We came in from Italy and our first stop was in Lugano.
Snow capped mountains around the lake.


A statue honoring William Tell in the waterfront park.


The chess sets there were supersize even if some of the players were not.


More sellers than buyers seem to have turned out for a town street sale or swap meet.


On the way out of town.


And into the Swiss Alps.


A Swiss castle as we went north.


Snow melt fed waterfalls that came cascading down the cliffs.


Six levels of road and rail, multiple tunnels, and a high speed train in this little valley.


Simple neat farms.


The horizontal stripes on this mountain are avalanche barriers.
They give support to the snow reducing the chance of an avalanche, remove the momentum of any small avalanches, and divide the snow into sections so slabs don't form.


As we approached the St. Gotthard Tunnel we came to a complete halt.
The people on the paralleling road may have been planning on going over the mountain or just into the little town near the entrance.


The entertainment while we waited were time trials on a racetrack that ran alongside.


We finally got to the entrance to the nearly 17 kilometer (10.5 mi) long tunnel.


And on to Lucerne.


Around town.


The decorations on this restaurant really called out to be recognized.


Lion of Lucerne commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France.
Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."


It was a cool rainy but enjoyable cruse around Lake Lucerne.


That evening we had yet another great dinner and some classic Swiss entertainment.
I even got to try to play an alpenhorn.

A foggy ride to the top of Mount Pilatus in a cable car.
There was a bet as to whether we would see any deer.
Some folks reported cows but we documented our deer sighting.


No pictures of the snowball fight, we were all too busy defending or more likely attacking the others.
There were people in our group who had never played in snow so they were easy targets.
A visitor from Brazil who happened to be there asked "Can anyone join in?" so we answered by pelting him and he got the idea and fired back.

The trip down the mountain was by cog railway, the steepest in the world at 48 degrees.
Because the motors that power it up the mountain are used as brakes on the way down the readout shows the power being dissipated.
The values shown work out to 3.5 horsepower so there is probably a multiplier that should show on one or both gages.


Off to visit a farm by horse drawn carriages.
Along the way a fisherman showed off his catch, nice.


A youngster was giving the horse a kiss.
The breed of cattle, Brown Swiss of course.
The tractor had a little seat so a kid could ride along.


Another cable car and cog railway.


Waterfalls cascading down the mountain into the river through the town.


The clouds cleared a little so we could see some of the mountains that surround the town.


The spire on one of the town's churches.