geeteetravels

Our last day of the route!  It seems we had just started and already it was done.  Today’s ride was getting out of Bergamo and negotiating traffic again for the first hour but then we followed a canal path all the way into Milan.  Thus a very quiet and easy ride with many great sites to stop and enjoy.  At one point an older gentleman on a bike took us on a small tour of his town including some old frescoes.  We couldn’t communicate well but enjoyed the sites nonetheless.  Getting into Milan was easier coming from the north and being on the canal, only the last little bit was in heavy traffic.

Once again we met our daughter and her boyfriend there, they had taken a quick train ride from Bergamo.  We enjoyed another look around Milan and our last gelato before taking the bikes apart and packing up for the long journey back home tomorrow.  Another successful tour in Italy with our tandem cycling amici!

Arrivederci until next year.

Packing the bike for the last day’s ride

Jon and Lyndsay

Following a lovely and flat canal pathway

The Victorious Finish!

A brief but powerful shower clears out the Duomo piazza

Italy is playing, and the service deteriorates

Tags: 2014

We had to climb a big hill to get out of the city but otherwise just rolling hills for the ride today.  Once again our GPS’s were not agreeing and we ended up taking different routes but all made it in the end.  It’s becoming a funny thing as Rob and Katharine seem to get there ahead of us somehow even though we tend to be faster.  We must be taking a more scenic route I guess. Bergamo is also a reasonable sized city so getting in takes some navigating around in heavy traffic.  But the drivers here are usually good; aware and tolerant of cyclists.  The biggest part of the city lies below an ancient city that is perched up on a hill.  You can drive up there or take yet another funicular, which we did.  But before we did that we parked our bikes at the B&B and left on foot to go meet Lyndsay, our youngest daughter, who was meeting us on her way to Geneva from Marakesh in Morocco.  After a bit of looking we found her for a happy reunion. We then took the funicular up to the old city to have a look around and find some supper.  Lyndsay’s boyfriend Jon “secretly” arrived from Marseille to meet us as well.  Here are some of the sites:

Colourful facade on this church

We get our own bridge here, but are being carefully watched

Lyndsay is found!

The famous blessed birthday cake statue

Joined by Jon

Tags: 2014

We took yet another funicular ride up to the village of Brunate which is above Como so again we are able to get a birds eye view of this end of Lago di Como and again it was breathtaking.
The rest of the day was spent looking at villas and war memorials, eating gelato of course, drinking cappuccini and strolling along the shoreline pathways watching the people and the lake denizen. We also found the Duomo and even managed to take in part of the Sunday mass which was in Italian so probably our souls are still in need of saving.
For supper Rob found a restaurant that specialized in salads which was wonderful as we’re tiring of the usual Italian menus of pasta and pizza. There were about 4 pages of the most creative salads you could imagine. Mine (Tara’s) was called Melone Ripieno and was made with melon, arugula, chicken, tomatoes, avocado, peas and chicken. Yumm!

Memorial to Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery, a very useful device

More fun in funicolare

Statues on the Duomo in Como

The boys and the view from Monte Brunate

Tourists at the Villa Olmo

Tara's new favourite salad

Tags: 2014

The ride today began quite suddenly as we left the driveway of the hotel and immediately started our ascent to the summit of the Madonna del Ghisallo. It was about 600 meters up on switchback roads, some probably 10% or more. It was a bit tough but “non c’è male” (not bad) in the cooler morning temperature and with fresh legs. It took about 65-70 min,  slower than the serious cyclists who have light bikes and no luggage, but a reasonable pace for us tourists. The top is literally a cycling shrine as this route has been a fixture in countless races, including the Giro D’Italia in many years. The chapel is bursting with bikes and jerseys of famous Italian and international cyclists. Then there are statues of some of those cyclists, a cycling museum, and many cyclists who had climbed the route that morning. We attracted much interest there with our tandem bikes, they are unusual amongst all the racing bikes.
The rest of the ride was pretty easy, mostly down, into Como the city, still on Lago di Como. We wandered around the waterfront a bit, looked at the Duomo, and enjoyed some refreshments at a bar. I tried an Aperol finally. I keep seeing others with this orange colored and flavoured drink but hadn’t tried it yet. Also it was recommended by David Rocco, an Italian-Canadian cookbook writer that George follows on Twitter. It was good, refreshing and not too sweet, a little bitter.

Up the switchbacks we go

We feel like champions!

Inside the chapel, my kind of religion

Jerseys from the Giro, including Canada's Ryder Hesjedal

We're on top!

Tags: 2014

Another day of beautiful lakeside riding, hard to describe and to capture in photos, you just have to be there I’m afraid.
We first rode to Varenna and then hopped on a ferry to Bellagio, giving us a tour of Lake Como by water. When we docked in Bellagio it looked a lot like Stresa; lots of grand hotels, restaurants, and shops lining the waterfront. It didn’t look much like the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas to me.
We rode up the hill above Bellagio to our hotel, a steep climb but not too far, and were treated to the most breathtaking view yet. The hotel terrace looks out over the town of Bellagio which is on a promontory on Lake Como. You can look out over the entire area, it feels like you are flying above it, quite an amazing location. The hotel is a popular choice for those who want to climb the Madonna di Ghisallo shrine for cyclists, something we will be tackling tomorrow.
Later we had a look around the town and the Melzi villa and gardens.
Our supper was on the terrace of our hotel with Lake Como below us.

