Lugano and the trip to Arosa (18-19Jul2026)

I wanted to treat Melissa for her birthday and figured the Lake Como area of Italy would be pretty awesome, but when searching for Hilton properties to use points, I stumbled upon the Grand Hotel Villa Castagnola in Lugano.  I did some research and found that Lugano was basically the Swiss version of Lake Como.  We arrived at the hotel late in the evening after our all day adventure in Zermatt and were immediately impressed by the staff's attentiveness and the beauty of this historic hotel.  Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures but everything is online for this hotel anyhow.

When we woke in the morning, I was greeted by a lifer from my balcony.

Italian Sparrow!  You would be forgiven if you IDed this as a House Sparrow, but note the brown crown.  A House Sparrow has a gray crown.  Italian Sparrows are an intergrade between House Sparrows and Spanish Sparrows. 

The view of Lake Lugano from my balcony.

Melissa really liked this area with all the nice shops and gelatarias. 

Dice Snake - reptile lifer for me.

White Wagtail

Black Kite

Great Cormorant

Needless to say I got plenty of Black Kite shots.

Barn Swallow

In the afternoon we walked east on the lakeside into a village called the Gandria.  This is a pedestrian only town and is super cute.  We had Orange Campari drinks which is a new favorite for Melissa.  It is similar to the latest fad of Aperol Spritz but a bit stronger.   I think they are also called Garibaldis.

Overlooking the Gandria.

Eurasian Crag Martins were using window sills for perches.

Italian Sparrow

In the morning I got really excited when I saw this bird on the lawn in front of the breakfast area, but it turned out to just be an immature Common Blackbird.

This day would be devoted to traveling to our next destination, Arosa.  However, I managed to convince Melissa to let me hit up an estuary on the east side of Lago Maggiore on the way north.  

Bolle Di Magadino is a hotspot in eBird for all kinds of waterfowl and raptors. It ended up being a great spot but it was hot and I suspect bird activity would have been better earlier in the morning.

Red-crested Pochard

Tufted Ducks

Immature Eurasian Coot

Little Grebe

Eurasian Wryneck - I tried hard to get a better picture but it stayed far away.

I would have loved to spend more time exploring that area, but it was Melissa's birthday after all.  Our next destination was Arosa which was totally unplanned.  We had left a day unplanned in our itinerary so that if we decided to stay in the Italian region we could, or if we decided to explore the more eastern region it would be easy to change our plans.  I was looking at the Hilton website again because we had some points, and a great boutique hotel came up in Arosa which is a secluded town west of Davos in the high mountains.  The Valsana Hotel turned out to be the best place yet.  I frequently find that the least researched parts of trips end up being the best.  I will save that for the next post.

5 Lakes Hike - Zermatt (17Jul2026)

I didn't plan to go to Zermatt when I initially made our itinerary, mainly because it was a little out of the way and would require some really long travel to our next destination of Lugano where we had a hotel lined up.  I also heard it was very touristy and I don't generally like those kind of places.  However, there is a reason the tourists like it including one of the best hikes in Switzerland, the famous 5 Lakes Hike.  So when we were deciding our route for the 17th, we decided to make it happen.

The first thing to consider is that in order to get to Zermatt from Kandersteg, you need to get on a train.  Let me clarify, I mean you need to drive onto the train!!  There is a train that takes your car through a tough mountain tunnel that is only wide enough for one lane.  It's only a short ride but you have to wait for the train and then drive on it with a hundred other cars.  Then once you make it over, you cannot drive all the way to Zermatt as it is a car free town.  So you have to take a train from Tasch to Zermatt.   That being said it is all very efficient and is less complicated than it sounds.

We made it to Zermatt relatively early before lunch and took the gondola up to the trailhead for the 5 Lakes hike which is one of the most famous hikes in Switzerland.  It was absolutely beautiful, but I didn't rank it anywhere near Oeschinensee.  Maybe if the Matterhorn was not covered in clouds most of the time it would have been better.

