Lugano

Thursday July 3

We left Zurich today on the 1pm train to Lugano (we would have liked to leave earlier but somehow we had booked this time on a fixed ticket since the check-in time at our holiday apartment was only 4pm; however, an e-mail the previous day advised us we could check-in in any time.  We arrived  just after 3pm and took a taxi to our apartment - only 3k's but $50. It was still extremely hot and we had all sorts of minor issues (finding and unlocking the key lock box was difficult, finding the unit was another challenge, on checking out the Nespresso machine we needed a call to the help line to get it working, but the piece de resistance was Dieter turned the security lock on the front door then had a panic attack when he could not unlock it). Anyway Dieter headed off to the closest grocery store (a Migros) while I unpacked. He returned an hour later a bit despondent as the Migros was not the best and did not sell any alcohol - he found some beer and wine in another store but it was not cold - so into the freezer which meant we did not get to have happy hour until after 6:30pm - to top it off there was no ice or even ice-cube trays.

Anyway the wine and complimentary bottle of Prosecco eventually chilled and Happy Hour commenced at the unhappy hour of 6:45pm - we finished off with sandwiches for dinner.

However, the unit was very nice, air-conditioned with a great lake-front position and of course great views.

Friday July 4

Up early to another hot and sunny day high of 35C reached around 2pm which is the normal pattern here - as side effect of this it remains hot well into the evening making dining at an outdoor restaurant not particularly pleasant. We walked into town (1.7K) leaving around 9:30am in the cool of the day (25C) - we checked out the major Coop shop then walked around the old town window shopping and checking restaurants (all a bit touristico) - we stopped at the Tourist Office and got the low down on the how the busses worked - mainly ticketing, zones and, routes. The very nice lady (with excellent English) gave us some hints on local points of interest - reached by boat, bus, train and/or funicular - most of which Dieter had already planned for our activities.

We had an early lunch at one of the restaurant then did a big shop at the Coop snagging an ice-cube tray (7 CHF but worth every penny - it's a very fancy one which will be on all future packing lists). We returned home with our haul mid-afternoon in the heat of the day.  We finished off with some Wimbledon viewing while cooling off. And to our amazement someone from Happy Rentals stopped by with new batteries for 3 of the air-conditioning remotes (which were either not working or were flakey) and a brand new ironing board (I had queried if one could be supplied as there was an iron !!).

Saturday July 5

We woke up early to a massive thunderstorm - what a change. It finally cleared around  mid-day but still looked a bit dicey so we took the train to Bellinzona, a lovely old town 20 minutes away by train - it's main attraction is 3 fortresses - we walked around the closest one to the old town.

Back at home - we watched some more Wimbledon (De Minaur won his match against a low ranked player but BBC did not show this match) - we did see Doko cruise through. We finished off with pasta / salad for dinner. By 6pm it had finally cleared to a fantastic day - sunny and a cool (25C) so we could sit on our balcony for happy hour. A G&T never tasted better.

Sunday July 6

We took the ferry to Morcote - a lovely old village where we walked around and visited its famous church and cemetery. We had lunch at a lake side restaurant which was about a 1 out of 10. We then took the ferry to the stop nearest the (highly recommended) Swiss Miniature Village which, when we saw it from the outside, we decided to give it a miss as it looked quite old and sad and not worth the $35 entrance fee. From here we caught the train back home and spent the rest of the day watching some tennis and having dinner at home.

Monday July 7

We took the bus to the start of the funicular to Mont Bre which had a very nice restaurant but it was too early for lunch. As planned we walked / hiked down - the trail proved to be very challenging - in the end by the time we finished it was too late for lunch so we stopped in the center of town to do a bit of shopping then headed home for a "rinse & repeat" of every late afternoon/evening. We had a warm lamb salad for dinner.

Tuesday July 8

We took the ferry to Gandria, another amazing lake-side town - from there we did the "olive walk" (a tourist highlight) back to town where we had an excellent lunch at a lake side restaurant (shared pasta and green salad).

Wednesday July 9

We walked the short distance (10 minutes) to the funicular to Mt San Salvador which has wonderful views over the lakes and surrounding mountains. We hiked down, this time wearing hiking boots which were definitely required - it took us about 1h40m - the estimated time was 1h10m but I'm very slow going downhill - it was about 900m vertical. Many people passed us hiking up - mainly Italians (so probably locals).

Thursday July 10

Off to Locarno by local train today - just over 30 minutes not counting the walk to/from the respective train stations - the one on our end up-hill for the last 200m.