Hello all! Day 9 and we had our first border crossing! We made it to Switzerland! We left around 8:30 from our hosts apartment, and after a quick croissant and coffee, we began to climb out of Como. During the climb up there were a handful of places that could have had great views of the lake, but the Italians around Como apparently have an excellent ability to put something right in the middle of the overlook so it obstructs your view. That being said though it was a pretty climb and before we knew it we were at the border with Switzerland, and we just rolled on through it.
The riding through Switzerland was amazing! There were some steep long climbs, but the views were just stunning. Coming down down on Lugano was just breath taking the view of the lake was superb. Switzerland has quickly become one of my favorite places on earth. The people we have met have also all been really nice and helpful, our host last night was especially kind and helpful. It was a bit of an adjustment to figure just what language the people are even speaking and we did not realize that the Swiss still used the Franc, meaning all our Euros are useless for the next few days. All in all though Switzerland is amazing. I do not really have too much to write about riding, because it was largely uneventful aside from the gorgeous views (so I will let the photos do the talking for me). One note about the riding today was that it was forecast that it would rain the entire day, but aside from a bit of rain in the morning and an occasional sprinkle, we had excellent cool overcast riding weather.
The shore of Lugano
Small Chapel nestled in a Valley
Overview of Bellinzona from a small pass we climbed
View from our window at the place we stayed the night
Where we stopped for the night was in a tiny little town called Claro, just north of Bellinzona, and it was wonderful. The house we were staying in was high up on a hillside so it had great views, and as I mentioned our host was superb. For dinner she recommended that we go to this little restaurant in the town that was doing a gastronomic menu event. This was one of the best recommendations and one of the best meals of the trip so far. The menu was 7 courses consisting of a little shrimp appetizer, followed by veal tartare and foie gras, followed by essentially ravioli with black morels, followed by a steak dish for me and a fish dish for Ben, followed by a pre desert of sorbet and pudding, followed by a desert of gelato, and finally ended with small little pastries. I really very briefly overviewed the dishes, but they were all astounding. The whole event was around 3 hours of eating, which was great.
After dinner we has some drinks with our host and her boyfriend at the house and we stayed up talking until around 1:00 in morning. One of the reasons this post is being written the day after again. All in all it was a great evening and a great day yesterday. Today we were suppose to bike over the Alps, but it was down pouring last night and this morning when we woke up and the forecast was 95% chance of rain and thunderstorms all day long so we decided to take the train under the alps instead for safety's sake. Unfortunately, as I am writing this we are on the train making our way to the pass area still and the weather is a bit drizzly but other wise quite nice. I still think we made the right decision though, because the pass road is cobblestone and wet cobblestone and biking in the rain, does sound like a good way to hurt ourselves or the bikes, especially if there is even a slight chance for lightning. Anyway, that is all I have for now, so best wishes and until next time.
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