May 18 - Sleeping in a bomb shelter and Grotti Ticinese

We have been having so much rain! The weather has been cool and the rivers and waterfalls are gushing. On Friday night Rick accompanied the head coach of the Lakers and 5 of their best players to Biel/Bienne Switzerland. The city has 2 names since it is right on the border of the French and German sections of Switzerland. There was no game this week but there was a practice day for the "Swiss National Team" in the high school age group. The best players came together to practice and later this summer they will play other teams from Europe. Fortunately this practice was up north - they had sunshine, down here in Lugano it was raining.
The interesting note we have about this trip was that all the coaches and players stayed overnight in the city "bunker". If you don't know, for many years, every house built in Switzerland had to have a bunker, or bomb/nuclear shelter. Most towns also have a central bunker for the citizens whose homes were never built with one. So the bomb shelter was a great and inexpensive way to house about 50 all-star players and coaches!

On Saturday, while Rick was up north coaching, I went with my girlfriend to the Alptransit info center in Pollegio. Something to do in bad weather. The info center explains the project going on now to build the longest tunnel under the Alps. Now. the trains have to loop around to a higher elevation to go through the San Gottardo tunnel. In 2016 this new tunnel, 57 km long, will be a straight shot from Zurich under the Alps, eventually connecting to another tunnel to Lugano. It is really an incredible feat to build!

So here are a few pictures - I'm sorry, none of the bunker nor of the infocenter and worksite. But on a walk one evening we saw these beautiful roses growing up the side of a house in the old center of Ligaino, the next town from Pregassona.
Then, after the info center, my friend and I stopped in the town of Biasca where they have a group of grottos - those are old traditional stone houses which serve food and drink - all nestled together at the base of the mountain. I felt I should see some Smurfs walking around! It was very old and charming! Fortunately is wasn't raining, but we still couldn't walk around too much because it was so damp and rocks were very slippery!

Roses at dusk in Ligaino

The Grotti di Biasca

Grotti di Biasca