Little Red Flower diary: Day 3 : Lugano

So fast, its third day in Bellinzona. Today, we headed to Lugano as our last stop in Bellinzona. We took train to Lugano station and was shocked that out of the station was just roads. Nothing much to see. We were puzzled and just followed signboard indicating where the ferry terminal was. As long as we followed the way to the ferry, we would find the lake and town.

Walked down a very steep road and saw a funicular mid way. Hoping that we could take this funicular up the hill when we were going back to the station. Otherwise, it would be another climbing trip again.

Finally we saw the town. It looked similar to Zurich old town and as it was still early, it was not crowded. Just found it cute to have tables and chairs set on the staircases. Unique...

We were looking for the ferry terminal where we could take a scenic boat tour and happened to find a park. We were amazed by the tulips in the park and took quite some time taking pictures. The wind was blowing and we were freezing. Cold....

After taking the photos, we took the boat to Gandria. Gandria was recommended by bloggers that it was a nice small town. However, we decided not to alight due to the town was too small for us to stay there and wait for another boat. We would like to fully utilised our time.

Back in Lugano and we took the funicular back to the rail station. Changed to an orange train to Caslano where we visited the Alprose Chocolate Factory. We did not go to the museum but to buy the chocolates from the shop. Free testing and we ate quite a few pieces. Bought 3 big pkts of assorted chocolates at a very cheap price. Only setback was we had to carry at least 3 kg of chocolates with us.

As there was still some time, we went to Fox Town at Mendrisio. This was Europe's largest factory outlet. We wasted some time figuring out where was the bus stop that we could take bus to the outlet. Asked few people but with language barriers, we only managed to find a woman who spoke English. She recommended us to walk there since it was quite near and she was unsure of the timing of the next bus going there. She was kind to direct us but we ended up walking to the wrong way. Finally figured out and walked to the outlet (thru highway which we would not do so in Singapore).

It left just an hour for us to shop. My main purpose was to buy a haversack as mine was in bad shape after not using for so long. The material was cracked and torn. Managed to buy one from Nike shop at a reasonable price. Lucky lucky.

As we were so tired after long walking for the whole day, bought 2 scoops of ice-cream and enjoyed it while resting our legs. However, the cafe staff had to request us to leave as they were closing. No choice lah... Had to go back...

Long day and we were so tired. Back in Bellinzona quite late and decided not to buy dinner. We ate biscuits in the room. Not so hungry so it was fine. We started to do packing and to sleep early tonight. Tomorrow we are heading to Lausanne.

Lugano town. Cute arrangement of tables and chairs on staircases.