{"id":2373,"date":"2015-09-10T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T16:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/?p=2373"},"modified":"2015-09-11T17:39:29","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T21:39:29","slug":"day-13-driving-to-orselina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/?p=2373","title":{"rendered":"Day 13 \u2013 Driving to Orselina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was once again time to move on to our next destination. After breakfast at the hotel, we took the train to Interlaken where we would pick up a rental car for the next few days. The plan was to drive to Orselina, near Locarno, in the Italian speaking region of Ticino.<\/p>\n<p>Our route would take us across three different mountain passes, which we had hoped would provide for a scenic and leisurely drive.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2374\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/Route-Map-1024x710.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"405\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the weather today is mostly cloudy and with some heavy rain at times. During one of the rare sunny breaks, we stopped for a picnic lunch at the side of the road.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2375\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108588-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here are some more photos from along the drive, where we have a few relatively clear weather breaks.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2376\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108605-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2377\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108621-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2378\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108628-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2379\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108662-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2380\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108667-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The drive took us through what appeared to be some stunning scenery, but it&#8217;s unfortunate that it poured rain throughout most of it.<\/p>\n<p>We arrived in Locarno, and then wound our way up a series of switchbacks to the town of Orselina, and arrived at our hotel, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.villaorselina.ch\/en\/13\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Villa Orselina<\/a>.  After a welcome glass of Champagne on the terrace by reception, we were shown to our suite.<\/p>\n<p>We had a lot more space than I was expecting, with a full kitchen and dining room, in addition to a large living room, bedroom, large washroom and a separate powder room off the main entrance.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108713-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2382\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108714-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2383\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108715-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2384\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108726-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2385\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The large balcony has a lovely view over Locarno, Ascona and Lake Maggiore.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108730-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2386\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While our hotel may seem a bit isolated being way up on the hill, just down the street is a funicular station that takes us right down into Locarno by the waterfront in about 5 minutes, so it&#8217;s actually very convenient.  After getting settled in our room, we headed out in search of dinner.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/wp-content\/pictures\/Switzerland2015\/P9108760-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2387\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was once again time to move on to our next destination. After breakfast at the hotel, we took the train to Interlaken where we would pick up a rental car for the next few days. The plan was to &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/?p=2373\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[60,59],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-switzerland","tag-locarno","tag-orselina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2373"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2388,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373\/revisions\/2388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}