Day 23: Lugano to Chur

Extremely pleased with our own brilliant planning, we woke up in Lugano with only a short bus trip to the station and our tickets already printed. Today we were taking a scenic route through the swiss alps from Lugano to Chur where we would meet our first actual couchsurfing hosts. Exciting times.

We slept in as late as possible, shoved everything into our bags, dashed for the bus and just got it. Having learned to build in some contingency, when everything went to plan we actually got to the station 40 minutes early.

We got ourselves some breakfast – one sandwich, one strudel, one coffee. We joined what I thought was the end of the line, and got gradually more annoyed as more people attached themselves to the other end of the queue. The bus pulled past all of them, we threw our bags in and were first on board. Yes! Take that, old high-panted man!! ...Then we learned our seats were assigned anyway. Buh. 

The bus ride took three hours, through really scenic roads, alongside the very blue Lake Como and green/blue Lake Lugano (better) and tiny sleepy Italian and Swiss villages. We stopped in Tirano and got some lunch. I also got yelled at for no reason by some crotchety old bag with a crocheted jacket, as Matt called her. Anyway.

We then boarded the Bernina Express, which was quite the splurge on our major budget holiday. It's billed to have these giant high roof wrapping windows, so you can see everything, which it does. What it's not billed as having is an entire German tour group aged 75+, eagerly jabbering away and leaning over/under/across us to take pictures and then excitedly show each other. End result: Matt attempting to enjoy a burger with a German fogey practically in his lap. We found a little compartment between the carriages with a window that opened and hid there for the first few hours taking pics.

The next four hours are best explained with said pics. Glaciers, waterfalls, aqueducts, more Gemans... eventually they all got off and we had the train to ourselves. 

Matt gives the thumbs up as we pass frozen lake

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Glacier! And lake

Snack cart decorated as ram... why not

glacier and waterfall

When we arrived in Chur (which we had been pronouncing Chur, but its like 'Core' – oops) we got a text from Matthias, our CS host, with directions to his house. We somehow worked out the local bus system in German, and journeyed about 5 minutes through town. Matthias came to meet us at the bus stop, and took us back to his apartment where he introduced us to his girlfriend Andrina.

I had been really nervous about this part of the trip... I mean, staying with local people (strangers) who want to host us for free just to be nice??!! Yeah right.

They showed us through their lovely apartment and to our room for the night. It was just about the nicest place we had stayed so far on the trip (plus one awesome obese ginger cat). The apartment was high over the city of Chur, with an amazing view into the mountains and around the valley. Our first home-cooked meal in a while was very nice and we talked long into the night about our travels and theirs. Matthias and Andrina had spent a year travelling basically across the world. They had been all over the USA, across South America, Asia and down to Australia.  Doozy of a trip. Our 7-week journey gave us an inferiority complex, but we shared plenty of stories.

At some point we brought out a bottle of limoncello for them that we had picked up in Como. They had never had it before, and they then uncorked some home-made 'Iva'. A very unique flavour and apparently based on some local flower, specific to the canton of Grabunden (where we were). Really cool.

We said our goodnights as we only had a few hours the next day to explore Chur before we had to get the train to Austria. Our hosts had graciously volunteered to give us a bit of a tour around the area, maybe sample some of the local delicacies, and we were exhausted from battling German tourists in high altitudes.

Day 22: Blevio to Lugano

We woke up somewhat on time and got to packing up all our stuff. We had it down to a reasonably fine art by this stage. Well, I did. Matt helped by trying to put all my clothes on my head as I folded, then photographing the result (thanks Matt). Matt retrieved the remainder of our milk from the little fridge and drained it. I managed to capture an action shot of my classy man complete with milk drips falling onto his shirt.

We then headed downstairs for a quick breakfast on Alessandro's balcony (table still slightly prosecco stained), and Matt was feeling smug because he'd brought his own granola. Bit awkward when Alessandro's mum popped out and he thrust it in front of me while I was distracted by the cat. I coerced Alessandro into posing for this winner of a photo, before hastening down the road for the bus to Como. Which didn't come. And then still didn't.

The other guy waiting at the stop told us in broken English that we had all missed the bus because it had been too full to stop anyway. Cheers. He suggested we hitch and make 'some good friends.' Hmm. It was only a 5-10 minute drive, but about an hour and a half to walk, down really narrow high speed windy roads with no pavement. And the next bus? Two hours later. And likely also full. While we hesitated, he smiled boadly with his thumb out to the road. One car actually pulled over, and he seemed to know the guy because they were talking and joking in Italian. The bus stop guy waved us over and said, 'This is my friend- he take you to Como stazione. I get next friend car.'

I was unsure about the idea, having watched too many episodes of Law & Order, but seeing he had a baby seat and we had no real alternative, Matt nodded and we hopped in. He didn't speak any English really, but I sort of got by in Italian, and we chatted all the way down. He was actually a really nice guy called Paolo, with a two year old baby Judita, and just wanted to help out some tourists and do a bit of promotion for his own B&B down the road. He dropped us right at the station we needed and unloaded our bags. Champ.  We then got on the 11:45 to Lugano. Except that the famed and reliable Swiss rail service we've always heard about was late for the only time ever and the :45 was actually the :39, and we were on the wrong train. We switched at the next stop, bolted through the station and straight past customs (no one seemed to care) and just made our actual connection.

Along the way we saw from the window an awesome-looking pool and tennis courts, etc, right on the beach of the lake. Excellent concept. We resolved to find it after we'd checked in and dropped our bags at the hotel.  Arriving in Lugano, the first thing we saw was the green/blue lake and the church dome of the town. We paid for our Bernina Express tickets for the next day (ouch) and found a bus that said Paradiso, which we thought was where our hotel was. Why not? We jumped on. Luckily at the end of the route, I spotted our hotel sign, we hopped off, checked in, and were changed and on our way to this pool/beach/Lido di Lugano/heaven.

It was awesome. 10 francs entry to paradise. Clear, hot, sunny day. Cold, clear lake with mountains on every side. Big sandy beach. Outdoor bar. Pools. Table tennis. Real tennis. Another bar. And a huge grill area. Does something like this exist in melbourne??!! Someone point me in October, if so. Matt talked me into the freezing lake water one meter at a time ('No goosebumps? Another meter') and we swam around with some wild swans for a bit (why not), before drying off and laying out in the hot sun to read with some mojitos and snacks.

As the evening wore on, it really filled up. There was a big group of Italian friends and their kids in front of us, with one baby, no more than two or three years old. He wandered up to the bar behind us and asked in Italian for 'un acqua' about four times, but the bartender couldn't see him below the level. Enterprising little guy then started throwing his cup in the air to get their attention all the while chanting 'acqua acqua', until we took pity and went over to help.

Matt lined up for 10 minutes with kids under age 8 to make the jump below

Five hours later, we packed up and decided to walk home along the lake front, grabbing burgers on the way, which we ate on park benches overlooking the water.

Early morning tomorrow and travel day through the Alps on the Bernina Express!