Two hours to the Swiss border!

     So the Swiss border is under two hours from our apartment!  So I finally got to leave the EU this weekend and see another country that is on my "Must Do!" list.  When I think of Switzerland, I imagine the huge Alps with snow year-round, but Lugano, Switzerland did not fit that image.  That is okay, though, because it was a beautiful weekend anyway.  We drove up with some friends and spent our Saturday along Lake Lugano.  We walked through a gorgeous park that even had a small beach along the shore.

     After lunch, we saw a concert of corni delle alpi in the piazza.  The musicians were having a lot of fun and I think they were performing all over the town for the weekend's festival.  After that we went outside of the town to visit the Alprose Swiss Chocolate Factory and buy some chocolate.  The plant was not in production since it was during the weekend, so the tour was pretty boring.  Nonetheless, you got tons of free chocolate at the end and it was delicious.  Stephen and I came home with 12 bars of milk chocolate which was my favorite from the tasting.

     For dinner we took the funicular to the top of Monte Bre where there is a restaurant looking out over the lake and the town.  The ride to the top was only 10 minutes, but we had to take two different cable cars to the top, but as you can tell, the views were worth it.  We got to the restaurant at 6:00 pm which just happened to be the closing time.  Even though it was disappointing, we got drinks at a different bar and then went back down the funicular to find dinner.

      Our friends drove back to Italy that night, but Stephen and I stayed in Lugano to explore a little more on Sunday.  When we woke up on Sunday, we found a foggy, rainy day and decided to just get breakfast and head home.  We had planned to go ziplining on Monte Tamaro so the next time we go to Switzerland we will have to make a stop there.