Date: Fri, Sept 13th
Buonasera everyone
I am writing from the youth hostel in Managgio, Italy, on the west side of Lake
Como. Beside me is a balcony that overlooks the lake which is about 2 km wide at
this point with towering mountains in the background. Carolyn and I will be
eating supper shortly. Unfortunately there were no more private rooms available
but we have a nice B&B just down the street.
The drive here from the motorway in Lugano, Switzerland, was quite the
adventure. The road mainly hugs the lake since the mountains come right down to
the shore and since it was originally built way back - 7th or 8th century or
whatever, needless to say it is very narrow (an understatement) and it was a
little hair-raising trying to get by buses and trucks coming the other way. What
makes it especially interesting is the fact that this area dates right back to
Roman times and many of the houses, villas, etc go back many hundreds of
years. Also, the Mediterranean climate means palm trees and variety of other
lush vegetation. Needless to say the views along the lake are very beautiful.
This morning we drove here from Interlaken in central Switzerland. It was
without doubt the most awesome and scary drive that I have ever done. It is
impossible to describe - you will have to wait for the pictures. We came over
three different passes - one at 7600 feet, over more switchback roads than I
care to remember. The classic mountain drive – slowly working your way up – with
turn after turn until you finally reach the top of the pass and then coming back
down and carefully negotiating sharp curves, on a very, very narrow road with
just the flimsiest of barriers separating you from a 2000 ft drop.
Tuesday - Thursday we were in the Jungfrau
region of Switzerland. We stayed in the small valley town of Lauterbrunnen -
surrounded by sheer rock cliffs and the "3 sisters" - the Eiger, Monch and
Jungfrau mountains (at 13,000 feet) towering above us. We went on two incredible
walks - both high up the sides of the valley on plateaus that we accessed by
cable cars - a whole other story. We were fortunate to have great weather for
both walks and I only hope that my pictures can do some justice to what we
experienced.
Off to the Dolomite mountain region of northern Italy tomorrow and then into
Austria.