wrenwood

6/14
Left 40 minutes late from IAD to Geneva, but arrived 10 minutes early. For the first time we did Economy plus and those 5 extra inches are BIG! I actually slept a little! Disappointed as very cloudy coming into Europe although I did see Cornwall, England where we will be in September/October, I thought that was very exciting! .............not so DH when I smacked him awake

6/15
Arrived at Geneva Airport, collected our 2 SMALL suitcases ( I did it!) and headed for the railway office where they stamped and activated our Swiss Rail Passes. So on to Gate 3 to pick up our train headed towards Brig. The trip was very pretty, the lake, with the “pre-Alps” beyond, and Vineyards everywhere!!!!! All those Vineyards, how come the Swiss only export about 3% of their wine, truly unfair!

Got off at Visp and picked up the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn to Zermatt. I hadn’t really read very much about this part of the trip, but we thought it was pretty spectacular. We had the windows down and kept going from side to side. Incredibly deep gorge/canyon, the 1991 landslide outside Randa, and always those snow covered peaks in the distance. Incredibly green, lots of wildflowers. More wildflowers. More wildflowers. Lots of wildflowers.

Got into Zermatt and called Bella Vista Hotel on our new E-kit global cell phone. Franz picked us up in the Hotel’s electric car and off we went. The Hotel is everything nice said about it on Trip Advisor, the owners warm and welcoming. They took us up to our room, and we immediately walked out on our balcony to gawk at the Matterhorn, of course, partially hidden by clouds. We decided we would eat at the Hotel later that night ......... although I did tell Franz that I just couldn’t eat bunny, so I got pork instead.

In the meantime we walked into town to grab a small pizza and some CHOCOLATE. Walked around town, visited the small English Church. We loved the paintings on the walls inside.............

: O : YE : ICE & SNOW : BLESS : YE : THE : LORD :

: O : YE : FROST & COLD : BLESS : YE : THE : LORD :

Outside were many headstones of people who perished on the Matterhorn or climbing.

We went back to Bella Vista, had a short nap, and then a very nice simple dinner cooked by Franz. And some Swiss wine, oh yum.

6/16
Up early for a marvelous breakfast. Put the oranges in the machine and you have fresh squeezed OJ. Huge selection of cheeses, meats, bread, yogurts, jams, nice fresh fruit cup, cereals etc. They would also cook eggs for you if you liked. Steaming hot coffee and milk, and hot chocolate. My favorite was a Croissant with a Quince jam.

So, we left one suitcase and a small bottle of Vanilla Plum Liqueur I bought in our room, took the other suitcase, camera etc. and Franz took us back into town to get the 9:15 Glacier Express to St. Moritz. We went to the bakery right by the train station and got some sparkling water and some sandwiches. We already had some apples courtesy of Bella Vista, and some chocolate purchased the day before so we were set.

We really enjoyed the Glacier Express as a second day, it was so relaxing! We had first class reservations, and as we were beginning to realize, the trains in Switzerland are just wonderful. Byron at BETS made our reservations, and he made sure we had 2 window seats with no one next to us. We had good clear weather except for at Oberalp Pass, which was socked in with clouds and fog. The scenery was varied and for the most part gorgeous, and the commentary on the headphones nice. I would do this again as a first or second day.

Once we arrived in St. Moritz we called Waldhaus who sent their shuttle to pick us up. I think it was Ingo who said it was a very special experience (altho expensive) and he was right. Like Ashford Castle in Ireland I would recommend Waldhaus to anyone who wants to spend some money and remember the experience of spending it. They greeted us by name, gave us a choice of 2 rooms ( I had emailed them my priorities, they have so many rooms they don’t “describe” them but ask you what is important to you) We chose a small double, with the original 1908 furniture, no balcony, but a very pleasant view. A nice bathroom with a wonderful shower....or shall I say two showers ~ a rain shower and a hand/wall shower. We walked around the Hotel (lovely) and down into Sils Maria (lovely again) I took a lot of pictures of wildflowers the area is very beautiful. Wildflowers. Wildflowers. Sigh.

And I couldn’t believe it ~ our last Daffodils are finished blooming the end of April ~ and here it was almost the end of June and they still had some Daffodils blooming!

