Day 4 : Swiss Miniatur

We woke early on Friday 8 July 2011 in Lugano.  We had a nice breakfast with delicious coffee in the hotel.  At about 8:30 we walked to the station and stored our luggage before traveling by train to Melide.  It took about 7 minutes and then we walked to Swiss Miniatur a park with models of more than 120 different buildings in Switzerland and model trains and boats.
It is quite expensive to enter the park but we got 50% discount with our Swiss Pass. We spend the whole morning walking in the park.  When entering you get a map of the park.  All the models are numbered and on the map (in different languages) are the names and places where the full size buildings can be found.
The detail on each model is impressive.  There was a lot of staff busy with maintenance (one had a bucket with water and had to wash the roofs of the buildings) and the park is very neat.  There is also a restaurant and a lot of things for kids to do like a little train to ride.






























It got very busy with tourist groups later in the morning and at about 12:00 we left.  We went back to Lugano and waited for our next train.  I was nervous about the next journey with 6 changes through Italy to get to Lauchernalp.  But also excited because we were spending the weekend with my brother and his wife.

Location: Melide, Switzerland

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eyewitness Travel Guides – A Book Review

Image
  Last month I wrote a book review and I enjoyed it.   Today I want to share some more of my favourite travel books.   DK Eyewitness Travel Guides I bought my first travel guide in 2008. I was planning a trip with my friend Lelanie to London and Europe.   While planning the trip I bought the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Europe and I paid R 282.00 for it.   Except for my university textbooks, this was the most expensive book I have ever bought for myself.    We were doing a Contiki Tour and visited 7 countries.   I studied the information in guide the about the cities we would visit.    I made lists of places I want to see and then looked for more information about them.   In the end I did not take the guide with me (the 800 pages was just to heavy to carry along) but packed all my lists to use.  At Departures at Cape Town Airport in 2008 My second guide was for the same trip.   The Eyewitness Trave...
Read more

Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê

Image
   Weather vane on the VGK Church in Carnarvon    This photo made me think of a song we used to sing as kids.    It is a traditional Afrikaans song about the rooster on top of the church. The words of the song and its translation: Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower Dis die haan, Dis die haan It’s the rooster, It’s the rooster Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower More about all the churches and other buildings we saw in Carnarvon in the next post.
Read more

Dutch Reformed Mother Church, George

Image
One of my favourite sights in George is the white Dutch Reformed Mother Church with the beautiful Outeniqua Mountain as background.   I have many memories of visiting this church: On a history class trip when I was about 10, for a art class when I was about 13, for my cousins wedding in 2004, for her baby’s christening a few years later and many other times.   But most of all I like seeing this church every time we drive through town.   The cornerstone for the church was laid on 14 April 1832.   Slaves were used for some of the building work like the digging of the six-foot deep by five-foot wide foundations.   Due to financial problems it took 12 years to complete the church and it was consecrated in 9 October 1842.  The church is a National Heritage Site. On 13 September 1905 disaster struck when the church tower collapsed.   The wood rotted from water damage and lead to the walls weakening.   After a lot of rain for two days t...
Read more