CIAO ITALY - HELLO SWITZERLAND - Phil &, Jill

We decided to go to Salzburg via Zurich. You can also go via Milan but we thought going through the Swiss Alps could be more scenic. It would take two trains and to fit in the timing it necessitated leaving Lake Como and travelling to Lugano situated on a lake of the same name. The Flixbus was our way to go again. 16 euros for both of us and around one and a half hours. We hadn't walked the route before as Monica and her mother had taken us by car to our apartment. We were dreading carrying the cases up many steps to the station where the Flixbus was to pick us up. Anyway as luck would have it a burly Englishman met Phil halfway up and carried his case up. These little bits of kindness make so much difference. It reminds me to be extra nice to travellers in Australia whenever there is a need.

So we made it with 10 minutes to spare and waited as there was no indication that it was a Flixbus stop but we had checked with Monica when we came. Anyway this time the Fluxbus was blue, not the orange and green we had become accustomed to. All the local buses were blue too and they had filled most of the bus bays. I just happened to notice Flixbus on the service board and said to Phil, come on it is stopping up further. It is such a relief when you get on. There was only one remaining passenger. On talking with the driver I learned that the bus had come from Genoa and Lugano was its final destination. We travelled through customs with a wave of the arm of the officer, although they were giving each car a good once over. It was a really flash coach and an experienced driver to manoeuvre across lanes.

On arrival in Lugano the bus disembarks passengers at a bus stop no-where near anything. A sort of map was on the wall of how to get to town about 2 kms away. Fortunately last night Phil had checked the Flixbus app and looked at our booking on the tablet which we now find has a map as against the.phone doesn't and so we knew we would be out of town and in his thoroughness, Phil drew another of his precious mud maps to find the way to town. We are also using off-line gps google maps now to get more electronically up-to-date.

It took us an hour of walking to drag our cases to the lake BUT the first glimpse of the lake was so picturesque with a flowered park on the left with a shaded promenade on the lakeside, pedalo stations on the front, a covered walkway and deep coloured moutains as a backdrop. My description is inadequate for this picture postcard scene.

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On the way I saw a ferry ticket station and quickly asked what was the rate and when was the next boat. They said at 12.15pm. Phil & I continued around to the Nassa Hotel. We were earlier than check in time and said the room would not be ready for an hour. No way did I want to waste that hour. I shot off to the ferry and just caught the ferry which is a one hour round trip around Lake Lugano stopping at very small Grottos where there may only be a restaurant or some small amount of housing. So many of the houses had boats attached as this is the only form of transport. Once again the scenery was awesome with these huge lift mountains. At some time in the pre-historic times they were pressured to rise leaving the depression which filled with water with the resultant lake. Sometimes there were mountain range beyond mountan range. It was so pretty.

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Well pleased with what I had done I returned to the Nassa where the owner of the hotel had to ring the room to see if I could join Phil!! I guess it was good he was on 'floosy' watch!! Anyway when I took the lift and entered room 304 I was knocked out with what I saw - no not Phillip - but the room with a view!! Not hard to be comfortable here!!