Getting to from Bellagio - 25 May 2008
Well, we all arrived safe and sound in Bellagio. It did take us about 6 hours to drive from my hometown of Besancon (Eastern France) to this renowned beauty spot. It was actually easier than we thought it would be and much more scenic too. Even though it was 90% motorway the views were pretty spectacular especially when we reached Swizterland as we were driving inside valleys with massive snow capped mountains on each side. We stopped for lunch at a service station on the way and the view from the terrace was so pretty that you would have never thought you were just off the motorway. And the food was very gourmet too - outstanding choice. The only down side is that we were in the German part of Switzerland and I had to try and remember the little German I knew to handle basics ("small" portion vs "big" portion, "we will pay all together", etc). Hand movements often worked best !
When we got just past Lugano we had to go through the Italian border and get off the motorway to drive to Como, from then on, the Michelin directions we had printed out and that had served us really well till then became unmanageable. They were saying things like 'when you get to Via X, take a left, at the next round about, take Via Y'... that is all very well if you have no one else on the road but it was just too fast with cars around for us to take a proper look at the street names and even find where they were to start with. So, we binned the instructions and used flair... We did not think we would do very well at this new game but we surprised ourselves. We just followed the main road by the lake (best landmark around!) and then we had to hope that our hotel would be sign posted so that we would know where to find the street. It could have taken us 5 hours or 5 minutes. It took us 10 minutes. Not bad. This was thanks to my cunning plan of taking binoculars with me so that I could read the signs a mile off (about 300m or more, not bad) and my being to read signs real fast. My family had nicknamed me for years 'Oeil de Lynx' (Puma Eye) for such circumstances and I did live up to my Indian name and to their expectations, hey.
We got to hotel at long last (6 hours is starting to feel like a loooong time even with an hour break in the middle) and were told that our rooms had just been given to 2 couples. Mix up in the bookings. The lady who owned the place got hopelessly confused, could not understand how it could have gone so horribly wrong, nor where she went wrong. She checked everything 3 times over. It took 45 minutes for the mess to clear up. Basically an US couple had tried to reserve 2 rooms back in Nov (i.e. before us) but the hotel's computer had not processed their deposit properly and so they had not received the official confirmation, just a provisional one till they had secured it with a deposit. I felt sorry for them as they had to pack their suitcases again and find another hotel in town and get another cab, etc. and they had come all the way from the USA!!! They were very nice about it though. So were we. We all tried to stay calm and not flip.
My parents have the superior room with a great view of the lake and a huge terrace and my sister and I sleep on the garden side, with an equally huge terrace. Both are fine. The hotel (Il Perlo Panorama) is only a 2* hotel but the people who run it are very friendly and multi lingual which is great for my parents. They are fluent at French and English. My sister is happy to practice her Italian. Breakfasts are really yummy too.
That evening we just relaxed for an hour and then went to a great restaurant that they recommended down the road. In fact, the restaurants here even send a pick up car for you, free of charge, so that you can drink without having to worry about driving. Great idea. The roads are full of twists and turns and there are no pavements so it would be very dodgy to walk them at night and my sister is not keen on driving in the dark so everybody is happy.
It was quite cloudy when we got there so we didn't really see the glorious view advertised in the brochures, but I found it quite atmospheric in a way. However, we didn't fancy an atmospheric view all week, having looked at some lovely books they had showing the highlights of this region with glorious blue skies. However, the weather forecast was adamant - rain, rain and more rain all week. Our hearts sank.
Well, we all arrived safe and sound in Bellagio. It did take us about 6 hours to drive from my hometown of Besancon (Eastern France) to this renowned beauty spot. It was actually easier than we thought it would be and much more scenic too. Even though it was 90% motorway the views were pretty spectacular especially when we reached Swizterland as we were driving inside valleys with massive snow capped mountains on each side. We stopped for lunch at a service station on the way and the view from the terrace was so pretty that you would have never thought you were just off the motorway. And the food was very gourmet too - outstanding choice. The only down side is that we were in the German part of Switzerland and I had to try and remember the little German I knew to handle basics ("small" portion vs "big" portion, "we will pay all together", etc). Hand movements often worked best !
When we got just past Lugano we had to go through the Italian border and get off the motorway to drive to Como, from then on, the Michelin directions we had printed out and that had served us really well till then became unmanageable. They were saying things like 'when you get to Via X, take a left, at the next round about, take Via Y'... that is all very well if you have no one else on the road but it was just too fast with cars around for us to take a proper look at the street names and even find where they were to start with. So, we binned the instructions and used flair... We did not think we would do very well at this new game but we surprised ourselves. We just followed the main road by the lake (best landmark around!) and then we had to hope that our hotel would be sign posted so that we would know where to find the street. It could have taken us 5 hours or 5 minutes. It took us 10 minutes. Not bad. This was thanks to my cunning plan of taking binoculars with me so that I could read the signs a mile off (about 300m or more, not bad) and my being to read signs real fast. My family had nicknamed me for years 'Oeil de Lynx' (Puma Eye) for such circumstances and I did live up to my Indian name and to their expectations, hey.
We got to hotel at long last (6 hours is starting to feel like a loooong time even with an hour break in the middle) and were told that our rooms had just been given to 2 couples. Mix up in the bookings. The lady who owned the place got hopelessly confused, could not understand how it could have gone so horribly wrong, nor where she went wrong. She checked everything 3 times over. It took 45 minutes for the mess to clear up. Basically an US couple had tried to reserve 2 rooms back in Nov (i.e. before us) but the hotel's computer had not processed their deposit properly and so they had not received the official confirmation, just a provisional one till they had secured it with a deposit. I felt sorry for them as they had to pack their suitcases again and find another hotel in town and get another cab, etc. and they had come all the way from the USA!!! They were very nice about it though. So were we. We all tried to stay calm and not flip.
My parents have the superior room with a great view of the lake and a huge terrace and my sister and I sleep on the garden side, with an equally huge terrace. Both are fine. The hotel (Il Perlo Panorama) is only a 2* hotel but the people who run it are very friendly and multi lingual which is great for my parents. They are fluent at French and English. My sister is happy to practice her Italian. Breakfasts are really yummy too.
That evening we just relaxed for an hour and then went to a great restaurant that they recommended down the road. In fact, the restaurants here even send a pick up car for you, free of charge, so that you can drink without having to worry about driving. Great idea. The roads are full of twists and turns and there are no pavements so it would be very dodgy to walk them at night and my sister is not keen on driving in the dark so everybody is happy.
It was quite cloudy when we got there so we didn't really see the glorious view advertised in the brochures, but I found it quite atmospheric in a way. However, we didn't fancy an atmospheric view all week, having looked at some lovely books they had showing the highlights of this region with glorious blue skies. However, the weather forecast was adamant - rain, rain and more rain all week. Our hearts sank.
posted by Sylvie at 4:27 PM
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