Day 90 – Monte Santo Salvatore

I love hiking in Europe! The Swiss have very reasonably thought that hiking does not need to be painful, so nearly 100 years ago they built a funicular that carries the tired tourist to the top! OK, so climbing might have had more merit, but I figured that walking down was almost as courageous, so without giving it a second thought I took the funicular (modernized in 2002) to the top :)

The view from the top is absolutely fabulous! It was early in the morning, so there was a lot of haze over the lake, but that only increased the sense of unreality of the surroundings. The walk down was also very pleasant, with every turn of the very steep path leading to a new view of the bay, of the forest, or of the vineyards that cover the lower slopes.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, so tired and satisfied I headed for Genéve, via Zurich. Of course I had to stop in Zurich, the famous center of finance. Zurich is in German-speaking north Switzerland and, wouldn’t you know it, at the shore of Zurichsee. It is a great metropolis, where the people seem to live fast, stressful lives. The trams are full of people and the streets buzz with excitement (or maybe I am imagining things because I was coming from the very relaxed Italian-speaking region, and a pretty sunny day would bring people out anywhere in Europe).

Normita, imagínate mi sorpresa cuando me encontré este estand de Pronatura! Desafortunadamente no pude convencer a los suizos que también existe Pronatura México. Como buenos alemanes fueron muy amistosos pero muy necios, y no pude sacarlos de la idea de que Pronatura era exclusivamente suiza.