The Matterhorn was never completely revealed but we did get some almost clear views.  This is the famous mountain in the Toblerone logo.

The lakes themselves were not as beautiful as I thought they would be, but I suppose if the Matterhorn was clear it would augment the lakes.  My major complaint was that there were big steel snow making devices strewn all over the slopes which took away from the natural beauty of the place.  I brought my camera this time because the hike was mostly downhill and not too steep.

Northern Wheatear

Alpine Marmot

Valais Blacknose Sheep - according to the inter webs, these are the most cute sheep in the world.  I concur.

Melissa looking at me thinking "why can't he just go a little faster".  

Eurasian Crag Martin

Lesser Whitethroat - when in the field I thought I had some interesting warbler, but it turned out to be this relatively common bird throughout Europe.  It was still a lifer for me though.

The water in the rivers was full of a silvery silt from glacial melt. 

Large Ringlet Butterfly

Great Tit

Red-backed Shrike!! The only one I saw on the whole trip and definitely a major target for me.

What a beaut!

Black Redstarts were common.

Whinchat!  Another lifer for me.

Common Chaffinch

Chick begging from dad.

After taking the funicular down from the trail end, we had a lovely lunch in Zermatt.  It's a really nice town, but a little too touristy for my taste.  Despite there being no cars allowed, there were bikes and little carts everywhere and it seemed just as congested in parts as some cities that do allow cars.

The drive to Lugano from Tasch was about 4 hours and was beautiful but we couldn't stop much as we were going to be arriving late and we didn't want to be driving in the dark too much.  I did see some White-winged Snowfinches at the top of a mountain pass while driving but I couldn't stop because there was no pull offs on the road and we were on a blind turn.  I thought I would see more later, but I never did...

Next post is from Lugano which is in the Italian section of Switzerland and right across from the famous Lake Como.

Oeschinensee (16July2026)

This post will be light on the birds because I left my camera behind for this hike.  I promised Melissa that I would keep up with her and if I brought a camera I would be tempted to stop and look for birds.  I am glad I didn't bring it because it was a long and steep hike in parts and there were not too many birds.  I did manage to get some flight shots of Common Swifts before we left.  These pics are from our balcony.

Common Swift

We left shortly after breakfast and took the gondola up to the basecamp area and set off in a clockwise motion so that the hard hiking would come first and then we could hike down and go swimming in the famous blue lake.

This gives you an idea of the path and the crazy view.  These alpine lakes in Switzerland are glacier fed and the silt from the glaciers is what gives the water the beautiful turquoise color.

As you can see on the trail there were tons of people, but the scale of the place is so huge that everything is spread out and you still feel like you have the place to yourself.

I think an afternoon hike would have been better because the sun was behind the mountain  and causing the view to have a filtered light.    The waterfall down to the lark was amazing.  My crappy iPhone pics don't do it justice.

As we came down towards the lake, I was sweating and looking forward to a dip.  

This is where I jumped in and the water was so nice and refreshing I swam a couple hundred yards to the base of the waterfall where the temperature dropped drastically almost to ice water levels.   The waterfall was coming directly from a melting glacier.  This whole place has been in news lately because of climate change.  The village of Kandersteg is being monitored because there is a fear that the melting glaciers and permafrost is causing cliffs and rocks to become destabilized.  Apparently the nearby town of Blatten was destroyed by landslides just a year ago.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/18/travel/swiss-village-rock-collapse-threat-intl

This Common Blue Butterfly loved my shoe for some reason, maybe the salt from my sweat.

False Heath Fritillary nectaring on sweet, sweet Melissa.

Spurge Hawk-Moth

After our hike, I got my crusher and went birding in town a bit.

Spotted Flycatcher

Fieldfare

The day ended with a rain shower which had me running back for cover.

Next post is from Zermatt!