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Today is a travel day so we had to pack up our suitcases and put them outside our door by 7 am. Then it was off to breakfast, then board the bus by 8 am.
Today I’ll post a picture f the map of our trip. You’ll see we are covering lots of territory. I must say I like riding the bus and seeing the scenery but it’s hard not to sleep since we are tired.
Our first stop was at a rest area like our turnpike stops in West Virginia. There’s usually a gas station, parking for cars, buses, and tractor trailers. There’s rest rooms and restaurants....not much different than in the US. Today however, we didn’t have to pay!
One thing we noticed was the number of tractor trailers parked at all the rest areas. Today was a holiday, May Day, and there can be no truck traffic unless they have perishable items and obtained a permit. I can’t imagine being a trucker and having to hang around a rest area/truck stop for a 24 hour time period.
We drove by Lake Como, which is where George Clooney has a home! It was a beautiful
place, but was very hard to get a good picture from the bus.
Fir the first time when we crossed a country’s border we had to stop. Our bus driver had to take permits to the border control in order for us to cross in to Switzerland. The European Alliance, which most countries in Europe are a part of, had an open border policy. However Switzerland not a part of the Alliance. Also because of the refuges trying cross into all countries they are trying to tighten the reins a little.
Our lunch stop was in Lucerne, Switzerland which has another beautiful lake. It was a beautiful, warm day...about 71 degrees. Sadly it was a holiday so most places were closed, except restaurants and souvenir shops.
In this part of Switzerland they speak Italian and it looks more like you are in Italy. We found a very good Italian restaurant (our last chance for authentic Italian food). Shealyn also found cannoli and it was awesome!!
Once we left Lake Lucerne we had about 3 hours to get to the hotel. We stop about every 1 1/2 hours as the bus driver is required to see a
rest stop. So our next stop was in Altdorf, Switzerland famous for William Tell. It was a cute little village surrounded by snow covered mountains.
Tonight is a night of dinner and free time. We are at our hotel where we will stay for two days. It was up a narrow, steep, winding mountain road. It was probably just as well that we couldn’t really see out the window. We might have wanted to walk!!
Probably the most interesting thing we did today was drive trough the St. Gotthard tunnel. It is the second longest mountain tunnel in the world at 10 1/2 miles. It is an alternate route for when the Gotthard Pass is closed due to snow.
Enjoy the pictures!!
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