9. Grindelwald to Lugano - Part 1 1970

When I woke up the next morning I could barely move.  It was very painful walking down the stairs and when I was finally at the bottom, I could barely shuffle through to breakfast.  Thank God I inherited my parents determination and stubbornness.  After breakfast and a stretching yoga session I felt much better and could once again move.

Our plan for the day was to drive from Grindelwald to Lake Lugano on the Swiss/Italian border.  The waterfront city of Lugano was on the Swiss side.  The trip was about 160 miles and we figured we could average about 35 mph and do it in about four and a half hours.  This was allowing for all the swaybacks and climbs.  Switzerland had a very late spring so all the passes over the mountain were not yet open.  The mountain now has much improved roads and a 25 mile tunnel under the pass and you can drive from Grindelwald to Lugano in less than three hours.  The pass we selected was open that morning but we never got to it that day.  We got a late start and stopped for a couple of photo shoots and lunch.  This coupled with narrow winding roads really slowed us down.  In the late afternoon the road was starting to get black ice in the shade and we drove into some snow flurry's.  We also found out we were actually only averaging about 20 to 25 mph in our old van.  No one felt safe driving on the road so we turned around and went back to the closest inn.  When we went to see if we could all stay in one room we were told that all the rooms and dorms were full!  It was full of Swiss Army Reserves doing their yearly two weeks training.  At that time all the Swiss were obligated for military service.  We also were told that the pass was closed for the night about ten kilometers further up the road because of today's weather and we were lucky we turned around.

The innkeeper allowed us to stay in his barn in the hayloft above the animals.  He told us to get settled and to come back to the main building for some dinner, refreshments and a fun time.  We were worried about spending too much money but we went anyways.  The inn had two dining rooms that included a bar.  As we entered the office the innkeeper told us to go into the dining room on the right where all the enlisted were and we would enjoy ourselves and to avoid the one on the left because that was were all the officers were and they were all stuffed shirts.  It helped that at that time, I was a vet and a woman with us was also an Israeli vet.  Stories did abound!  We were offered free beer and all we could eat off their buffet table for the evening.  Everything was over with about nine o'clock.  They said they were leaving on maneuvers early in the morning and we went back to our hayloft and slept quite comfortably.

The next morning  we were startled awake by a large explosion around six thirty!  We ran out of the barn in various stages of dress, wondering what was happening, to be greeted by the the solders we partied with last night.  They had placed their cannon next to our barn and had fired a round off.  This gave them a nice laugh as they marched off.  They left us a fantastic breakfast and memory!