Bike Ride to Monte Tamaro

So I woke up this morning and decided to be spontaneous. I recently looked into talking my bike up a gondola up to Monte Tamaro which is about a 20 minute train ride to the north of Lugano. I packed a lunch and threw in a spare tube and Allen wrench in my pack and rode to the Lugano train station. I hopped a train to Rivera where the gondola is located.

A look at Monte Tamaro from the train

At the bottom of the gondola.

I strapped my bike down with a bungee cord to the make shift bike rack.

As the lift went higher the views just got better and better. I found it hard to not take pictures the entire ride up. This is a view looking south towards Lugano.

At the top of the lift you first get a glimpse of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, built in 1992-96. The famous Architect Mario Botta was commissioned by the owner of the cableway, to build the church in memory of his dead wife.

Check out this link for a great panoramic view of the church.

http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen13.html

The next few pics are of the church

So I headed up the steep trail trying to keep my front tire on the ground all the while peeling my back tire out on the loose gravel. Eventually I had to push/carry my bike because the terrain was to much for a bike. This was my first view of Monte Rosa in the left background. It measures 4,634 meters (~15,200 feet), but these mountains start at 1,000-2,000 feet so the look that much bigger.

Looking back down the trail with the church on the tip of the mountain.

A rest stop with Monte Tamaro in the background. If you closely you can see the trail leading up the ridge to the top.

This crazy guy lives up here and was running some kind of errand on his motorcycle. I watched and waited to see if he made it and thankfully he did, otherwise it would have been certain death.

This is Walter from Lucern. We met up for the last pitch to the top. We had a very broken conversation in Italian with me either saying si si si (yes) or no capito (I don't understand). He made me laugh when all of the sudden he let out a Braveheart warrior yell/yodel down the mountain that echoed for days.

The next five pics are my attempt of a panoramic view from the top of Monte Tamaro

Looking north towards the town of Bellinzona

Looking west towards the town of Locarno and the tip of Lake Maggiore

Looking southwest towards the rest of Lake Maggiore.

Cross with Monte Rosa in the background.

This is a zoomed shot of Monte Rosa on the left and if you look really close you can see the tip of the Matterhorn in the center of the picture.

Locarno

This is a shot of the trail I headed down. It was 20 miles down into Lugano from here.

This was the scariest part of the ride. I was definitely leaning towards the up-hill slope in case my tires slipped out from under me. This was also where I passed a German woman you looked at me like I must be crazy and said something probably very similar to that.

Dropping into the treeline.

Crash #1

Crash #2

I came upon this dwelling made entirely of stone. It was abandoned, but it was still in great shape.

Looking back up at Monte Tamaro on the left. This is also where I started to hear some really strange noises coming from the woods around me. The best way to explain the sound was it was a very low bellowing long burping sound. My best guess was that it was some animal in rut, probably a sheep, goat, or Yettie. Needless to say I was thankful that I never ran into one of them on the trail.

Through the woods.

After rattling my brain for a few hours from the trail ride I eventually was spit out here. This is a shot looking down into Lugano.

So I cruised down into Lugano trying not to completely burn my brakes out due to the steep winding roads. I had to stop frequently to let my rims cool off. I actually burnt my finger the first time I checked to see how hot they were getting. All in all, it was another great day trip!

Trip to Como Italy

Downtown Como

The very inexpensive outdoor Flea Market where you can find anything

This was the room I thought I was going to rent...but apparently I come off as a little creepy??


This was the view from the porch of that room.


Another shot of the shopping area in the Center.

Como Square

Looking from Como Square at Lake Como

The Como Courthouse

That's me headed out to the end of the pier.

"That's my boat"

A view looking from the pier towards Como Square and downtown.

All this biking called for an ice cold Moretti on the pier

These fisherman were very entertaining. First of all, they fish with 25 foot poles that have no reels. The line is exactly the same length as the pole so they just put their rod straight up to change their bait. I think I am going to try it out one of these days.

Serene Lake Como

By the looks of it this seems like a very important building. It sits on the shore of the lake.

This was a really cool statue in front of the building above. Apparently two of the kids dared the third to jump on the back of the mermaid dragon while they held the "dragmaid" down. My hats off to all three of them.

As I was riding back across the Italian-Switzerland boarder this strange site caught my eye. I guess they make elk jerky here.

Just me being happy for this great experience.

This is just one of the many vibrant colors of the all the houses in the area. I like their style!

On the train back to Lugano. These trains are very clean and accommodating.