A road trip to Lugano

The first weekend in July we went for a road trip through Switzerland to visit the city of Lugano.  Jeff lived there for three months back in 2004 and still has some friends in the city. You may wonder why he was living in Lugano, Switzerland.... Well back in 2004 Jeff was actually living in the Cayman Islands on assignment for his job and Hurricane Ivan came through and wiped out their office. There was a link between the two offices, so he was shipped to Lugano until the Cayman office was back up and running. He made some great friends with the people in the office and has kept up with them ever since.

We decided to take the longer scenic drive to Lugano to see some of the beautiful Swiss countryside and it did not disappoint!! It was so hard to drive and focus on the road and not want to pull over every ten minutes to take more pictures. The landscape here is just stunning!!

We live in wine country and there are vineyards everywhere!!!

Here you can see how the road just follows the edge of the lake with the mountains in the background.

Did I mention that taking the scenic route also means driving up through a pass in the mountains?

It looks something like this....

Here's looking back down as we are climbing up through the mountains.

It looks worse than it really is! Just a small part of the drive looks like that. You can't see it in this picture, but there was still some snow up there even in July. A local gentleman told us the pass is only open a few months in the middle of the year because usually there is so much snow they have to close it. 

Gian Andrea leads the office in Lugano. He and his family kind of "adopted" Jeff while he was there. They are wonderful people and have kept in touch over the years. I had the pleasure of meeting them all last summer. Their youngest daughter was a high school exchange student for a year in New Zealand. The father of her host family in New Zealand was one of the head chef's and owner of a large restaurant there. Gian Andrea found out we were going to be in New Zealand on our honeymoon, so he set up a dinner at their restaurant for us. Long story, but the restaurant was closed the weekend we were there so the family had us to their home for a home cooked meal. It was such a treat and we had a great time! Well the New Zealanders happened to be making a trip across Europe and they were visiting Lugano that same weekend so it was a nice little reunion for all of us! (Okay, so I know that was a lot of people and connections, but hopefully you kept up!)

Here's our Italian friends in Lugano and the New Zealand family together!

Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland. It's a city right on the lake similar to Geneva. A big difference is the landscape and climate. The mountains jump right out of the lake rather than the lake sitting down in a flat valley. For those who have been to the National Teton Park in the US it reminds me a little bit of Jenny Lake.

Looking out over Lake Lugano.

Yes they grow palm trees here AND get snow!!

We took a ride in this, a fincular, up the mountain side to see the view from above.

The lake snakes around between the mountains. 

Here you can see a lot of the city.

Across the lake the mountains are so steep there really is no room to build anything.

The second night was also filled with good food and friends! Another one of Jeff's friends from the office, Orlanda, invited us over for dinner and drinks with some of her friends. We had such a great time!! Everyone was so wonderful and inviting! One of the girls made American cheesecake especially for us. It was her first time making it and she was so worried it wouldn't live up to what we were used to back home. It was quite delicious!

This back patio was amazing! I want a built in stove and covered patio in my dream home someday!!

The main course - ceviche! I was a lil nervous because I'm still not a huge seafood lover, but this was so good!!

This is Juan. He was our entertainment and bartender for the night!
He's peeking through the window asking anyone if they want more pisco sours.

Here's Jeff and Orlanda. She is such a sweetheart! Am so glad we got to finally meet!

The trip was a great weekend filled with wonderful people and delicious food! We are definitely hoping to visit again before we move home.