| For the May bank holiday weekend we jumped in the car and headed up to Lake Lugano - Switzerland, but only just. Italian speaking, Italian food (but Swiss prices!) |
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| The sun shone and the Lake looked splendid. |
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| We camped on the shore of the Lake. The flood waters were still receeding after a heavy downpour, so we kept our distance slightly! |
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| The highlight was the top of San Salvatore, reached by funicular railway. |
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| Which commands incredible views over the entire lake... |
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| ...and on such a clear day, of the entire mountain range around. |
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| We headed round the lake to the picturesque village of Morcote. |
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| Which had suffered from mudslides during the bad weather, and was still partly inacessible. |
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| But on the hill above the town, you couldn't have felt more distant from mudslides and heavy rain. |
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| Archetypal Italian lakes (in Switzerland, but there's a bit of Italy on the other side of the lake!) |
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| Cooling off via ice cream and paddling. |
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| The following day we got in the car and hopped over the alps (well it took 3 hours) to German speaking Switzerland. We stayed in the Staubbach Falls Hotel (on the right) in Lauterbrunnen. |
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| Where Chris and Joy met us! They had been visiting Bern and hopped in the other direction to meet up. |
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| The Trummelbach falls - glacier melt water pummeling through a crevasse in the valley wall. Impressive and intimidating! |
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| We travelled up to Wengen, a small town where Al had spent a summer holiday 20 years previously (which made him feel rather old). |
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| Top priority. Cheese fondue! Mmmmm, Gruyere.... |
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| The following day brought more beautiful weather. |
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| And we took the cable car up to Muerren... |
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| ...for a walk... |
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| ...with amazing views of the moutains on the other side of the valley. |
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| The snow was only just retreating but, wherever it had, the ground was carpeted with crocuses. Amazing! |
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| In the shady areas, the snow hadn't retreated quite so much! |
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| More Gruyere! This time up a mountain, for lunch. Yum. |
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| Enjoying a refreshing beer. |
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| The view back across to the town of Muerren. |
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| Heading back on the train. |
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| We left Chris and Joy enjoying the Lauterbrunnen valley and headed back to our tent by Lake Lugano for a relaxing final evening. |
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| With frisbee... |
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| and red wine! |
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