Akhil's friend Monika, who lives in Seattle now but hails from Konstanz, Germany, had invited us to her after-wedding (she was officially married in Hawaii) wedding on the island of Mainau, in the Bodensee, earlier this year and we decided we'd go and make a vacation out of it, even though we already went to Maine this summer. Two vacations - what luxury! I was good and ready -- both of us were. We started in Zurich, spent a couple of days in Lucerne and the area around the lake, and then made a break for Lake Como, Italy.We only got a couple of hours walking around in Zurich; since it was a Sunday it was quiet. Not much open. But we managed to find the street where the Omega headquarters store was, and the Bucherer store - possibly the same one where I bought that watch I can no longer find when I was there in high school. Lucerne was somewhat quaint; I think I thought of it as a big city back in 1990, before I'd ever lived anyplace. We walked all over on Sunday afternoon and stayed in a hotel right on the river, overlooking the Chapel Bridge, which looks exactly as it did 17 years ago.
On Monday, the weather was a little bit off, so we took a drive around Lake Lucerne. At one point we stopped in a residential area and walked down a footpath along the lake, where we passed a house where we could hear someone practicing accordion. From there we drove down to Brunner, then drove back up the other side and took a detour all the way out to Interlaken, the gateway to the most dramatic mountain area in Switzerland, and where the skiing's supposed to be great. On Tuesday, after breakfast on the terrace at our hotel, we browsed the watch shops one last time and took a look at the Lion Monument, which is a memorial to Swiss lives lost during the French Revolution. Without getting a chance to eat any Swiss food at all, not even fondue, nor buy chocolate, schnitzel, or timepieces, we took off for Italy, the highlight of the trip.
I have to say, as beautiful as the mountains and lakes in Switzerland may be, Italy is truly something else. As soon as we hit the border, it seems, the contrast was evident. The Italian cultural influence starts to appear once you come through the Alps where Locarno, on Lake Maggiore, and Lugano are located. We stopped in Locarno and got our first, foamy cappuccino and it only got better from there. At the border, the architecture and even the light seemed to change; we entered Como and within minutes began the tricky one-hour drive up some insanely narrow, winding roads, high in the hills above the lake, to Bellagio.
Both of us have been to various parts of Italy at one time or another in the past, but the Como area is a little different, with steep hills, a mountain backdrop, and relative quiet, compared to, say, Venice, Rome, or Milan. One nice thing about the roads on the east side of Lake Como is that there is no way any tour bus is gonna get itself around those bends; Bellagio seemed not to have too many buses, I'm guessing, for that reason. And good thing, because it's a tiny, lovely village, with steep cobblestone streets, gorgeous, old pastel pink, white and gold buildings, a ferry terminal, and lots of flowers. As far as the businesses go, I don't think I saw one that wasn't there to cater to the tourist population, though. Once the Vegas hotel opened, the American throngs started coming to see the real deal, our hotel host told us. We checked in, parked our rental mini-Mercedes and didn't touch it again for 2 days. The way to get around is by ferry and they make it easy and reasonable. We had a rediculously indulgent dinner Tuesday night and turned in early; little did we know the rain was a-comin'. It started that night and continued on and off until we left on Friday. The "attractions" in the area are the centuries-old villas, especially the gardens, so we planned our two days in the area accordingly. On Wednesday we spent most of the day in Varenna, at the beautiful gardens at Villa Monastero and then lunch (pizza, of course) by the water. Back in Bellagio we headed over to Villa Melzi before dinner.
On Thursday, we took the ferry to Lenno, and hopped a taxi boat to Villa Balbianello, which is the locale used to represent the planet "Naboo" in the Star Wars, Episode II. It was stunning, mainly the gardens, but especially the view of the place from the water, high up on a small, roundish peninsula. After the villa tour we walked the Greenway footpath they just put in from Lenno to Tremezzo, where we took a gelato break, and onward to Menaggio. A few miles of exercise will do a tourist some good in Italy. Curses, tiramisu, panacotta, gelato!Dinner that night was the amazing Italian dinner we had been hoping we'd find -- I had pappardelle with porcini mushrooms; Akhil had pasta arrabiata, and of course we had wine, and prosciutto-melone, and panacotta, and breadsticks. Good thing we were leaving the next morning otherwise we'd have need to buy an extra plane ticket. We strolled around awhile for a last, fleeting chance at spotting George Clooney (not), but by 11 a.m. we knew it was time to put the car on the ferry over to Cernobbio and get started on the journey back to the "other" side of the mountains, to Germany.
Germany's not quite Italy, but they do have decent wursts, sausages ... heavy, fatty meat products in casings. Akhil wasted no time in getting one, in a french-style bun with mustard, at the rest stop once we crossed the border back into the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The German border is actually on the Bodensee, a.k.a. Lake Konstanz, and we crossed it late, about 5 o'clock, and located our waterfront hotel.The Bodensee is Germany's largest lake, and is bordered by Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. The area we were in was a surprisingly tranquil, agriculture-rich place; we didn't have time to take the ferry and explore but we did get to see the college town of Konstanz and the gorgeous gardens on Mainau. We ran into Monika on a walk Friday night and she invited us to her father's home on the lake for cocktails Friday evening. On Saturday we dressed up and headed over to the island.
Mainau is now open to the public but the island is still officially owned by the Swedish royal family, with a particular duchess inhabiting the castle where Monika got married. The duchess, and most of her family, was at the wedding. Through a family connection, Monika has spent a lot of time on Mainau and they've all come to know each other well. Post-wedding, we toured the gardens, along with all the regular tourists who were there; the dahlias were incredible. The daytime reception was held inside the castle, with champagne and tiny jars -- yes jars -- of food. The evening reception was a regular dinner held at the local brewery. We met some interesting people, who made it clear to us that living in Europe and visiting Europe were two very different things.Three countries, seven days; great trip. When we got home, Akhil immediately purchased an espresso maker.
