It was a rather "quick" ride from San Diego to Houston on Continental and to Amsterdam courtesy of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Arriving early by an hour, it was interesting to see this international hub come alive in the morning. It was empty and within an hour all the these flights from around the world began arriving and it came alive.

I had a couple hours to adventure around since I've never even visited Holland, this is about the best I could do this time.

KLM then took me to my destination Milan. I quickly took a bus up across the swiss/italian border to the town of Lugano. The Swiss border patrol were apparently most interested in the two Americans on the bus over anyone else, so we got extra scrutiny. I will agree with my friend Ray www.mytraveljournal.info/rayborja when he writes about the scenery off the train. I just started into Switzerland and looking out over Lago di Como (Lake Como) on the Italian border was extraordinary. Ray also went right through the town I'm staying in and in fact it's entirely possible I saw his train. hmmm didn't know he was coming through. I'll see him plenty when we're on a trail 24/7 for a week!

Thanks to friends I met at a Blair Singer training in Scottsdale, I'm enjoying a beautiful home outside of the town of Lugano for a couple nights and thanks to Colin, I get to see the locals side of Lugano.

It's great to see people that like to walk as much as I do. It's nice to eat, drink, chat, walk around with no destination, then drink some more and eat some more, then walk some more. COOOOOL!

This has been a great mix of Italian weather, food and socialization and Swiss mountain scenery.

Off to check out some castles. More on that in a moment. Here is a photo outside my room.