Lake Como

After visiting Innsbruck for one night, we headed down to Lake Como, and stayed in the town of Menaggio for two nights.  The first part of the drive was beautiful, and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of fall foliage and little waterfalls flowing down the sides of the mountains.  We were so excited when we passed the border, but the kids were oblivious, with their noses in their IPads.  I kept saying things like 'Look kids, Italian cows!  Wow, the Italian Alps are so beautiful'.  Then about 30 minutes later I was looking at the GPS, and said 'Oops, we are in Switzerland!'  Duh.
By the time we got to St. Moritz, we drove into dense fog, and didn't come out of it until we reached Lake Como.  It was a very stressful second half of the drive, and ended up making the drive 2 hours longer. 

By the time we found the hotel it was pretty late for the kids, so we ended up eating gelato for Dan's birthday dinner.  The kids thought this was great.  Thankfully, we had a great room at the Hotel Du Lac that had a balcony, and a separate bedroom for the kids. 



 View from our room

The next day we took a ferry to the town of Lenno, to visit Villa del Balbianello.  The villa was built in 1787 on the site of a Franciscan monastery, and was later turned into a home.  There have been many movies filmed here, most notably Star Wars (episode 2), and Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig.  The most recent owner was Count Guido Monzino, a mountain climber and explorer, who filled his home with artifacts and souvenirs from his expeditions. 

 

 

I was really nervous to take the kids on the house tour, because I thought that they would be bored and have subsequent bad behavior, but as soon as Ryan heard that Count Monzino had climbed Mount Everest and gone to the North Pole, he was enthralled.  The kids also were very impressed by the secret passageways in the house.  I was very impressed by the amazing views and garden. 

 'Padme's' garden on 'Naboo'

(Star Wars, 2)

 

We took the ferry boat back to Menaggio, and wandered around until we found a place to eat.  I can imagine that Lake Como is bustling in the summer months, but it was pretty sleepy while we were there.  We barely saw any other children, which puts a lot of pressure on us to keep the kids quiet when they are the only children in a restaurant.  We felt a little guilty every time we sat down at a café, where the other patrons are all couples sipping their cappuccino or wine, gazing out over the lake, then we sit down with the kids and completely destroy the romance.  Lake Como is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have been, but I was a bit disappointed with the lack of welcome I felt everywhere we went.  I had also been hoping for some amazing Italian food, but almost everywhere we went, the menu was limited to pizza and sandwiches.

 

The drive home was as terrifying as the previous two.  I have no desire to ever drive through the Alps again!  After coming around one of the hair-pin turns on top of a mountain, Dan had to slam on the brakes because there was a her of sheep running down the side of the road, as if they were just going with the flow of traffic!

 

About 4 minutes after seeing the sheep, Ryan grabbed the emergency car-sick bucket, and we had to pull over for a few minutes until his stomach settled. 

By the time we got home, we had driven into 4 countries: Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Lichtenstein.  The day after we got home, Dan had to fly to China for the week, and then he has to go to Spain in a few weeks.  He has already been to Spain, but this is his first trip to China.  I am hoping that he can start writing a few of his own blog posts, because I know he has a few stories to share with everyone. 

Being able to travel through Europe was one of the big reasons we moved to Germany.  I can't say that this weekend was a huge success, because we felt kind of stressed-out the whole time.  I like to think that we 'got our feet wet' for traveling in Europe with kids, and hopefully our next trip (PARIS!) will be smoother with a bit more planning.  Well, at least a mom can dream...