Ali– As I’ve mentioned before, one of the best lessons we have learned from traveling is: Plan A rarely works out. It started on day 1 of our year abroad when our budget airline, Condor Air, cancelled our flight into Zurich, leaving us stranded in Frankfurt hauling a year’s worth of underwear around the airport. These misadventures always remind me of the days before Mays’s birth, when my obstetrician told me while chuckling that I was free to write out a birth plan with my preferences.
So last weekend we had a plan to go hiking and see some castles. It was a good plan. It was World Heritage Day and the national treasures were open for free viewing. The three castles of Bellinzona in the Italian part of Switzerland were on the list. I found a nice 2.5 hour downhill hike in the hills right above the city that started with a cable car ride up to a cute stone village, went by an 11th century church with frescos, crossed a Tibetan suspension bridge, and then meandered through vineyards back to town. Perfect! I even invited another family, promising them easy hiking and castle viewing.
We started out on the train at 8 am with pastries in hand for the 2 hour trip to Bellinzona. 
First task was to solve the mystery of the missing jelly in the jelly donut. Arriving in Bellinzona we made our way by bus to the cable car station in Monte Carasso. Here is where Plan A goes awry. The tiny cable car is booked out until noon. No problem! We’ll just reverse the plan: hike up and cable car down! Plan B here we come!
We found the trail head- which is always the first challenge with any hike – and headed up. Five minutes in the complaining begins. To be honest it was a bloody hot day and the girls had been lied to: this was not downhill. Things were made worse when I followed trail signs and missed the leisurely road that meandered through vineyards, instead heading us up the ‘bergweg’, which translates to oh-god-just-let-me-slip-into-a-coma-this-is-so-bloody-steep. So we spent a lot of time ‘resting’ on the way up with a couple of near pukes. We were now on Plan C.
After about an hour of steady uphill climbing we join back up with the leisurely road through the vineyards and everything flattens out. A couple more minutes and we reached the spectacular Tibetan bridge…which was only spectacular for the 1 out of 6 of us that doesn’t suffer from height discomfort. 
Turns out I had taken 5 people with moderate to severe dislike of high insecure places onto a 179 meter long bridge over a canyon.
After a brief stop for lunch and discrete change of soiled drawers we continued on to San Barnárd, a Romanesque mountain church with frescos from the 14 and 15 centuries including one of the last supper. 
There was also some pretty awesome 18th century graffiti on the outside. Maya and Sara were slightly less impressed and chose to squat outside the church doing their best impression of exhausted hikers seeking salvation from a fate of more hiking. 
Onward we went despite their appeals to a higher power. Soon we reached the cute town of Curzútte, and the secret was out on this place. We managed to find patio seating at an upscale looking eatery and proceeded to sweat all over their nice outdoor furniture while slurping beers and ice cream. 
We also noted the cable car going overhead about every 20 minutes, which was our plan for getting back to town.
Beers emptied we headed for the cable car platform where a line had formed that looked to be about 2 cars worth of people or about a 40 minute wait. A guy in the line told us it was about a 40 minute hike down. Given the joint swelling and general fatigue we were in favor of waiting….then the cable car broke down. On to Plan D.
By the time we stumbled back into town the crew barely had the stomach for trudging up to one castle. 
We all looked around blearily at the usual castle accessories- large stone walls. Check. Turrets. Check. – and then headed to the train station for the ride home. I’m sure the other castles were awesome but unless they had a shower and ibuprofen, they would have to wait for another day.