Well, here we are travelling again in Europe. Something I always complain about before I leave, but absolutely fall in love with when I am here.
Day 1 of our Trip consisted of flying for numerous hours (14 or so, I believe…) so not much to report other than a few rough patches at night when we were trying to sleep. Honestly, even a sleeping pill couldn’t help with the turbulence. But it was never anything too extreme, so we made it through just fine. And a day of travelling can only lead us to…
Day 2-Monday. We arrived in Milan, and found that we had more than 2 hours to wait to catch our train. So, of course, being the impatient sort that we are, we decided to catch an earlier train. Luckily, I was prepared this year with very manageable luggage. Even though hubby was not keen on the fact that I bought new luggage, I finally have what I needed to travel appropriately, especially since we were planning on using the train a lot. So, as I said, we decided to catch the earlier train and load everything up. We meet a nice Swiss lady and sort of make conversation with her about the train, and getting an earlier one than the one that we were supposed to take. Jeff takes his backpack down to go over some of our travel plans, deals with the conductor, who is not happy about the change of schedule and wants to charge us more money. We played innocent and naïve, and somehow manage to get by. 20 minutes later we are at our destination of Como. We say goodbye to the lovely Swiss lady, get our bags and depart the train, only to discover about 2 minutes after it takes off, that I left my backpack on the train.
Yes, I am an idiot! I cannot believe I did this, and feel sick to my stomach. Inside of my backpack was my new IPad, and a few other things. We report the item to the Italian police, and after much foreign discussion (us trying to communicate with them, they with us, etc .) we found out that the staff had switched over to the Swiss staff. Yep, this train was on it’s way to Zurich! Awesome… The police advised us that we had to take the train into Chiasso, Switzerland, which is only one stop away from where we are, but a whole new country. So, on we go, getting on the train to Switzerland. And we haven’t even made it to our hotel in Como yet! My mind always starts wondering, if we hadn’t changed the plan for the train, would this have happened? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, not wanting to take full responsibility, or trying to find an excuse for stupidity.
We make it to Switzerland, and deal with a very nice man at the desk who helps us, and tries to reach the conductor. He tries, multiple times, but he conductor doesn’t pick up the phone. Finally, after about 15 minutes or so, he reaches him and explains the situation. We told him where we were sitting, and where that bag was. We asked the man at the desk what happens to bags left on the train, and he indicated that lost and found was taken to Bern! Not sure exactly where that is, but it sounds much farther than Zurich. Ugh. So we hoped that they would find the backpack, but rather figured the chances were nil, especially being returned with all of the contents!
We take the bus back to Como (everyone said it was easier than the train because the next train would have been like an hour or so) and proceed to load our luggage on the city bus. Well, while I love my new luggage with the “spinner” wheels, I gotta tell you, they are not meant for bus driving. Every hill, stop, start or bump, and my bag was all over the place. The bus slowed down, and my bag went forward, the bus went up a hill, and the bag was rolling toward the back of the bus. You should have seen it. I couldn’t put the bag in front of me, because we were on raised seats with a partition in front, and there was nowhere for the bag to go except in the aisle, where I held onto it for dear life!
We finally arrive in Como, and the bus driver drops us at our hotel. Now maybe it’s because of our adventures, or maybe it’s because we have been to other places, but we are not completely in love with Como, yet. The city is sort of newer compared to the other medieval towns that we have either seen or stayed in, so it feels like we need to adjust. We settle into our hotel, unpack our bags, and begin the journey back to Switzerland to see if they found my backpack. As we go to the lobby, the desk clerk was writing a note to us that they received a call from the Swiss train people, saying that they had the bag! Hallelujah! Things are starting to look up!
We take the train back to Chiasso, and thank the man profusely. The people here have been wonderful. And, when I check out the contents of my pack EVERYTHING is there, including my IPad! Yay!!
We end the day with a lovely pizza dinner a great little café in one of the plazas. This trip is starting to look up!
Day 3 (Tuesday) we decide to take a boat to Bellagio, which is sort of at the tip of the far end of the City. It turns out that Lake Como is a huge lake, and there are multiple little towns along the way. The way the houses are nestled in among the mountains, it feels very much like Cinqua Terra, except that there are houses along the entire perimeter, not just in little towns. The boat ride is a 2 hour ride to get to Bellagio, but mostly because it made about 10 stops before we got there. We really didn’t know what to expect, but the scenery was beautiful. But of course, it was freezing because of the wind.
I sort of expect it to be chilly, so I brought a jacket. But honestly it was not comfortable, so I borrowed Jeff’s sweatshirt, and wore it the whole time. We met a man on the boat who befriended Jeff by the name of Barry. Barry, it turns out, is a sports fan, and also an attorney. So they both chatted a good portion of the boat ride. He was travelling alone today because his wife didn’t feel like going with him on the day journey. Don’t know if she was sick or what, but Barry was, and as we are departing, he told us that we may not want to shake hand because of his cold, but Jeff did anyway! Ugh! I hate germs.
After we got off the boat, we met up with a young couple, who were trying to determine the lay of the land, like we were. Turns out this couple was on their honeymoon. And guess what? He was an attorney also! Geez. What are the chances? We ended up hanging out with them for most of the day, and wandered our way through Bellagio. Not much to see except for cute shops, and restaurants. Of course the day consisted of wine and lunch, before taking the boat back around 6.
Too much wine, means a late nap was in order. Jeff slept for at least a couple of hours. We weren’t ready to eat dinner right away. In fact, I could have skipped the meal altogether, except Mr. man wanted to get “gelato.” It was 10:30 and our hunt for gelato brought us back to the little pizzeria that we were at the night before, and had pizza and wine at 11:00. Ugh! Not good for the stomach. But it was a lovely day and a lovely evening.
Day 4 I am catching up on my journal, and Jeff is out for a run. I believe that we are going to take the bus to a couple of other towns on the lake. We were told we could get there in 20 minutes, not an hour. Sounds good to me! I’ll keep things up to date within the next couple of days….Ciao!
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