Ascona, Ticino

This morning when we woke up it was heavy skies but not raining. the forecast was for rain all day so we knew it was coming. We have not had a rainy day here in all the weeks that we have been here, so we cannot complain. I had things to do so when Gavin and Luke said they were going to play a quick round of golf I decided not to join them - as they left for golf the heavens opened and it started raining. They were the only ones on the golf course, the staff in the golf club office thought they were mad to be playing in such weather but as it was Luke's last morning he wanted to be doing something. They returned just over an hour later having played 9 holes and were soaked! Hot showers and golf clothes in the washing machine and they were soon sorted.

We went into the village for lunch and were the only ones in the restaurant. The staff said people don't go out when it is rainy - goodness, they would not cope in the UK! Later another couple walked in and they happened to be English friends of ours, and they said they could see we had experienced good weather here as we were so suntanned. 

We dropped Luke off at the station to get the 3pm train to Zurich and we then headed south to Ascona in Ticino. The journey was easy, there was a lot of traffic returning to Zurich (Zurich schools start tomorrow)  but going south was not that busy. The scenery was breath taking with mountains all around us as we went through many valleys and mountain passes - we went through countless tunnels and each time I marvelled at Swiss engineering to create these right through the mountains. The San Bernardino tunnel was only built in 1967, one wonders how long the journey would have taken before these tunnels were built.

We got to our hotel about 2.5 hours later - on registration the staff reminded us that we had last stayed there 14 years ago! (We had been back to Ascona since then but stayed in a different hotel) They were very welcoming to Xena and she has received many compliments from other guests, many asking what breed she is.

We wondered around the town and then settled at a lake side restaurant for supper, sitting under the huge Plane trees outside. The people at both tables near us were smoking which was very annoying when trying to eat!

It has also been a cloudy day here with a bit of rain but it was 27C. Tomorrow is sunshine and 31C...it will be hot! This is a scene of some of the boats on the lake taken at about 7pm.