The hotel in Täsch was quite hot, and no cooling whatsoever. The bed was nice and hard but the pillows were way too thick. Woke up at ~5 but got a bit more sleep.
Breakfast was nice enough. They had hot eggs/sausages/bacon which was nice, although they didn't have the nice flavoured cream cheeses that Oberammergau had.
Dumped our bags in the car, then went to the station to catch a train to Zermatt. The weather was epic crap, and we couldn't see the Matterhorn, and the webcams further up showed cloud everywhere, so we didn't go up any cable cars. Wandered around town for a while then caught the train back to Täsch and back to the hotel to pick up the car.
Mellichbach canal with some very fast moving and clear water
Geraniums at Täsch train station
Matter Vispa river valley between Täsch and Zermatt
Train we took from Täsch to Zermatt
On a clear day you can see the Matterhorn from here. We weren't so lucky.
Matter Vispa river and Zermatt
Swiss flag and flowers
Ibex fountain outside the Hotel Matterhorn Lodge
World flags in Zermatt
Photo by Mum
Alphorn sculpture in front of what would be the Matterhorn if you could see it
Photo by Mum
Pfarrkirche St Mauritius
Zermatt buildings
Horse drawn cart in Zermatt
Zermatt from the Mountaineer's Cemetery
Mountaineer's Cemetery
Swiss Alpine Hotel Allalin
Bahnhofstrasse street in Zermatt
View towards Täsch from the train back to Täsch
I had the thought that we could maybe drive along Lake Maggiore. So we headed for Stresa. Which looked fairly nice and had some nice views of the lake. We managed to find a parking lot by the lake, but the parking machine was super complicated and I didn't want to leave the bags anyway (did I mention the boot is so small the bags don't fit without putting the seats down?) so we just took a couple of pics and left again. But also, it's not as clear from signage (blink and you'll miss it) when speed limits change (and they change ALL THE TIME) so at one point we got BLASTED by an impatient Italian driver for not realising the speed had gone back up again. OMFG ITALIAN DRIVERS ARE THE WORST!!!! They're so aggressive and almost NOONE obeys the speed limits. Swiss/German/Austrian drivers are so much more chilled and more likely to obey the speed limits and road rules. So we decided it would be too stressful to drive along the lake, and it was getting late anyway, so we decided to just drive straight to Como. We did make a quick stop at a pull off for another view of the lake.
Approaching the Italian border near Zwischbergen
Photo by Mum
Boats at Lake Maggiore
Italian Alps, Isola Madre and Lake Maggiore
Italian Alps, Isola Madre and Lake Maggiore from a lookout we found on the way out of town
Photo by Mum
View over Lake Maggiore
View over Lake Maggiore
View over Lake Maggiore
We stopped in a small pay parking lot near the B&B while I went in to find out where to park. Except it really wasn't obvious where the place even was. As a B&B not a hotel you certainly don't get the nice hotel welcome. The B&B is actually in a residential block of flats, which you need to find. So found it eventually and then had to go through the complicated process of getting keys and instructions for parking. Supposedly you can park on the street, but it's all PRIVATE STREET, TOWAWAY ZONE, and I'm like, how is anyone going to know that our German car is allowed to be there and not get towed away. For 10 Euro we could park behind a gate next to the flat so decided to do that. The flat is such a weird setup. You have to walk through someone else's space to get into ours. And the owner has a back door into our space as well. Bizarre bizarre bizarre. We need four different keys. Annoying. Weird flat too, with lots of locked cupboards and doors. There's a ceiling fan, but even on high there's not a lot of air flow so it's quite hot. There's also a washing machine in the bathroom (although no drier) so we asked to use that. He got it going for us (and said it would normally be 15 euro but he let us use it for free). It was quite quick which was nice so did that and hung everything out.
Then we walked into Como. He said it would take fifteen minutes. I loled cause I've seen it on two-maps-one-scale and knew it would take closer to thirty. Still, it was quite a pleasant walk along the lake. Walked passed the stoopidly expensive restaurants near the waterfront, and found one a bit further inland that was much more reasonably priced and we had quite a nice lasagne there.
View across Lake Como to Brunate
Photo by Mum
View north along Lake Como
Villa Saporiti
Monumento ai Caduti (War Memorial)
Monumento ai Caduti (War Memorial)
Tempio Voltiano - museum dedicated to Alessandro Volta, a prominent scientist and the inventor of the electric battery
Saint Mary Assunta Cathedral
Photo by Mum
Saint Mary Assunta Cathedral
Photo by Mum
Saint Mary Assunta Cathedral
Walked all the way back to the B&B.
Saint Mary Assunta Cathedral by night
Lake Como by night
Tempio Voltiano by night
War Memorial by night
Lake Como by night
Villa Saporiti by night
Villa Gallia by night
View across Lake Como to Brunate by night
Villa Olmo by night
We were out for like over three hours just to find dinner. I'd much rather have a biggish lunch and then something light for dinner, but Europe doesn't believe in convenience stores and supermarkets aren't obvious either.
Got back all hot and sweaty, so washed hair and went to bed.
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