We say goodbye to Genoa and our hosts Mirko and Irina and and are back at our car which we haven’t seen for 5 days. We are heading to Fiado, a mountain town in Switzerland at about 260 km away. It is another beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky and everyone one in NZ seems to be wrapped up warmly and hopefully watching the Hurricanes final. What an awesome result, our first championship win. I pick up the txts as we are sitting in a service stop over the motorway somewhere near Milan. Thanks to those keeping me posted. It was supposed to be another black day on the roads but everything moves along fine except for a couple of the toll payment booths which each cost us 10 minutes or so of time. We weren’t good at picking the best queue. We do run unto a jam at or near lake Como and the traffic slows to a crawl to what turns out to be the Swiss border. We pass through that with hardly a glance from the guard and purchase our sticker to go on the front window allowing us to drive on the motorways. It is a year pass for 40 Euros even although we are only in Switzerland over two days.
Fiado is in a mountain valley through which the motorway runs. We are staying at an Airbnb home, a very nice family with 3 young boys (Gianugo & Lilian Altieri and Pietzo, Alessandro & Costantino). Gianugo is Italian, Lilian is Romainian. We settle in there before heading off to explore. The town is ultra quiet, we find somewhere to have a drink before wandering down to a lovely waterfall across the river. The motorway is up above us hardly noticeable as it passes through the valley via tunnels and bridges. We head back into town looking for a meal, it is about 5.30 only to discover kitchens don’t open until 6.30. While siting there we notice a gondola which we thought wasn’t working heading up the side of the hill. We go down to have another look and find it is a self start one. They have directions in three languages but none of them are English. Margaret is a beauty and able to decipher enough for us to get it going and we are heading up the side of the mountain. We end up in a Plateau with big green meadows and a swimming pool and something that looks like a horse training area. We head back to the resturant for dinner. Margaret has a risotto and I a beaf schnitzel .
Sunday morning and we are up bright and early. We have over 400km to travel. Gianugo suggest we should go over the mountain road via Saint Gotthard pass. Even although he had never been on it himself he said every one thought it had the most wonderful views. We had to forgo a 16km tunnel for the privilege He was right it was a great road to drive over some cobbled roads. Watching all the bikes pushing their way up or cruising down. I thought of Carl and Sandy as I guess they must have climbed up to Saint Gotthard on their journeys on the tandem. Awesome experience then back on the motorway. It really was a nice drive through the mountain valleys beside beautiful lakes and people out sailing and quaint villages. We skirted Lucerne, Zurich and Stuttgart before doing the last section on country roads into Lauffen. The boarder crossing was a non avent with nobody on duty and no hold ups. Driving on the Autobahn was an interesting experience. The GPS gave us no speed limits. I managed to slip it up to nearly 170km/h before getting told off. There were people flying past us. Apparently 130 is considered the maximum, you are allowed to go faster but if anything happens then it is on you and could have drastic implications.
We arrive at Sabrina’s home around 4.30. Today was the first time we had met Tomtom’s time estimates. It is good to see Rudi, Erica, Sabrina and Jens again it was 2011 since they had been in New Zealand and we had a lot to catch up on. We were staying in the Gashenhau Hotel around the corner from Sabrina’s Mum & Dads house. After booking in there we had a quick drive around before heading off to Neckarsulm where the Audi’s are made as Erica had to drop something off there.
That night we ate at Sonne, Sabrina’s brother, Kristian’s resturant. We ate our best meal since leaving home, maybe since along time before leaving home. It was salad starter and South American Beef and German Pork steaklets main cooked to perfection by Sabrina’s Dad, Rudi (who was the chef) and complemented by the restaurants own Red Curvee. It was a beautiful meal and much reminiscing about times in New Zealand. Kristian showed us his cellar and says there is a rumour of a tunnel under the river to the castle from there. He is yet to find it.
A very late night.
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