USVI-On-Line

Great pictures - inspirational. I am dying to get up there - maybe in August!

I don't know if you got to Lake Lugano, but what an experience it is to visit there.

Quick story, we arrived at night and our room had a balcony overlooking the lake. At night you couldn't see much, but I decided it would be great to order room service for breakfast and eat on the balcony.

Sounded like a good idea!

Morning came and room service arrived precisely at 8:30 as ordered. Set up food on the table on the balcony and wife and I went out to sit and eat.

We both started laughing as soon as we sat down. The fog was so thick that we couldn't see each other or find the food.

Then in the distance, high in the sky a dull light appeared. It slowly grew brighter and I realized that what I was seeing was sunrise, but a delayed sunrise, because the sun had to clear the Alps.

Magically, the fog lifted, and a beautiful lake with white sand beaches and PALM TREES appeared. If the lake itself wasn't enough it was surrounded by beautiful snow covered peaks of the Alps.

It was a magical moment that took our breath away.

Occasionally when there is a full moon in the islands, that creeps over a distant island it comes close to that moment.

JMQ, fantastic report and pictures! We are thinking Europe in 2008 but still not sure yet.
Even if you don't have a trip planned, I hope you hang around here!

jqm,

That is awesome. You are killing me. Cheese- It is milk made immortal. Very cool. Thank you for tossing in something fresh.

Suds

Real nice story Beachboy. More motivation to return.

Like I mentioned, return trip would be to fly into Milan then go up to Como/Lugano/Ticino then up into a different part of the Swiss Alps.

Wife confirmed this would scratch Italy itch. On recent travel show heard that 13 million people a year (!) visit Venice and that tourists are sometimes fed inferior food in restaurants. This gives me cold feet about the BIG tourist destinations in Italy, plus I think it would be difficult to plan a mega-Italy trip on your own, and we are not the organized tour type of people, who are probably just cruise people on land (not that there is anything wrong with that!)

My Uncle is a huge soccer fan and I am going to try to convince him and his wife should go to Eurocup 2008 being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria. He is also a railroad buff so his head would explode with that combo.

MB - this was our first time to Europe and it was the way to go for us. In Switzerland, you can get a taste of France, Italy, and Germany all in one relatively small country with awesome transportation systems and a favorable exchange rate in Swiss Francs when compared to the Euro.

Plus every region, tourist attraction, and even every little town and most hotels have pretty impressive websites (most with English option) and were nicely responsive to email questions. Definitely do-able without a travel agent. Tried working with one for first time in 25 yrs this time and said no thanks after the intinery cost $1300 more than do-it-yourself.
JMQ

I was there 30 years ago. It IS beautiful!

I based myself in Innsbruck, Austria and went out from there every day! It was incredible! The people were nice and I found an Irish pub with a bartender that made sure I had ice in my wiskey. It was so neat walking down streets that held so much history!

As always, love your photos.

Can anyone tell me how tough it is to communicate in this area if you don't speak the language? I'd love to go but am corcerned about this. Thanks for any input or advice.

Sign language works (lmao) - couldn't resist - you just seem to get by - or you are mute your whole trip

I found most people speak English, and you pick up alot while you are there.

nothintolose

Vicki - thanks for props on photos. Those are only a few that I selected and uploaded to support the post, many more to go thru and edit. Got a 2g card this time to go with the new Canon S3 IS. The 12x zoom on that came in mighty handy.

Meant to compliment your photo efforts in your recent trip report and in the new sets on flickr.

As always, you show great eye and composition in all areas - macro, landscape, people, colors, etc.
JMQ

Mango wrote:Can anyone tell me how tough it is to communicate in this area if you don't speak the language? I'd love to go but am corcerned about this. Thanks for any input or advice.

Not a big deal in most areas. Most service people also speak English, in the smaller villages there is usually at least one person in the restaurant for example who can translate if the menu doesnt have English desciptions.

In the French part of Switzerland, we did catch some of that French attitude when you go into a non-tourist grocery store for example.

Of couse, just like in St. John, it helps if you bone up a little on how to exchange basic pleasantries in the local language - good day, please, thank you, spreken sie English? etc. and also get an idea of what the main foods are in the native language. Any guidebook like RickSteves will have a few pages of this info.