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| 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.
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| The sign on this chalet caught my eye |
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| Not a Harley in sight |
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| a similar house is the oldest known one in Switzerland! |
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| Wood is a staple at these altitudes |
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| Old way of building - typical of the Italian architecture in the mountains |
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| Lovely "shoemaker" sign |
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| Another such building |
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| Detail of a beam under a porch |
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| On the village square - all the buildings date back to the 17th century |
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| Inside the St.Gotthard church |
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| 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.
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| The rebuilt Stockalperturm Hotel |
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| Cascade by the road |
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| Memorial to the flooding and mudslide of 2000 |
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| Bell in memory of the 13 victims |
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| "The Smuggler" |
And so “on to Italy” - destination revealed.
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