The Palm Express

I went back to Zurich after 5 months away with only 3 firm plans –lunch with the girls on Monday (at yummy Café Schoeder), a BBQ at our place with friends and neighbors on Tuesday (as always, so great to see everyone and hard to remember why I left in the first place) and a weekend getaway with Martin, destination unknown…We purposely didn’t plan out where to go until I got into town - our only two thoughts were 1) avoid flying and any train rides longer than 5 hours and 2) go some place warm. With only a 4 hour travel time radius, Martin and I opted for a SBB package deal – The Palm Express - with one night in St. Moritz, a bus ride through the mountains and one night in Menaggio on Lake Como; as the brochure noted – from Glaciers to Palms.

Here is my photo montage!

We arrived in “sunny” St. Moritz Thursday afternoon…yes those are rain clouds and that is snow on the mountain.

With the weather preparing for the next storm, Martin and I enjoyed a quick walk along the lake and retired indoors for coffee, strudel and beer. And with no other plans for the evening, we enjoyed a long dinner and went to bed early.

We awoke the next morning to winter…it was snowing! So much for going someplace warm. Good thing we were leaving for the palm trees of Lake Como that morning.

We worked our way up and over the mountain in a blizzard… I am sure the views would have been stunning, I was mainly focused on the narrow, winding road along the sheer cliff.

We had a brief stop in Chiavenna for 20 minutes, during which Martin and I took a quick tour of the town and enjoyed the arrival of the sun.

We also worked on our “self-portrait” shots.

We arrived in Menaggio and, to our delight, we found it sunny, although not that warm (especially when compared to our trip to the region the same weekend the year prior). But at least we had found the vacation we were looking for.

Sorry for the kissing shot…our “self portrait” shots were less than stellar – as you can see.




That night, we enjoyed another long dinner and possibly one too many adult beverages, but hey, we were on vacation and enjoying ourselves. Too bad it had to end the following day, but not before another semi-warm day after the partially sunny morning.