October 1, 2012
Como: From beautiful to diabolical and back again
We ate outside in the main square last night. Now we are down from the mountains it is so much warmer. We have really enjoyed Switzerland but will be glad to be away from the horrendous prices. Last night a pizza each and a very small beer cost 48F and our pretty basic hotel room, with a view of the bus station 180F.
We didn’t have very far to go to reach Como and had fairly inadequate information as to the route so we decided to wait until the 'I' opened at 9am and get some help. By the time we got down to the lake we really couldn’t be bothered waiting around and the path around the lake, that had been teaming with people yesterday, looked very inviting so we set off. It was lovely in a morning, we didn’t even have to have our coats on. Naturally with a lake like Lake Lagano with lots of steep cliffs around it we soon ran out of lake side path but a road continued up and over. It was pretty steep at first but after that a long gentle downhill to the lakeside again. It was narrow but not very busy so we felt reasonably safe. At this point we had been perplexed about a strange thing on the map. The motorway, road and train line all seemed to cross the lake and this is in fact what happens. Here we met up with the ‘proper’ route so felt route finding would be relatively easy from here on. Wrong of course as either the sign markers were running out of signs or just couldn’t be bothered putting them up very frequently. We rode at first around the lakeside to the head of the lake with stunning views and relatively heavy traffic. Here there was a dear little village where we stopped for our last coffee in Switzerland.
After this things got much more difficult as it really gets very industrial and finding the route hard. We had seen something on TV a couple of nights ago about many firms from Italy moving their operations over the border to Switzerland to this area which speaks the same language and is culturally so similar This is to avoid the massive red tape in Italy. Building is happening everywhere, at one stage when we were actually on the route we came to an underpass under the motorway which was completely blocked by road works – the men had no idea how we would get around it but eventually we stumbled on the way. We were again following spasmodic signs and were put up a small road. Suddenly we were in glorious counrisde again on a tiny road that lead up between vineyards and although we were could hear the constant roar of traffic in the background it was idyllic. Ken even found a collection of old tractors and the owner to ‘talk’ to about them. I lay in the long grass. It seemed the perfect place for lunch.
After that it was down the hill into Chiaso, the last town before the border. They were stopping people at the border crossing but we must have looked harmless as we just rode through and very soon we came to the lake edge. it is a couple of km around the lake to the town of Como where we had decided to stop. We found a hotel and I went to the bank to change my few remaining Swiss francs and understood why Italian businesses are shifting to Switzerland. Our plan is not to ride into Milan which is close but would just be too busy. We will take the train in. Will stay here until Saturday taking trips into Milan and rides around the lake and into the country. On Saturday we will ride to a town which is about 5km from the airport and do the big clean up and pack before we fly home on Monday. The big adventure is nearly over we now have to dream up an adventure for next year. We would welcome any ideas, particularly those that don’t involve too many hills
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Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 3,494 km (2,170 miles)
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