Return of the blog - “Not On A Train Everyday” 🚅🚆😉Switzerland or bust!

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So forget planes, trains and automobiles- today has been a story of an executive car at 05:15 😮then a ✈️to Milan ; a bus to Milano Centrale train station to board a train and sit in it for over an hour with no air con in 34 degree heat before being told to get off; bought 2 more tickets for the next train to then be told the original one was leaving 2 hours late! Boarded train again and managed to get over the border into 🇨🇭where a bizarre customs check took place ( we didn’t even show our passports) and then a TrenItalia employee told us there was a fault with the train and we needed to get off 😉 Thankfully we only waited 10 minutes before a new train arrived and the conductor told us we could sit anywhere. We found seats easily and settled down before the conductor appeared sheepishly to tell us the carriage we were in was reserved for a group - you couldn’t make it up 😂He gave us a voucher for the restaurant car which was enough to buy 2 welcome cold drinks 👍

Finally arrived in Bellinzona where a lovely man in the ticket / information office gave us bus information to get us to our accommodation and for our bus/train in the morning to get us to Lugano where will do the Bernina Express. This is one of the panoramic journeys in 🇨🇭which goes through the Alps, along the shores of Lake Como by bus to Tirano then onto St Moritz by train.



Back to today and we got on a local bus to our accommodation, took our luggage up 2 flights of stairs to sort ourselves out before getting a different bus into town. Bellinzona, at the foot of the alps, is famous for its 3 Medieval castles and is capital of the canton or region of Ticino. Almost by accident we found ourselves walking up a steep road up to Castelgrande , which was still open and afforded us magnificent views of the valley, surrounding area and Montebello Castle. A set of stairs led us into the pedestrianised zone where we found a small restaurant called Il Fermento. It offered a dish, similar to a pizza, with a thin base made of flour from a mill that has been active since 1800. The base was covered in sour cream and was like a savoury filo pastry. Several topping were avaliable and we chose Parma ham&rocket. Delicious 😋 We walked back to hotel and , somehow, Steph managed to sleep through thunder and sheet lightning 😉



I wonder what tomorrow will bring? 😉

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Photos

Early start but off we go
Bus to the plane - Milan here we come 👍

Made it to Linate airport …
Now to get a bus to the central train station