The Glacier Express

Today we headed for Lugano by taking the 2 1/2 hour train called the Glacier Express straight through (and down) the Alps into Andermatt (another place still in the mountains 4700ft). If you ever get the chance to take this train, it has the most beautiful scenery that we've ever seen. The train ride is pretty slow - it's called the "Slowest Fast Train" because it's the fastest way out of the Alps but the slowest because it can't go that fast around the mountains. Snow-capped mountains, deep rocky gorges, quaint Swiss homes and waterfalls around every corner. In Andermatt we met our bus again and went down (again) the switchbacks (I must love Gerhard) to get to the valley (and safety).
In Lugano, a city of funniculars for the mountains reaches and a beautiful resort city on the lake, we had the most unusual hotel on the trip. Here's the gist of our time there. Two steps down to get into our room, none of the lights worked, the shower was too small for G to get into, no curtains and rooms directly across from us, too hot to close the windows and the bathroom stunk like a sewer. Oh, don't let me forget that a funnicular ran right under our hotel room up the mountain behind us. When you hung your feet over the mattress, your feet shook from the movement of the rails under the funnicular. Oh yeah, and it ran up and down every two minutes. I think the place was haunted.
Happy to leave this place but will cherish the memories of how we got there.