Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Travelogue continued… the destination becomes clearer


Fletschhorn Hotel

After a typically good breakfast buffet, we set out to explore the small village of Simplon Dorf: after the building of the Simplon road they began building “official buildings” in the village – exactly halfway in between the two cities of Brig in upper Valais and Domodossola in Italy, which the road connected. Earlier buildings such as the “Old Tower” built in 1257, which became the school in 1545 stood until the late 1800s were rebuilt. On the main square – modeled after an Italian piazza – stand buildings from the 17th century (one more modern building was taken away during the 2008 renovation) as well as the church, built in 1725.

 
The sign on this chalet caught my eye

Not a Harley in sight

a similar house is the oldest known one in Switzerland!

Wood is a staple at these altitudes

Old way of building - typical of the Italian architecture in the mountains

Lovely "shoemaker" sign
Another such building

Detail of a beam under a porch

On the village square - all the buildings date back to the 17th century

Inside the St.Gotthard church

Organ in the St.Gotthard church


Then it was off down the mountain – Swiss law and order – and across the border at Gondo into Italian relaxedness.

In Gondo the monument to the smuggler as well as to those who died in the disastrous landslide of Oct. 14, 2000; mountain streams and gorges; neither winter nor yet truly spring.

The rebuilt Stockalperturm Hotel

Cascade by the road

Memorial to the flooding and mudslide of 2000
Bell in memory of the 13 victims

"The Smuggler"

 And so “on to Italy” - destination revealed.

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