Road Trip Autumn '08, Part I

Because this will take several posts to complete... I have sorted through all ~150 photos and there are at least 35 that I want to put up here. Travelogue central is where you are now. So put your seat belts on, the journey begins...

My sister Jen and her husband Jeff came to visit us -- this was their second trip as they were also the first family members (or friends for that matter) who came to see us, back in like May of 2005. When they were here last time, we made a road trip through France, including many lovely areas in Normandy, as well as a brief Paris jaunt.

This time, we wanted to be a bit more ambitious and see even more. Scott, the trip planner EXTRAORDINAIRE (he does it all, I just show up and pay for things -- it's the most perfect synergy ever, because planning a trip is, to me, SO awful that I'd rather not ever go on holiday just to avoid having to plan it) put together a very awesome journey of about a week and a half that covered parts of Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and even Liechtenstein. He made detailed maps with interesting side trips, found great cute hotels, and cool historical sites, and mapped every last inch of it in our GPS. It could not have been better managed even if he were an actual travel agent. Oh, and he also DROVE THE ENTIRE TIME. I offered, several times, to do some of the driving, but he ended up doing it all. What a life -- a nice leisurely road trip where all you have to do is look out at stunning scenery. Bliss.

So, let's take a trip.

We started by going to our old favorite place, Muerren. We took the gondola up from Lauterbrunnen and then the little old train along the cliff to Muerren. Even though it was early October, it snowed, so we even got a bit of winter scenery up in the Alps. It was really pretty, but I didn't take any photos (I had a strange relationship with the camera on this trip -- sometimes I didn't take even one picture; other times, I have five shots of the same place). We stopped on the way back on the train in Winteregg, where they were celebrating their annual cheese festival. Jen and Jeff bought some very delicious cheese and popular local caramel candies that sort of crumble/melt in your mouth.

We got back in the car and drove to Hergiswil, near Luzern, on the Vierwaldstaettersee (AKA Lake Lucerne). As you longtime readers will recall, there is an artisanal glass factory that we like to tour there, has a great museum, a big shop, a bigger "seconds" shop (bargains!), and a lakefront area with these great fountains that you can control -- it's hard to get the kids, or the big kids, away from them. I didn't take any photos here though. Oops.

We were the last tour group to get into the glass factory, so it was all shutting when we were done with the museum. We had a few minutes to shop, then we hit the road again.

Let me pause here to say how awesome the weather was for our entire trip. Aside from the snow in Muerren (which, really, was great anyhow) and one cloudy day later in our journey, we had the most beautiful sunny, clear, blue-skyed cool autumn days you could hope for. Here are a couple of photos I took just of the sun and colors (these are both in Germany I believe, but they are quite representative):



We drove through Switzerland toward Italy, including a journey through the Gotthard Tunnel, the third-longest tunnel in the world. It was long. And dark. And long. We emerged in the town of Airolo, in the canton of Ticino. We stayed in a funny little hotel where we had what was described as a four-person room (ie, with two separate sleeping areas). Well, that was true strictly speaking -- only there was one double bed...and an adjacent room with BUNK BEDS. We laughed a lot about that, and Jen and Jeff ended up in the bunk beds, Jen took the top bunk. It was really hilarious actually. Here's a view of our hotel on the right (and it is literally right outside the tunnel, in Airolo) with the mountains in the background.


We hit the road again on day two, which was through Switzerland, a bit of Italy, and back to Switzerland. We first headed to Lugano, in the Italian part of Switzerland. We didn't know it, but we were there during their Autumn Festival. It was great.

Here's a view of the Lake of Lugano, where we were walking when we discovered the festival in the center of town.


If you do an about-face from this view, you are facing the city center, so Lugano is one of the many Swiss cities built right on beautiful lakeshores. We headed into the festival and heard a really cool brass orchestra, playing in front of the City Hall:


We ambled through the small pedestrian streets and ate some homemade snacks of the regional variety. Then we saw one long queue for something that we weren't really sure what it was. However, it was clear that this line was totally full of locals so Jen and I went for it. Turned out to be the traditional food for their autumn celebration -- HUGE cauldrons of polenta and mushroom ragout, or beef goulash-type stew to go with it. I got the polenta with goulash and Jen got it with Gorgonzola cheese.



In case it's not clear, those are HUGE scoops of polenta, and mine has a gigantic pile of goulash. When we saw Jen's massive slab of Gorgonzola (about the freshest and creamiest I've ever seen), we both sort of just stared. I don't recall the prices, but it was very reasonably priced, and was totally delicious. One of the great serendipitous finds of our trip. (Though now I think about it, I think maybe Jen knew the festival was going and had read something about the food as well, so she may have been better informed than I recall.)

We wandered more, looking at all the random stalls. Here's a picture of Jen near the end of our walk through the fair, followed by Scott doing some dog wrangling while he waits for us to browse.



It was such a great day...but wasn't finished yet. Coming up in Part II: Italy, the huge mountain pass, and Scuol.