We drove through lots of little towns on the way to Como. Como was all opulence. The villas & hotels were mostly large and made a statement. The villas that we could see at the top of the mountains surrounding the lake stood out as if to say 'look at me, money & more money'. The streets in the old parts of Como and those surrounding 'Lago Como' were all laid with cobblestones. The shops in the old part of town were filled with fancy clothing & exp...

Today is a relax day. We swam & ate & drank all day long. It's great, we could both do laps in the swimming area just 10 steps from our cabin & we did before breaky and tea. No driving, just resting & recuperating.

We headed off at 8:30am on our way into Italia, working our way over Simplon Pass in Switzerland. This was one of the least impressive passes, no snow close up but in the mountains at a distance there was snow. The feature of this pass was a massive eagle made out of stone the size & shape of our bluestone building blocks. As soon as we crossed the border into Italy the roads deteriorated. The Swiss keep their roads in tip top condition. The houses we ca...

Today was our last day in and around Zermatt & the famous Matterhorn. I woke up with virtually no discomfort in my knee; however, John had already decided no hiking or excessive walking. As a result we were going to do all the mountain peaks that we could access. The first was the Matterhorn Glacier experience. After getting off the train at Zermatt, we caught the E-bus then took a short walk to the gondolas which were followed by the cable car to the top. ...

We are off again to see how similar / different the mountains are today. The top temp is expected to be around 30 degrees. The sky is clear blue and there are no visible clouds at the moment, however, this can change at any time - so the locals tell us. We decided to go up to the Rothorn 3103m above sea level. The first part of the journey was a funicular that runs underground underneath the chalets. After that we hopped on a gondola and finally for the steepe...