Switzerland Part 2

The second half of our Switzerland trip was spent in Bellinzona, a town about 20 minutes from Lugano. When I had lived there previously I had heard of the castles in Bellinzona, but I had never been to them. So, we decided to go see ourselves some castles.

There are three castles in Bellinzona. We decided to go from the top down which also meant going from the smallest to the largest.




Of course "small" in castle speak is not very small.



It didn't have much there...a restaurant that cost $39 franks per person...Uh...not likely we were eating there...and a teeny little courtyard. It was nice to have a chance to walk around and see our first real castle.




It does have a museum inside of it that had various musical instruments. If there is one thing about Mr. C that I need to share...its his infatuation with bagpipes. So, there you have it....I married a man that loves bagpipes. Okey dokey...token photo of Mr. C with bagpipes. :)



The view from the top was magnificent. The country around it was so lush and green with steppe farms that were bursting with produce.



And...we could see the other two castles that we were headed to next!



We left that first castle and headed to castle #2...Castello Montebello.

Can I just say....WOW.





As much as we wanted to see all three castles we ended up spending the rest of the day here.

We drank from the fountains



Made wishes in the wishing well



Leapt like gazelles along the wall (or at least the 7 year old did.)



Played in the grass in the shadow of the castle tower



Gazed at the beautiful view



Snuggled when we got tired



Played "throw baby in the air"



and "babyzilla"



jumped for joy



checked out the castle we'd just come from



and took a family photo to remember this great day.



We were sad to say goodbye the next morning. We made a quick stopoff in Arosio to check out the view one last time, say hello and goodbye to Ila, Ben and their family AND we got lucky enough to partake of the generosity of Emilio and Gabby when they sent us home with tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini. Oh YUM.



We stopped off to lunch near a river on our way home...Enjoyed some typical Swiss braid bread, soft cheese, nectarines and salami. **sigh** Life should be this great all the time.











Till next time, Switzerland.