I left the hotel leisurely at 9 am this morning.
typically i'm out by 8.... today was 9. it was
raining, and i didn't know where I wanted to go -- so
i just drove. I ended up visiting the St. Moritz
resort area and also down into Italy and then Lugano,
Switzerland, and back to Luzerne - about a 10-hour
drive.
The road from Luzern to St. Moritz was -- as all the
roads here -- gorgeous! Even more so because of all
the layers of clouds under and above the mountains! I
almost never got out of the car though since it was
raining all day. All the pictures i took today (and i
took several) were while driving, so many of them also
show the raindrops on the windshield.
Anyway, st. moritz itself is not all that beautiful,
but the alps all around the town are fantastic! I
drove down to Italy (even though i wasn't really
supposed to in this car), and as soon as i crossed the
italian border, it started to rain cats and dogs. Not
to mention water.
Actually, it was just water. Lots and lots and lots of
water!
I didn't notice any cats or dogs falling out of the
sky.
They weren't skydiving either.
But there WAS a lot of water. I already mentioned that
right? I dont remember, sorry.
I'm hungry.
oh ... yeah water. There was water everywhere! The
road i was on was flooded for most of the way, and to
those of you who've been to Mauii, this road is very
similar to the Hana Highway -- supposed to be
bi-directional traffic but really there's only room
for 1 car to pass. if a car comes from the other side,
some manuevering has to be done so you can both go.
The maneuvering was in the water.
lot of water.
It was really raining hard. Buckets! (not literally
buckets, but buckets-full of water all falling on the
windshield at once)
Right. Back to Italy. That whole stretch through Italy
(SS37, SS36, and SS340) is not a very good road to
drive on while it's raining. When it's not raining
though, it's just fantastic! Mountains, lakes, small
villages on mountains -- some of them actually seemed
like they were on the cliff! beautiful scenery!
I came back to Switzerland south of Lugano, and
started driving back towards Luzern. As soon as i
entered switzerland, the rains stopped. At least it
stopped raining cats, dogs, or any other animals. It
was just drizzling off-and-on...... which made for
another gorgeous drive, EXCEPT....
the first 100 km north of Lugano -- all freeway --
took about 3 hours in bummer-to-bummer ... oops sorry,
.... "bumper-to-bumper" construction traffic. It was a
real bummer. But..... scenery was good and I put in my
music cd's for the second time on this trip. If only i
had gone to the restroom before leaving Lugano...
ANYWAY - that's another story i dont want to get into
right now!!!
So now i'm back in Luzern, and it's not raining. I
have two more full days left on this trip, and it's
supposed to be raining tomorrow but not Sunday. I
still haven't seen the "highlights" of Switzerland ---
the peaks of Jungfrau or Matterhorn. If its raining
tomorrow i might go to the town of Zermaat for
as-good-a-view as possible of Matterhorn.... then
Jungfrau on Sunday. Then Dallas and San Jose on
Monday......
A bientot,
-moi.
On the way to St. Moritz:
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The town of St. Moritz:
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Within Italy:
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Back in Switzerland:
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