15-17 August 2012 - The long and winding road

Gentle reader it became time once more to load the iron horses and make our way onwards to our next exotic port of call.

We had a leisurely breakfast by the lake and then S and I headed off into Como for a little sightseeing.  It was a national holiday in Italy - celebration of pasta or Versace, who knows!  Como is a very pretty town but because of the holiday most places were closed. I wondered if it was because it was lunchtime and time to eat and snooze.  Nothing like a gross overgeneralisation.  We walked along the lake, saw the Duomo (big church with a dome) and then took a funicular railway up to the top of the mountain.  An aside...I am now also adding to my mission to do the funicular railways of the world - gotta love a good tug on your cable).  Took a few little holiday snaps....

View from the top

The Duomo, but you can't see the dome..



Funicular spotting, the next craze.

Wheeeee!



Once the wagons were loaded it was agreed that Rodney would have a drive.  Now I have omitted to tell you dear listener that I have already had a go of driving here.  It was fine, other than bumping the wing mirror (we shall not speak of it again).  My observations on Swiss driving:

• the roads are very narrow when they are not on the highway
• what looks like a one way road is not
• they still like to drive like a Formula 1 driver on country roads
• driving on the right hand side is fine, its sitting on the left hand side of the car that is weird!
• the cows like standing near the roadside just to mock me (and ring their be-e-ell, ring their bell....)
• the roads in the mountains are very windy and steep

So, it was generally an OK drive with a bit of tension and the occasional clenching of teeth and holding on to the door handle from S.  We did stop on top of a pass and over look the graceful mountains and scenery before heading down to our hotel.

Now I have to mention that both S and Stefan kept warning me not to expect much and that it would pretty basic with terrible food.  So I set my expectations low even though the pictures on the website looked OK, but we have all stayed in rooms that look nothing like the brochure.  So we arrived at what was called a "Hospiz" and all that came to mind was Zimmer frames and the smell of antiseptic and brussel sprouts.  It could not have been further from the truth.

The hotel is set in a valley overlooking a dammed lake (I mean that in the positive way) and is actually owned by the hydro-electric company.  It was an amazing setting and the hotel itself was very good.  The rooms were modern (brown, beige and grey) and all newly renovated.  A big PHEW from all.

Included in the room rate was a four course dinner each night as well as breakfast.  This was a pretty good deal.  Of course in Switzerland room prices are based on a per person rate....a trap for young players.  Still it was good value.  The other thing the Swiss like to do is decorate their dining rooms (or any wall really) with pine.  A restaurant is not complete without full pine covered walls, floors and if you are lucky, the ceiling.  Also I am told by a reliable source (S) that the restaurant names also only extend to "Horse", "Stag" or "Crown" but never together....you could make the local version of Burger King to be "Horse Crown" but possibly would not draw the crowds...."would you like a vanilla bell shake with that?"

Goodness I do ramble....

Dinner was pretty good and was, just for a change, washed down with wine and champagne.  The boys are trying to indoctrinate me into the Olde Worlde Wine Cult - I am waiting for when I have to eat a live chicken to be part of the club!!! French wines are very different to the Australian style I am used to.  That said, have had no issue with sticking with French Champagne!

16 August 2012

I bet you are thinking that this blog will go on forever as it is still only the first night.  You are probably right but I will press on.  So morning breaks and I miss it completely! Kidding, we were up at a reasonable time to head to the Pine Chamber for breakfast.  The horses had been fed, watered and were rested and were keen to get out and about so we hitched our saddles and drove down to the valley floor to find, wait for it.....a funicular railways!!!  We went down, just so we could go back up again.

There was also a very neat suspension bridge which was begging to be crossed and even bounced upon!

Holding on for dear life.

It goes all the way up 500 metres

Some views at the top of the railway including the spectacular blue lake



Every man and his dog wanted a ride!

We had a bit more of a drive around and then it was back to the hotel for some R&R.  Stefan was keen to check out the wine cellar.  How could I have forgotten to mention that our hotel had a cool wine cellar with over 300 wines!  Very particular French wines were chosen for the evening and then it was time to have an aperitif and a bit of chess and cheese.  Just your average afternoon.



It had been hours since the last meal and it was nice to have a little Australian touch at dinner with our table decoration.  It was then bed time to prepare us for the journey home the next day. Gute Nacht!