Day 21 Friday 5th July Lucerne to Lugano

Today we left Lucerne and travelled by train to Lugano on the Southern tip of Switzerland. The scenery was as usual very beautiful. We went through a lot of tunnels and around a lot of bends (in the tunnels) but didn't really notice them as we were on a tilt train. We are really loving the trains.  They are so relaxing.
 We arrived at Lugano station at 1pm and the hotel shuttle service picked us up and drove us the 10 km along the lake to our hotel. It was quite hot - 34 degrees. It was to be the start of our Insight Gold "Playgrounds of Europe" 10 day coach tour of northern Italy. Our hotel was beautiful as expected and after unpacking and a bit of a rest we had a light dinner (I would hate to think what a full dinner was!!) on the rooftop restaurant overlooking the huge lake and surrounding mountains.  We are very close to Italy here so the language is now Italian.
We met our tour director Gigi (half French/half American) and were a little disappointed to find there were to be only 17 on our tour. An American family of 6, (Grandma, Mum, Dad and 3 children) a South African couple on their honeymoon, one single American man, a couple from Mitcham and a couple from Sydney. Never mind, I'm sure we will have a great time anyway. The meal was delicious. Thankfully it was included as I'm sure we wouldn't be eating here otherwise.  A very small bottle of coke in the bar fridge is 9 swiss francs (10 AUD!!!!)
Our room is the size of a ballroom so plenty of room to spread out and sort out the cases. Off to bed for an early night.  Off to Milan tomorrow

* Sorry, the photos aren't very good today.  Most taken out of train window with bright sun and bad reflection.

Looked like a big landslide

Lugano from bus window

our hotel

This roll cost 18 swiss francs so Paul & I shared it!!!

view of houses across the lake

view from rooftop of hotel in panorama

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