On the Way to Venice

August 6, 2009 Train from Lugano to Venice
I have been derelict in my blog duties the last few days while getting completely pickled in Lugano. We have imbibed way too much wine the last couple of nights. The train from Stuttgart arrived in Lugano on Monday evening, about 9PM. Jordy and I loaded up our bikes, turned on the GPS, and made our way through Lugano to Vic Rush's bachelor pad. Garmin got us within 50 yards of his place, and I gave him a call. He sent his youngest son, Keenan (pronounced "Keeno"), to fetch us. I was surprised how much bigger he is than his dad! We walked into Vic's place and met Giordono, Vic's oldest son. He resembles Vic quite a bit. We proceeded to start drinking wine, which happens to be a common theme on this trip! Vic maded a wonderful dinner of barbecued chicken.
The setting of Vic's apartment is incredible. When you walk out his door, Lake Lugano is literally right in front of you. In two steps you can jump into the beautiful, blue water. We met several of the neighbors in the apartment building. They all get along great and there is a real community spirit. We told stories, sang songs, and generally had a good time until well after midnight. The next day, Jordy and I walked a couple miles along Lake Lugano towards the Italian border. There are apartments and small hotels most of the way. If you had problems walking, these would be tough places to get to. You cannot drive a car very close to most of them, and you have to navigate a lot of stairs; however, it would be well worth the effort.
When we got back to Vic's, we took our first swim in Lake Lugano. The water was refreshingly cool, but not too cold. We then ate a late lunch, and idled away the rest of the afternoon. Later on we went shopping in Lugano, since Jordan wanted to get another pair of shorts to bike in. We both decided not to use traditional biking shorts anymore. They are such a bacteria trap! One story I forgot to tell was a brief conversation I had with a Brit on the first night of camping in England. He asked me what I was doing, and when I told him, he exclaimed, "My God! You are going to have a back-side of steel by the time you are done!". Well, our butts feel like steel now, and we no longer have need of the padded bike shorts. We bought a box at the post office and sent the shorts, plus several other items back home.=
That evening, Vic made a cold pasta dish. Just before dinner, we were standing outside his door by the lake talking when a woman came up and said, "Oh, you speak English!". Her name was Vivian and she was taking a brief holiday, using one of Vic's neighbor's apartment whom she knew. She did not have dinner plans, so we invited her to join us. It was another late night of wine, talk, and song.
The next day, Vic let Jordy and me use his car to drive up the Gottard (sp?) Pass. We had planned on using our Swiss Passes to got to Jungfrau or the Matterhorn, but it would have taken 6 or 7 hours one way to either of those places. I will have to see them on the next visit. Gottard Pass was incredible. The Swiss have built an incredibly long tunnel (I think about 20 kilometers) through the mountains to by-pass the pass. We decided to drive over the pass going north in order to take in the view. I will post one of the pictures from the top. I am not sure how the Alps compare to the Rockies in height, but they sure are steep. I was surprised by the number of people I saw biking the pass, many of them on heavier mountain bikes. I don't think I would have enjoyed that ride much, particularly being fully loaded with gear. The road is an engineering marvel. You just wonder at the effort to build something like this.
On the return trip, we went through the tunnel. As we approached the half-way point in the tunnel, we both noticed how hot it was getting. The temperature must have increased about 10 degrees. I kept on thinking what a mess it would be if one car broke down while going through. Fortunately, that did not happen, and we finally got back out in the open. Once we are back at Vic's we took another swim and started popping open champagne that Jordy and I purcased on our return trip. We decided to have dinner at one of the traditional "grottoes" that the locals go to. These are small, rustic restaurants that specialize in grilled meats, particularly pork ribs and horse (That's right, Wilbur!). Almost everyone ordered the mixed grill, which included a little of all the meats. I stuck with just the pork, and Jordan had polenta with gorganzola cheese. The meats were seasoned with a lot of rosemary, which I love. Vivian joined us again for dinner, and I ended up being the beneficiary of her light appetite! I also sampled Jordan's polenta, which was excellent.
We returned to Vic's for more wine, songs, and stories. Now, we are a few miles from Milano, where we will switch trains for Venice. We are only going to spend about 24 hours there, but that should give Jordan a good sampling of the city. We will return tomorrow night to attend a film festival near Lugano. I hope my backside of steel doesn't turn into a backside of mush from this time off the bike!
Ciao Ciao!