Day 29: Leave the car behind when travelling to Italy.

Breakfast at the hotel again.  Same fare as yesterday.  They should alternate days or something.  Anyway, again not that hungry, so why am I even talking about it?
Grindelwald put on is best weather for our departure.  The skies were so blue and the air so crisp; I could see every little detail up on the mountains and the glacier.

We did a little drive around town, just to get one last look at this spectacular place before leaving, following the path of our walk previously.  I drove back to the gorge, and went for a short walk along the track above the gorge. But with the track so narrow and close to the gorge, the roar of the water below, and the hotel owner not looking the happiest I’d left my car where I did I turned back after only 5 to 10 minutes or so.
On the road to Lake Como now, we drove through spectacular country side, past lakes, through valleys where waterfalls cascaded down cliffs and up winding mountain roads to the top of the world, and into the snow with views that went forever.  Unfortunately however the road didn’t as we came around a corner and there were cars parked everywhere with the road disappearing under snow.  There were heaps of people getting out of cars and putting on snow gear, and some even getting into climbing gear.
I went into the hotel and asked the woman in there about the road being closed.  She said “3 weeks.”  I asked was the road open yesterday, as google maps said it was opened.  She said “3 weeks.” Then she said “Italy?”  I nodded.  She then said “Merringen, then Luzern.”

Yep, the tunnels now have icicles

So back down the mountain we went, not in the least regretting our detour. For lunch, we stopped at a MyStop, which was actually quite OK and much better than I expected.  I went the healthier option with salads, which you paid by the 100g for.  Just pile what you wanted up onto your plate and take it to the counter.

It was then tunnel after tunnel after tunnel, then the mother of tunnels, the Gothard Tunnel.  All 17km of it.

Borders Italian Style

As we approached Como, it looked like we might need to get our passports out at the border crossing with Italy.  But thankfully they opened up a new lane and waved us through and then whammo, we were in Italy; with crazy drivers, narrow streets, and windy roads.

I made my way through Como and was then driving through tunnels clearly signposted with 30km speedlimits, but getting flashed from behind for going too slow.  Then coming out of the tunnels onto narrow lake side village streets with a constant stream of cars speeding down the streets towards me, and bikes zipping in and out coming straight at me on the wrong side and then ducking back onto their side at the last minute.  This continued pretty much non stop all the way to Sala Comacina!

Our hosts met us at the apartment, as did the church with the bells ringing away so hard and loud I couldn’t hear a word what Geraldine was saying until they stopped.

View of our own private church

View from our apartment to Isola Comacina

I plan to drive in that as little as possible...

Geraldine showed us around the apartment and ran through the basics, and then we went for a walk down to the lake and had a yum dinner at a lakeside restaurant: Lido Di Sala Comacina.  Campari, beer, antipasto of lake fish and I let the chef decide what to put on my pizza.  Dessert was white chocolate truffle in liqueur and a café with grappa.  Grappa; not sure what exactly it is, but it’s strong!

After dinner we walked along the lakeside a bit, then returned to the apartment via the Green Way.

More pictures you say?  OK, check out the album on Flickr.