The Best of Europe Day 9

Day 9 Sunday September 14, 2003 – St. Moritz

Alarm at 5:45 and the wake-up call at 6 AM. Suitcase outside the room at 6:20 and breakfast at 6:30. We wanted to use the internet before breakfast but it was on a timer and it would not come on until 9 AM :-( So we are still in suspense on Eduardo’s first football game yesterday against Utica.

What a beautiful morning! Totally clear and the moon was just to the right of the Matterhorn as the sun was just hitting the peak.

Transportation in Zermatt is a puzzle. An electric taxi (carries7) took us to the outskirts of the city. There a van picked us up and took us to the next city down the valley where we were let off at the bus - town of Visp.

The luggage followed the same process. CUMBERSOME. While we waited for these exchanges to take place we saw an electric sign saying that the temperature outside was 3 degrees Celsius (35 F). COOL MORNING.

We headed down the valley (west) at the foot of the Simplon Pass. Railroads have made travel easier into this area as they have built tunnels to move the people in and out of the resorts.

As we climbed the Pass in the bus, Otmar told us that Napoleon’s engineers were the first to build a road on the paths over and around the mountains. We stopped at the top, cold again, for a potty and coffee stop.

We were the first bus to arrive so we had first choice of pastries and hot chocolate. We traveled to Northern Italian Alps, now seeing the Roman influence as all the buildings are made of stone.

When we made the crossing of the border from Switzerland to Italy, we were ready to show our passports. They did not stop us when Otmar told them we were Americans and Australians, although the Indians and South Africans had to have visas to enter the EU.

The economy of Northern Italy is very good with industry and commerce thriving which is another reason the Euro is so strong compared to the US dollar. We dropped down to Lago Maggiore, a beautiful lake mirroring the town of Stresa.

We are one hour away from Simplon Pass and there are palm trees and lush tropical vegetation here. The temperature was in the mid 70's. We asked every young person we saw if they knew where there was an internet and we finally found one - it was closed due to it being Sunday.

We did find a grocery store and bought grapes, bread, cheese, sliced ham, wine and soft drinks. We went to a bench overlooking the lake shore and had a nice picnic in the sun. A beautiful sunny Sunday in Italy.

Back on the bus at 12:30 we left Stresa (altitude of 800 feet above sea level) and followed the narrow streets past the old villas until we reached the main road, Autostrade, heading toward Milano (Milan).

We circled Lake Como and drove north again avoiding the small villages by going through many (20+) long tunnels, some of them over 2 KM long. These make the Eisenhower Tunnel in Colorado look like miniatures.

We avoided Milan as the Monza Grand Prix was being raced. On the north end of Lake Como and just south of the Swiss border we came to the city of Chiavenna. We stopped there for a break and snack, our last stop in Italy. We walked around the city center in the time we had and then got back on the bus.

We were on our way to Maloja Pass into St. Moritz, the famous ski resort of the rich and famous. On the way up the pass, we went straight up through at least 13 very tight switchbacks. Traffic going the other way had to stop as the road was so narrow.

Other cars going down gave us a wide berth as the bus took much of the road. The vehicle going up always has the right of way, unfortunately, a Mercedes station wagon forgot this rule of the road and came directly at us. Our driver, Jurgen, did not give way and the vehicle had to back up.

At the top of the pass, we were surprised to see that we did not go down but are now in the high Engadin Valley which is 5,955 feet above sea level. We can now see the beautiful lakes and the city of St. Moritz, the site of the 1928 and 48 Winter Olympics.

We drove to the upper city and arrived at the Hotel Baeren. We were given the key to our room and we found it to overlook the city. Quite nice.

We also found out that this hotel has pillows that are a little larger than the others we have stayed. The others were so thin that Gennie had to put her backpack under hers to get any elevation for her head.

Craig called to ask me to go swimming in their indoor pool but our suitcase ended up being one of the last. Fred and Cynthia asked us to stop by their room to have a drink before dinner.

At 6:45 we went down to dinner and had a nice meal. After dinner we went to town with no hope of finding an internet. How lucky we were. Gennie walked into a hotel and they had one with the facility to send attachments.

We also found out that the Swiss have not gotten into the internet - hotels that cater to the business group are the only ones using this medium of communication.

We sent our journal from Zermatt and the attachment of a previous journal that was corrupted. It is interesting that everything on the computer is in German. The Z is where the Y is. To get the @ sign, one has to hold down three keys. And then there is the problem of slow connections that confound us all.

But I think I got everything sent off, found out that Eduardo’s team won their first game and Eduardo kicked well in the rain and wind and that CU got killed by WSU. The pros were still in the 3rd period of the early games.

We will have a late start (10 AM) tomorrow so everyone is looking forward to that.

Day 10: Mediterranean Navigation

Antonio, Our Guide

Gardens at the Alcazaba

Roman Theater

Visiting with Picasso

Gennie & Vic, Malaga 2004

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Day 10 - Tuesday, March 11, 2025 –Ship Docked in Málaga, Spain; Costa del Sol; Andalusia

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