When the alarm went at 5 am this morning in Winterthur Switzerland, it was dark and quiet. We crawled out of bed hoping that such a wakeup would mean we would miss the traffic that crawls along the autobahn around Zurich. By 6 am we were leaving just as the bells in the local church called us to prayer..not a chance that we would show up.
It doesn't take long in Switzerland to reach the mountains and by 7:30 we were sitting in a small roadside restaurant along the edge of the Vierwaldstettersee gazing at the snow covered peaks, and the sparkling waters. Beautiful..and the very centre of Swiss democracy. On the edge of the lake is the Rutli Meadow where the first 4 cantons in 1291 swore allegiance to the Swiss Republic. It was on this lake as well that the whole story of Wilhelm Tell took place. How do I know?? because I got the whole history lesson from Jurg today as we walked from the restaurant down to the William Tell chapel. Now that I have a Swiss passport, he feels I should know all this stuff.
Anyhow, we travelled on from there through the St Goddhard tunnel. The pass itself was geschlossen due to snow...so we travelled through the 19 km tunnel and arrived in the warmth and sunshine of Ticino-the italian part of Switzerland.
We were in Italy by 11:30 on the Autostrada and its tolls and heavy traffic and then on to Lago Garda where we had lunch.
We are now staying in Cavallino-Treporti on a spit of land opposite Venice. We will take a ferry over tomorrow and spend the day exploring the city.
Arrivaderci!
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