Friday, July 12, 2019: Day 6, Back to Italy, Return to Switzerland and St. Moritz

Overall, a not very exciting day that ended well. We finished our two day stay in Lugano. Thankfully, it was not a REALLY early day. We were to have our luggage ready for pickup by 7:30 am and depart from the hotel at 8:30 am.

Crossing from Switzerland back into Ital, we drove along Lake Como, Italy. It is a pretty lake with spectacular surroundings. We caught a glimpse of some obscure actor's former villa...someone named Clooney. It was a relatively short drive to Menaggio where we caught a boat to cross the lake to the fishing village of Bellagio.

Here we walked through the village for about an hour. Didn't do any shopping but just strolled, trying to keep a good distance from the throngs of tourists. We stopped in the cathedral and enjoyed the quiet solitude. Then found a remote sidewalk cafe to have a glass of wine before heading back to the dock.

We headed back to the dock and arrived in reasonably good time...about 10 minutes late. Paul, tour guide, met us with a stern face and mentioned we had a schedule to maintain. I apologized and assured him it might not happen again.

Back over to Menaggio where we had lunch, then back on the bus. We drove about an hour to Chiavenna where we stopped for ice cream. Another couple of hours to Maloja Pass, which is the highest we will be on today at 6,000 ft. Somewhere during the drive, we passed from Italy back into Switzerland for the last time.

There is a hotel at the top of the pass, but it has been closed for some time.

By this time, Maria had developed a dark attitude from being told where, when and what to do. This is her first experience with this degree of structure on a trip. She did not become violent, but, if looks could kill, we would have had to find a new Polish travel guide. We would work on this the remainder of the day and ultimately she recovered.

Dark Maria

Our coach...the Bruno Mobile

Another hour or so and we reached St. Moritz. It is much more of a ski village than Zermatt and known for its spas and mineral waters. On the way into St. Moritz, Polish Paul "entertained" us with a constant barrage of seemingly inconsequential little tidbits of Swiss history. It would have been much more pleasant to enjoy the scenery in quiet, but that was not Paul's plan.

We arrived at the hotel 4:15 pm, quickly given our keys and told to meet again in the lobby at 4:30 pm for a tour of the hotel and spas. Right! We decided to have a glass of champagne in our room before adjourning to the hotel pub for cocktails and a game of Scrabble (Maria won) before dinner at 7:30 pm.

Dinner was good, in fact, we agreed it was one of the best of the trip so far. We both tried the steak tartare and it indeed was the best we have had on this trip. Apparently, Maria is a tartare snob as am I.

Tomorrow, we board the Glacier Express for a four hour ride up to Andermatt where we will lunch before boarding our bus to complete the day's trip to Interlaken. Not really sure what to expect regarding the weather. Paul said to be prepared for an uncomfortably warm train ride because the AC often is inadequate for the job. Apparently the train coaches have glass windows that cover the ceiling, making for a "green house" effect. BUT, he also suggested bringing gloves.

For dinner tomorrow night, we selected to dine in the French La Terrasse. It will be a dress affair.