It rained all night so our decision to head south towards Italy was confirmed. Today was going to be our longest drive in Switzerland so I checked the weather before we left. The local forecast in Interlaken was grim with heavy rain forecast and flood warnings, but while it was raining at our destination it was supposed to be lighter.
Our route planning has not been the best for Switzerland, so we began the day by doubling back on the route we took yesterday towards Lucerne. Ton was a little concerned about rain as we had about 50 kilometers of mountain driving to do.
Fortunately the heavy rain that was predicted held off all of the way to Lucerne. The drive was no more treacherous than yesterday and we again enjoyed the views in the mountains, and while the roads were twisty and steep they were not particularly scary.
After we passed thru Lucerne and got on the freeway heading towards Lugano Greta said the next turn was 150 kilometers so I thought we were over the worst as we had no more mountain roads on the trip, just freeway. We have passed thru several long tunnels in Switzerland, one was 5 kilometers (3ish miles), and another 9 (5.5ish), but on this trip we hit our longest tunnel ever.
Near the town of Gotthard the road narrowed to one lane and we entered the Gotthard tunnel. This tunnel is 17 kilometers long (11ish miles). We were in the middle of a long line of traffic so I just stuck to the rear of the car in front of us. The most interesting thing is the air temperature in the tunnel was over 80 degrees when the temperature outside was around 60. When we entered the tunnel we had the heater going in the car, by the time we exited we were thinking about AC.
As we exited the tunnel we were entering the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. The weather here was supposed to be light rain. It was pouring and there was heavy fog for awhile. So the weather was opposite of what was forecast.
We arrived at the campground and a very helpful and friendly person checked us in. She explained our options for visits around town, but ended it by saying “but today you should just stay in your motorhome as it is pretty miserable outside.” We followed her advise and spent the afternoon taking care of some correspondence and watching movies.