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This and the last post are all from a lovely walk between Gandria, on the northern shore of the northeastern-most arm of the many-armed Lake Lugano, and the city of Lugano itself. (I’d taken a boat out to Gandria so I could walk back.) Below, you see a panorama which shows you the sunlit hill which marks the northeastern point of the bay on which Lugano sits, after which you get into that northeastern-most arm of which the majority is in Italy. As is the southwestern-most part, and also a wee exclave in the arm on which sits Bissone where I stayed. That arm, which connects to the rest of the lake further south & west, extends between the rounded mountain on the far right and the range in the middle (at the top of which it’s Italy again, fyi). Just sayin’ in case you wonder what you’re seeing or want to check it all out on a map :-). The photo at the top is looking from just below the sunlit hill (below) south towards the mountain that sits at the top of the arm I lived on. Sorry if this is TMI…

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Though Zermatt’s best known for its Matterhorn, and Ticino for its lakes I think – a wee reminder that both cantons have both lakes and mountains :-). This aptly-named Green Lake (Gruensee) sits on the “Five Lakes Walk,” part of which I walked on my way down from the first station above Zermatt itself, coming down from what I showed you last post :-).

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So I told two Swiss friends (during text chats conducted as I walked along the shores of another stunning arm of this lovely neighbor lake) that Switzerland has officially annoyed me in the way that a vegetarian restaurant annoys me: too many irresistible options. Those texts were about where I’ll go next – and these shots just share more. Everywhere one turns here, one just sees more lovely things to photograph. In the gallery below are two photos shot from moving trains en route to Zermatt, plus three including the bottom panorama taken from the balcony of the place I stayed in. Impossible to do anything other than gawk out train windows around here, if it’s daylight.

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A suite of images from yesterday’s morning walk to pick up a few groceries, though indeed with a detour or two along the way to savor the views. The nearby pyramid-tipped mountain is Monte San Giorgio, on the border w/Italy and apparently a UNESCO world heritage site, whatever that might mean.

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This is Lago Maggiore as seen from the train I took from Domodossola to Gallarate on Saturday. Lago Maggiore is mostly in Italy, with only its northernmost part in Switzerland. This photo was taken from the train (hence the light reflections, sorry) as we pulled away from the station at Verbania Palanza, and below are two more train shots of the only lake I expect to be showing you which is fully inside Italy: the little Lago di Mergozzo which sits just west of this westernmost bay of Lago Maggiore.

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In case anyone’s trying to follow along, these are all taken looking away from the Matterhorn, i.e. looking north to the village of Zermatt and the mountains north and east of the Matterhorn across one or more valleys. And all from that first morning hike last Tuesday – I really am deleting a lot of photos, but everywhere one turns around here, one sees beauty and I do love to enjoy and share beauty, as my small but loyal band of readers knows :-).

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This is – should you have any doubt – the Matterhorn as seen from a much higher elevation than I showed you in our very first post from Zermatt, a few days ago. As yesterday evening’s post noted, I’ve now amassed many lovely images and experiences of sunny landscapes full of mountains – and, especially beginning with yesterday’s delightful multi-connection journey from Zermatt over to Bissone (in Ticino Canton, the southernmost part of Switzerland) – quite a few more of lovely lakes and lakeside towns and villages with mountains rising behind them. These lovely sunny views will hopefully boost me in the darker rainier A’dam months days ahead. On the purely photo side, they also mean I’ll concentrate on these two series for a bit :-).

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Lake Lugano in Bissone, Ticino, Switzerland. We’ll be sharing mostly Lake Living and Mountains images for a bit now, eh? 🙂

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Taken from the train while still in France, en route to Geneva then onward. Pretty sure that’s Lac de Nantua, if I was following our route correctly.

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Some views from the Domaine National du Palais Royal, one of Paris’s many formerly-royal compounds that’s currently home to the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d’Etat and the Constitutional Council. After all, when you’ve had a few revolutions and are on your fifth republic, naturally the buildings have been repurposed a time or two… 🙂
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