A rest day! What a marvelous idea. Breakfast was not in the dining room, but rather in the 2nd floor salon. It was as decadent and over the top as the dinner the night before. All the usual assortment of goodies was found in abundance with the addition of crepes! The best part was the stacks of oranges that you could cut and then juice. There is nothing better than truly fresh orange juice in the morning. Why can’t store bought juice taste like this?!
After breakfast, we headed out into St Luc, grabbed some food for lunch at the Boulangerie, and made our way up to the Funicular. No one puts the fun in funicular like the Swiss! The Funicular takes you straight up the mountain in just a few minutes. It's hard to imagine a train going up something so steep, but it does, and it does it quickly. We hiked up to the Cabana Bella Tolla and took in the ridiculous views. Is beauty of this magnitude even legal? Form there, we came back down and went to the observatory where there was a large nerdy man in a Space Invaders T-shirt who just happened to speak perfect English. We were able to look through some special telescopes directly at the sun and see the corona as well as the solar flares erupting off the sides. We also learned what causes sunspots and could look at the sun through the use of other special telescopes. It was pretty fun to see. A little science can be fun, but not too much. We headed back down the Funnicular and to the hotel and spent the rest of the day in and around the Spa. We spent time lounging around the spa, got massages, and bought some souvenirs in town. In Europe, you have to be careful, because like Japan there are swimsuit parts and naked parts to every spa. Overall, the water pressure, the relaxation, and the food were welcomed changes from spending all day on our feet hiking over steep mountains. Dinner was again a delight of service and cuisine (although the mustard dish was a little much), and it was hard to believe that we had to leave this beautiful place for more hiking. Why can’t life just be like a perfect day at the Hotel Bella Tolla?
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