swiss chocolate part 2

last of the "owed" posts! woohoo!

so, on my sunday in my short trip to switzerland, i went down to the lugano area to the lakes. i rode trains and buses through some beautiful areas all surrounded by the swiss alps. the mountains rose up beside the roadway (except when the roadway was in a tunnel cut through the mountain) lush and green as if God had experimented with how many different shades of green He could make. an occasional waterfall surprised as melting snow traveled its way down the mountainsides. the lushness gave way further up the mountains to barren rock and finally to snow capped tops. it was breathtaking. and throughout the journey were small colorful villages tucked into the bases of the mountains. no neighborhood associations that require the rooftops to all have uniform shingles or a bland color palette to choose from when painting the outsides of cookie cutter homes. there was color everywhere...from the primary outside color to the shutters surrounding the windows to the flower boxes overflowing with flowers at the windows to the shingles, each home different than the next. it was so pleasing to my eyes.

as i travelled, the language of the announcements changed from swiss german (or perhaps the announcements where in "high" german) to italian...two of the four official languages in switzerland. i arrived to lugano and found my way down to the lake. there was a beautiful garden wandering alongside one part of the lake and i enjoyed wandering through it. peeking in windows of shops closed because it was sunday! (gasp...what a concept!) and just relaxing. that evening for dinner i enjoyed a pizza and a glass of vino (b/c those things translate quite easily as far as this non-italian speaker is concerned). the pizza was quite yummy, the wine so-so, and the dinner a bit lonely as no one around spoke english. that night there was a terrific thunderstorm with frequent rolls of thunder as lightning flashed all about. and that was my day in lugano.

pictures above are the lake, a sidewalk chess game and one of the flowers in the garden.