Dinner that night was very good, although DH thought the service not quite as attentive as Ashford Castle. They had an awesome salad bar (they don’t have it all the time) One of the owners circulated at dinner talking to all of the guests. He immediately apologized to us for not having an “English Menu” ~ the menu was in German, French and Italian. He said he did the menu each morning as the Chef was always changing things and the English menu was the hardest, so he apologized again for being “lazy.” He then proceeded to interpret the whole menu to us! We had a special pork from pigs fed only on acorns ( I think it was acorns...........anyway it was excellent) We couldn’t finish all of our red wine, so we asked if we could take the bottle back to our room to finish. No problem, but more on that later.

So off to bed and the next day on to SOGLIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Roisin1

Dear Wrenwood,

I had answered some of your questions when you were planning your trip to Ireland. Did you ever get to Mullingar? I would love to hear about your trip there. I am going back to Mullingar in August to see the "cousins" and also to travel to Donegal, Derry and Belfast. I can not wait!

Roisin

swandav2000

Oooooohhh, this is awful. Just awful. It hurts!

Sounds like a *wonderful* time!

s

Melnq8

Hi wrenwood -

Did you spend just one night in Zermatt?

wrenwood

Roisin1 ~ we stayed at a wonderful cottage near Athboy, so I think we through Mullingar to get to Birr Castle, but never ate dinner there or stopped. We had a marvelous time, but that Trip Report will have to wait as it was almost 3 weeks! This trip to Switzerland was only 10 days, so I figured it was a good start to doing Trip Reports. I'll go backwards, Ireland 2008, Switzerland 2007, England and Wales 2006.....I owe everyone a lot of feedback for all the help I've been given!


Hi Melnq8 ~ we went back to Zermatt for 3 more nights....to be continued

.......just wait Swandav, this is going to get really painful!

wrenwood

By the way Roisin1 this is where we stayed when near Mullingar. One of the nicest cottages we've ever stayed in.

http://www.clonleason.com/

And you were right, it is a pretty area. We enjoyed Belvedere and Birr Castle and had a great visit at Tullynally Castle, more later! ( will copy this to Ireland thread)

wrenwood

OK, back to Switzerland

6/17
Really wonderful breakfast at Waldhaus. Huge selection on the buffet and omelets made to order. Croissants wonderful again ( I know, whole grain European breads much healthier, but I never have croissants except on vacations!)

After breakfast we went downstairs to get the shuttle down to the bus stop. One of the brother/owners (Felix) came out before we left to talk. Said the view from the church/cemetery in Soglio is in his heart, would like to be buried there “it is surely heaven”. I agree.

The bus we took (free bus passes from Waldhaus) went over the Majola Pass to Promontagno, where we got off and waited for 5-10 minutes for the bus to take to Soglio. The pass is beyond beautiful. We had planned on driving to Soglio from St. Moritz so we could stop and I could take pictures, but when we weren’t able to book ahead of time because at the last minute husband’s back was “acting up” and we weren’t even sure if we would make it, the rates went up as high as the Mountains for a 2 day rental. We decided to do the bus, and it was fine, even if I couldn’t stop for pictures. Next time

The little village of Promontagno was charming. DH talked to a man from Spain that had been on the bus, while I wandered around taking pictures and talking to the ducks in the little pool. They quacked in German and Italian, fascinating.

Then on the bus to Soglio, up, up, up the hill through the Chestnut Trees (not quite in bloom) to the top and IT WASN’T RAINING!!!!!!!

Walked from the bus stop uphill for 5 minutes to Palazzo Salis. Soglio was even more beautiful than I remembered.

OK, slight “divergence.” Anyone experienced feelings of “genetic memory” or “feeling connected” to an area? When we were in Germany for the first time several years ago I commented to the left brained males (sorry) that I was so surprised that I felt so “at home, so connected” to Germany. Was it the landscape ( similar to central PA where I grew up) or because I had ancestors from the area? Husband and male German friend laughed and rolled their eyes, said they understood, they also felt “connected” when they saw a pretty girl ( is male-bashing allowed on Fodors??)

ANYWAY, I feel the same about Soglio. I have no evidence that any of my ancestors were from that area, I just want to go back again and again and just absorb that village. I found a great house to buy, but DH wouldn’t go ask if they wanted to sell.

Did I have ancestors that lived there? Gathered chestnuts? Walked the trade routes of the the Romans? Who knows. There are many places I like or love, Grindelwald for example, but I am not as obsessed with them as I am with Soglio.

My poor husband!

Melnq8

Excellent report wrenwood. You've managed to pique my interest in Soglio, a place I'd never heard of until your recent posts.

kleeblatt

I've lived in Switzerland over 20 years. 80% of the Swiss do not know Soglio or Gimmelwald.