The captain with Lago di Como

About to go on the ferry from Varenna

The fast ferry

The view from our hotel, seriously

This is a cycling mecca; check our doorman

Tags: 2014

Today’s ride took us along the shorelines of Lake Lugano and then Lake Como. We have now been to all 3 lakes in the area and into and out of a corner of Switzerland. The lakes are surrounded by mountains and have many villages and towns built on the slopes. As well there is a considerable amount of tourism. Today we saw people sailing, kite surfing, wind surfing, water skiing, rowing, cycling and many campers. Switzerland was considerably more expensive in all respects but also a very clean and efficiently run country.
Tonight we are staying at the North end of Lake Como, nothing too special, mostly just a half way point on the way to Bellagio, but a relaxing and scenic spot none the less.

Calm ski-worthy water on Lake Lugano

Kites and windsurfers galore

Looks too steep to St. Moritz; we'll head for Como

Snow in the hills; we're in the little town on the right

Tags: 2014

After the rigorous and wet day yesterday we didn’t get moving too early but there’s too much to see to waste much time. First up we took a bus downtown to catch a very small train. They’re a bit hoaky but we’ve found the little tourist trains which are in most major cities are a good way to get a quick overview of the city.

Il Trentino

The Funicolare to Monte Brè

Looking down on Lugano

We cheaped out and bought a one way ticket to the top because a) there is a bus to take down which runs close to the summit and, b) because everything is at least double what it costs in Italy! The trouble was that we were not synced well with the bus schedule so we started walking. As we did we discovered a network of trails that took us down the mountain way quicker than following the road. I’m sure we beat the bus.

More views on the way down

Tags: 2014

We left the hotel bright and early hoping to catch the ferry across the lake and save ourselves 15 kms on the bike as it was already a long ride at 74 kms. The woman in the ticket office wasn’t optimistic that the captain would allow 2 tandems on so we decided to just get on the bikes and ride. It was an easy 15 kms and we got there about the same time the ferry would have.
From there we rode along the lakeshore all the way to Locarno passing through the Italian – Swiss border with just a nod from a Swiss border guard.

We are in Svizzera

The scenery was stunning and an easy ride with rolling hills, no big climbs.
After Locarno we began our climb over the pass to Lugano. George had found a shortcut to save us 7 kms of ascent so we started up the small rural road. After about 1km it got seriously steep then after another 500m we were on cobblestone which wasn’t rideable, only walkable. At this point we discussed turning around and taking the regular route up but decided to keep going, how bad could it be? Very shortly after this decision the road quality worsened and then after that it began to pour. So now we were half way up a steep, wet, uneven cobblestone path in cycling cleats, pushing our tandem bikes fully loaded in heavy rainfall. We had no choice but to carry on. It took us more than an hour to get back to the road via the “short cut”. When we finally got to the road it was still pouring and we had 20 kms to go and possibly more climbing. We were soaked and chilled. We started down the road but before we had gone 5 kms Rob and Katharine got a flat tire! I was beginning to wondering if someone somewhere was testing us.
Anyway the tire got changed Presto and we were back on our way.
There wasn’t much more to climb and other than navigating a busy city during rush hour we didn’t have any more troubles except for being very wet and cold for the rest of the ride.
We clocked 93 kms and climbed 750 meters and rode for 8 hours. We definitely earned our supper.

Looking back along Lago Maggiore towards Stresa

Lakeside lunch stop in Locarno

The Short Cut before the rain

Not tan lines, but dirt lines

Tags: 2014

We hopped onto a big motor boat this morning for a trip to Isola Madre, one of three islands close to Stresa on Lake Maggiore.

Tara liking the boat ride

It’s a small currently uninhabited island with English gardens and a palace that was the home to royalty and the ruling class in the past. It’s development dates from the 17th century and it was one of Napoleon’s hunting grounds. The only animals we saw were various birds and ducks. One type of interest were white peacocks strutting about and making a lot of noise as well as pheasants and budgies in cages.

Why yes, I am spectacular

The gardens were quite spectacular and featured trees and bushes from all corners of the earth.

Coming in to Isola Madre

After returning to Stresa and finding lunch George opted for a ride up to the top of Mottarone aboard a cable car for a view of the whole lake area. The sky had cleared so the view really was good. He checked out the ski hill on top too, and found a bob sled to ride in so life is good.

Just above mid-station

Going up after the down

Tags: 2014

We were all looking forward to this day since we planned to begin one of the trip highlights – the Italian alpine lakes. First we would have to ride through some rain (not great) but with much cooler temperatures (finally a break). As usual I planned the straightest shortest route so there would be hills before arrival at Lago di Maggiore but mostly just a gradual climb to the higher lakeside elevation. We started riding in the rain and were caught in one really good shower but it was virtually done by lunchtime. In fact we all noticed we made better time due to the cooler temps. This is really the first time in 4 years that we have had any significant rain, so we are still OK about that.
The lake is truly beautiful with hills and mountains coming right from the lake. The shoreline road wasn’t too busy to navigate with new vistas at every turn. Once in Stresa it reminded us of the Riviera somewhat with loads of foreign tourists and old grand hotels lining up. Copious shops, restaurants, and gelato places, along with the tourists, makes for a busy but pleasant stroll.

A Grand Old World Hotel

Shopping in Stresa

Notice the Coot and nest?

First stop by the lake

Interesting Church at our lunch stop in Borgomanero

We are wet, but prepared

Tags: 2014