It's fun again!
It’s amazing how the pandemic has been so pervasive to the psyche of people after two years.
What woke us up to it was the desire to break our routine of the past 25 months realizing that we had burnt the last two years of our marriage in a pandemic environment and with our 50th anniversary fast approaching we wanted to do something worthy of the occasion.
So within a few hours we hatched a viable plan to celebrate and Sandra named Levanto as the place she wanted to celebrate our 50th. Not that we were married there, or actually celebrated an anniversary right there, but we definitely have celebrated a lot of anniversaries while traveling in Europe and Asia. As a piece of trivia if you search our blogs email us with how many and where we've celebrated our anniversaries.
Working on trying to tie all of the logistics together went pretty well. But planning is one thing, actioning it another…. So here goes!
Hearing how Air Canada and other carriers are having problems with logistics we anticipated it and booked the Maple Leaf lounge and that was well worth it. With our priority tickets we were off the plane quickly and our bags were some of the first delivered in Frankfurt. That put us through customs quickly and Heiko was there to meet us. It’s been 6 years since we last saw Heiko in person and it was great to visit and spend time together. Unfortunately jet lag forced some ‘nap’ interruptions but the pandemic downtime had Heiko develop more home cooking skills and we had a great Pesto pasta supper the 1st night and we all went to the Brahaus the 2nd night, a hot and gorgeous evening in a biergarten. Yes I know we look tired, but we are seriously jet-lagged!
Now to claim the rental car. While Rick Steve’s site has been slow with pandemic updates I focused on finding reasonably priced rental cars and wanted to ensure actually getting it since there wasn't time to ship the bike back to Europe! This trip will again determine whether do it again or not.
The best service and prices came from auto-europe.ca, a Canadian based aggregator of car rentals with Hertz and Europ-car, their most reasonable vehicles. While I booked with Hertz, a new model Opel Astra we actually got an Opel Crossland, a small SUV vehicle that is the fruit of Opel becoming part of Peugeot. The vehicle is quite comfortable, excellent in handling mountain roads, and the fuel economy is a huge bonus. Here’s where the snobbery of Top Gear is to be discounted. The engine punches way above it’s weight and while the interiors are basic the vehicle works with huge suitcase storage, exactly what is needed. We also booked from the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof instead of the airport for pickup, saving huge money there and paid in Canadian funds in Canada avoiding the currency surcharges on your card.
After picking it up on time we drove the 420 kms to Lindau, DE, a beautiful tourist town on Lake Constance (Bodensee). The weather devolved into a stormy evening so our planned walk was set aside. There was a McD’s close by but I had remembered da Pietro, a pizzeria and amazingly found my way there without directions. Simple thin crust prosciutto and mushroom pizza, with wine, and their house seasoned olive oils in a beautiful setting was amazing and really made a beautiful end to our first day on the road.
Saturday broke sunny and hot, we seemed to finally settle into the new time zones at 9 hrs. ahead of back home and the hotel we stayed at had a superb breakfast room spread. We ventured out Saturday morning before leaving to see the signature lighthouse that marks the harbor of Lindau, Germany.
We crossed immediately into Austria on the lake and then into Switzerland and stayed on the non-vignette roads, Hwy 13 and 3 getting through Chur to stopping in the Viamala canyon, see this link with photos from one of previous trips, to have lunch and enjoy the canyon once again as we have so many other times on motorcycle. This 1st full day made us both realize how much more the motorcycle adds to the travel day's enjoyment. Over the Splugen pass once again and onto Mennagio, so 4 countries in 1 day, where we arrive at one of our favorite hotels. The pool was busy given that it was sunny and 31C, but people gave up loungers so we could enjoy the end of a beautiful day there in the pool. As well, a cancellation allowed us to have a fabulous supper in the hotel, a 3 star family business, that we found back in 2006 on a dark and stormy night. The Merloni’s have been so kind to us over our various visits.
The round trip hike was just under 8 kms with some pretty good elevation changes of course to get these amazing views over Lake Como, Menaggio, Bellagio, Como and Lecco.
The cross is placed on the high mountain viewpoint just a few 100 mtrs. above a church altar and a bunker that serves as a Sacrarium in memoriam to all the fallen Mennagio soldiers from WW1. What a view is an understatement!