Soglio has really caught my interest. Gimmelwald hasn't. The Swiss Tourism board also markets Soglio's beauty but ignores Gimmelwald. Probably rightly so.

swandav2000

Soglio is incredible. It was Ingo who got me & some Fodorites there some years ago -- we were very grateful! Gorgeous spot!

s

wrenwood

Gimmelwald doesn't raise my heart rate the way Soglio does but I did find it charming. We had done the Schilthorn, then came down and walked through Murren, had lunch, then walked to Gimmelwald. Gimmelwald seemed to have real people living in it. Lots of goats and sheep and chickens, some "home" businesses, laundry drying on lines, and beautiful ( but functional) vegetable gardens. Maybe it was an illusion for tourists, but it didn't seem that way.

Anyway, that was 2 years ago, so I'm off to work, will post more this weekend about last month's trip.

Someday I might even get my thousands of travel pictures on line! I guess I need to check threads for recommendations.

Ingo

Your trip report tempts me to go back this summer. LOL, must be the tenth time or so now. It's too beautiful there ...

Thanks for posting this report and yes, please post the pictures!

wrenwood

6/17 continued

OK, I got sidetracked wondering if am genetically predisposed to Soglio.


So, up we go to Hotel Palazzo Salis. From the website ~

”The Palazzo Salis in Soglio was built in 1630 by the Knight Baptista de Salis. In 1701 his descendants extended and embellished the Casa Battista to its present splendour. Thereafter they continuously added to the interiors with great flair.

When Napoleon separated the Veltlin and Chiavenna from the Grisons in 1797, much of the family property was confiscated and the income from services in foreign armies rapidly declined. Thus obliged to seek new professions, the family eventually left Soglio.

In 1876 the Palazzo, which is still owned by the family, became a hotel.
In recognition of the careful renovations recently undertaken the Palazzo Salis was nominated "Historic Hotel of the Year 1998" by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).”


We were greeted by Monica who speaks and understands English. She was also one of the people who Felix from Waldhaus has asked us to say hello to (hmmmm, Felix, she’s very pretty.............)

Our room was on the top floor. 48 steps up and 48 steps down. (but this was just the beginning of steps on this vacation!)

Once up the 48 steps we were in a large central room, 2 stories high, white walls with beautiful heavy wooden doors on the perimeter. A beautiful paneled wooden ceiling, old oil paintings of coats of arms, important people from earlier times, beautiful carved furniture, swords, armor, axes and other weapons. A partial balcony above went to more rooms. I’m in a time warp.

One of the heavy wooden doors opened into our room. Again, fresh white walls, light drapes on the 2 sunny windows and a beautiful wooden canopied bed with exquisite carvings. A huge wooden wardrobe. The two carved wooden chairs at the foot of the bed had trees carved on them. Chestnut trees I would guess! I am in a museum in a time warp. The ceiling again was paneled wood, except over top of this amazing ceramic (?) stove for heat in the wintertime. There the ceiling was plastered.

The bathroom was small, but modern, plenty of hot water. Thoughtful touches ~ some fruit on a plate, and 4 (FOUR) pillows in arranged like snow capped peaks on the bed. Maybe you think I’m silly but the only things that I’m not very fond of in Switzerland, Germany and Austria are the somewhat hard beds, soft flat pillows, and duvets. There was also this cool cylindrical pillow that looked like a party favor stuffed I assume with Buckwheat hulls for under your neck. It did feel nice.

So we changed to go hiking, walked down 48 steps and headed out to find the Sentiero Panoramico Trail. Or so we thought. We asked Monica where the trail left from, and she pointed and said it was easy to find and did we have water ( she got us some) and told us some options if we wanted to take a bus back. We looked and saw a trail and benches so we went down past the church to check it out. But Fodorite LLindaC had warned us to be sure not to take the lower trail which although nice, went to Promontogna. So we decided this must be the trail to Promontogna. We went back up towards the Hotel and saw a sign for Sentiero Panoramico ~ we had found it. So we headed out.

Towards the edge of the village was this lovely wooden sign on a nicely kept building that said “Pension Murias” ........and also beautifully carved on this sign was a large mouse ........or rat? We puzzled for a few minutes why anyone would want to sleep at place with a mouse, or a rat, on the sign. Didn’t seem to be very good advertising, subliminal messages and such.

So on we went. Well almost. I then decided that it really WAS sunny and I needed my visor. So my saint of a husband went back to the Hotel, up 48 steps, down 48 steps, and delivered me my visor with only a faint narrowing of his eyes.

