Florence, Italy to Engelberg, Switzerland

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July 23 Sunday

I was still tired at 5 am so I hit the snooze button until 5:30. Breakfast was decent. I had scrambled eggs and croissants with cherry jelly.
We left at 8. Sadly I found out this morning that we are not going to Pisa. After passing through quite a few tunnels to get over and through the mountains the landscape became mostly farmland of corn, wheat and vineyards. We passed or should I say it passed us the high speed train a few times. It's extremely fast. I'm hoping to get it video taped. We stopped for a restroom break about 10 am. We'll travel for about 2 hours before our lunch break. We traveled around the outskirts of Milan. It was interesting to see modern buildings and a few skyscrapers off to the right in the distance towards the city center while on the left of the highway were old stone farms centuries old.



We stopped at 11:25 am to 12:25 for lunch. I grabbed a spinach pizza and water. We then traveled for about 20 minutes and came upon Lake Como as we came out of the tunnel right before Switzerland border. I was amazed about how much of the city is around the actual lake. It was quite huge.



We crossed over into Switzerland with no border check. So no stamp for my passport. There wasn't even a sign that said welcome to Switzerland. We passed another lake with a city surrounding it. Some of us on my side of the bus got to see a hang-glider up the mountainside. We were in the Alps so lots of green forested mountains and scattered waterfalls along the way. We then had to enter the Gotthard Road Tunnel.



The Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland runs from Göschenen in the canton of Uri at its northern portal, to Airolo in Ticino to the south, and is 10.5 miles in length below the St Gotthard Pass, a major pass of the Alps. At the time of the construction, in 1980, it was the longest road tunnel in the world; it is currently the fourth-longest. Although it is a motorway tunnel, part of the A2 from Basel to Chiasso, it consists of only one bidirectional tube with two lanes. With an elevation of 3,760 ft at the tunnel's southern portal, the A2 motorway has the lowest maximum elevation of any direct north-south road through the Alps.

We entered the two lane tunnel at 2:53 and exited it at 3:09. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

Engelberg (lit.: mountain of angel(s)) is a village resort and a municipality in the canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. Besides the village of Engelberg, the municipality also includes the settlements of Grafenort, Obermattand Schwand. It has a population of about 4,000 people. In the center is Kloster Engelberg, a 12th-century monastery. Trails weave up Mt. Titlis, and ski runs zigzag down, while revolving Titlis Rotair gondola lift leads to the summit, Titlis Cliff Walk suspension bridge and a glacial park.



The "village" is much bigger than I expected but that's probably due to all the ski resort hotels that are here in town. After 10 days of completely hot and muggy weather having overcast clouds and low temperatures is very refreshing. The rain they forecasted never came. The hotel we stay are staying in is called the Regina Titlis. Before heading up to my room I had asked the hotel desk help why all the decorations with Native American and old west theme. Apparently the town is putting on a performance based on a local famous author's book that has two characters; and Apache chief and a man from Switzerland. I just thought it was funny that I come all the way to Switzerland and I'm in the American old west.
The hotel is absolutely great. I even got a balcony with a view of the mountain side and parts of the town. There is no AC but you don't need it. I have a large window and a door that opens up to the balcony so I could leave open during the night to get fresh cold air.



After having about an hour break upon entering the hotel, we left at five for our carriage ride to the farm. We had a small tour of the town (many of the shops had displays using once again Native American and Oldwest themed decorations) before heading to edge of the town where there is a farm building. Here is where the family takes care of their cows but they are currently up in the hillside for the summer. They did have two rabbits that everyone enjoyed feeding clover to. After a brief introduction to their farm life, the hostess presented various drinks, appetizers (3 kinds of cheese, three kinds of Thinly sliced meat, a cheese pie slice, and a potato cake finger food) and desserts (coconut covered cake squares and apple strudel) for us to eat and enjoy. The only downside was that Susan was rude again to me and Linda. When I hostess invited us to come partake there was no real line order. A few of us went for the cheeses but then got in line with our little napkin and cheese. Susan and her two friends that she's hung out with the whole time, we're just standing color in the center of the room but near the line. As we followed Patricia and Robin, Susan tried to cut in. When I moved closer to Patricia Susan actually laid her hand on my upper arm and said something to the fact that I had already had something to eat and I should not be in line again. She was pushing on my upper arm as if to push me out of the line. That's when Linda stated that we had just picked up some cheeses and have not had the main dish yet. Susan then try to say that we were cutting in line but we told her that she was cutting in line because the line formed behind us. After we got our food some of us went outside including Linda and me. Linda commented on how rude she was. At least now someone else has seen it besides just me. After spending some time finishing up our appetizers and drinks and spending some more time with the bunnies, we then boarded the carriages back to the hotel. Since it was still kind of early in the appetizers hadn't quite taking away my hunger, I asked the help at the front desk about any pizza places that deliver as I do not feel like eating out. He directed me to a little restaurant just across the street a little bit where I was able to get me a spinach pizza to bring back to the room for the night. Tomorrow we have a late excursion so we don't have to be up as early.

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