.

There was a restaurant up there, and you can rent deck chairs or start your hike. We chose to hike.

The trail was fairly flat, and went across the side of Alp Muottas.


We hiked past another little restaurant, which was closed, but we packed a lunch so it didn't bother us.

Someone has a sense of humor up there. Look at the sunglasses on the ibex!

They really want you to stay away from their cows on this trail.

It's easy to see the trail in this photo.

This was a nice place to stop for lunch.  It had a little bench and a beautiful view!

Bob noticed the avalanche barricades high on the mountain. Pontresina is directly below us, and they don't want their town wiped out by an avalanche.

This part didn't thrill me at all. Another tunnel!

Going down wasn't really fun. I don't like heights and this ski lift was high with a turn at the end, plus it was a windy day!

Pontresina had a lot of nice hiking trails, and we definitely would like to hike more of them.  Not this time though, because tomorrow we'll board the Glacier Express and head to Zermatt, home of the Matterhorn!!!

Our trip to Switzerland - Part 2

We left Appenzell and took the train to Luzern, and we loved Luzern!

While on the train we passed many farms, and Swiss farms certainly are different than our farm here in Blain. Their houses are attached to their barns! I definitely wouldn't want our house to be attached to our barn. How do they keep the cow smell out of the house?

Ok, back to Luzern. It's a beautiful city, with a lot to see and do. Our room was on the top floor of this hotel, the room on the corner with all the windows. Great view!

The Reuss River and all its bridges is so beautiful and picturesque.

Chapel Bridge is just outstanding. The flowers were beautiful, and there were paintings inside.

The water tower was built around 1300.

While we were having dinner one evening I saw these men walking along the other side of the river carrying their alp horns, and I made Bob come with me in search of them. I wanted to hear what they sounded like, and it was worth the search. It was a very pretty sound, sort of low and peaceful.

This was just a window in a drug store, but doesn't it look like it was straight out of Harry Potter!

We read about the sweeping views from Mount Rigi and took the boat across Lake Luzern to catch the cog railway to the summit. Everything surrounding Lake Luzern is so beautiful I just couldn't stop taking pictures. Here are a few for you to see:

Mount Rigi, which is called Queen of the Mountains, boasts the oldest cog railway in Europe.

We soon realized that all the cows (or at least most of the cows) in Switzerland wear cow bells, and I loved to way they sounded.

We arrived at the summit and had a fun day walking around and enjoying the views.

Who are these people? Too bad the woman forgot to take her hiking hat off!

The top of Rigi Mountain = Rigi Kulm

We took the cable car back down the mountain.

Again, we enjoyed our boat ride back to Luzern. Yes, those are vineyards on the hillside, and we saw vineyards all over Switzerland's steep hillsides.

We read that the Swiss people are very proud of their clear, clean water, and you can fill your water bottles up at any of the many fountains they have in their cities and towns. There are over 1,200 unique water fountains in Switzerland, and we refilled our water bottles at them often. Isn't this one great!

Next stop - Lugano, via the William Tell Express!

Roswell - In search of a UFO

When we were heading home through New Mexico we found out that our credit card was compromised, and we had to wait for a new one to be sent to us. Low and behold, it happened near Roswell, New Mexico - home of the great 1947 UFO Incident. Who wouldn't want to stop here! Ha

I've always told Bob that I knew if a UFO landed in our yard and the aliens asked him if he wanted to go for a ride I'd be standing there waving good bye. I'm so glad we don't live in Roswell, because he would have hopped right on. At least in 1947. Maybe.

Is it true? Did one of these guys get left behind?

Bob checked things out very carefully, but I pulled him away and offered him something better.

There was a bakery across the street, and Bob has a sweet tooth. We bought some of these goodies and headed on our way. Just the two of us!

We have one more place to show you before we reach home, so stay alert!

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