The trail was gorgeous, took us forever. I had to keep stopping to take photos as the light changed. The mountains were stunning, we kept stopping and gawking and just absorbing it all. Orange Lilies and other flowers were blooming, we watched lizards scramble away from us as we interrupted their sunbathing routine. And the trail with the rocks set in it ~ was this part of the old Roman Road? We were having a great time but hmmmmmm we seemed to be going slightly downhill.

Yep, somehow we had missed the “high road” it was obvious we were headed back to Promontogno. Once we got there we checked the bus schedule to see if we had time to continue further to Castagagna, but there wasn’t quite enough time. So we walked around Promontogna until it turned into Bondo, it was actually very pleasant. We wouldn’t have seen this if we hadn’t goofed!

So, we got back on the bus and went back to Soglio, walking through through the village. Houses and small barns sit side by side in a maze of narrow cobblestone alleys, streets, and paths. Everyone has flowers somewhere, and the vegetable gardens make you hungry just looking at them. We checked out the store that sold the Crema di Castagna, they don’t ship so I had to figure out how many jars I wanted to take home in my suitcase. I don’t think UPS delivers to Soglio.

We were early for dinner so we got 2 glasses of wine and headed out back to the garden area of Palazzo Salis and sat under one of the mammoth giant Sequoia trees in the garden. We are both tree freaks, so it was really fun to watch people go up to the trees and look up, touch their bark, and just plain appreciate their beauty and grandeur.

Dinner was simply delicious. We shared a tomato and mozzarella salad, and chestnut soup. I must learn how to make chestnut soup, it was really good. I had the same polenta with mushrooms I had for lunch 2 years ago, it was just as good as I remembered. DH had a risotto with arugula and air dried beef, and we shared a raspberry gratin for dessert.

We took a short walk back through the village to buy 2 jars of the Crema di Castagna and to admire the view from the church again. I figure those 2 jars will only last a year, and I only know one place to buy it.........................

Back up 48 steps to our beautiful bedroom. I woke up at some point in the middle of the night, it was quite bright, and the twinkling stars over top of the heavy stone roofs was beautiful. I wanted a picture but I knew I’d wake up my husband so I just stood and stared and listened to the quiet.

Ingo

Oh yeah, Soglio, the Palazzo Salis ... and Promontogno *is* charming. Bondo even more. And almost totally untouched by tourism.

Could that be a marmot on the sign by Pension Murias? Would make sense in the area.

wrenwood

Oh no Ingo, it is a mouse or a rat. Long skinny tail, actually a very beautiful mouse or rat. I'm checking out photo sharing sites or I can email the photo to you. I know Marmots, they look like American groundhogs or Prairie Dogs. It seemed very inappropriate as the pension itself looked very nice.

And by the way Ingo, you have spoiled me. When I said in another thread that Lugano was too large..........I want Soglio or Guarda on an Italian Lake!

Ingo

Yep, email me, please! ibrenn at web dot de

Soglio or Guarda on an Italian lake? Not going to happen, lol. But Gandria comes close. Or Ronco s. Ascona.

wrenwood

We must have passed Gandria on the bus from Tirano. We stayed in San Mamete (Hotel Stella d'Italia) which looks like it's not too far from Gandria.

I like what I read on a google search for Ronco s. Ascona

"The road passes by Ascona and winds its way up the incline, going higher and higher until we can see a broad panorama of Lake Maggiore with thousands of lights from villages and houses. You can readily see that it is a different world up here, whatever the time of day or the season. Ronco was originally an isolated little peasant village up on the mountainside. The peacefulness of this location enthrals everybody from the very first day."

scatcat

All the posts about Soglio have got me interested. I just booked the Palazzo Salis for 1 night in September. I originally had planned on staying in Stresa on my way back down to Milan to meet my son. Now he will meet me in Bellagio. Can't wait!

Passerine

Be glad you're not in Geneva today--they've been pounded with rain and thunderstorms.
http://www.meteoschweiz.admin.ch/web...age_radar.html

(it's looking kind of stormy here too, but nothing popping up on the radar)

wrenwood

scatcat I'm already jealous. I'm still thinking about Soglio when I daydream. I hope you can get there early on your arrival day and leave late on your departure day. September should be lovely. Will you do any hiking?

Let us know about Bellagio, I hope we'll be in that area next year. I think I saw on another thread you decided on Hotel du Lac, that was one place we were considering, so I'll be interested to see how you like it.