There's a new grill meister in town.

Hubby has been talking about getting a grill since we got here, and when we moved into our apartment we were told we could have one in a little sand pit above the garage. Quite a rarity in an apartment complex. The space itself is for everyone, but I'd hardly seen anyone using it.

I'm not sure why we hesitated buying it - maybe we had too much going on, too many trips - but last Friday a certain someone called me from work to say that we were grilling out that night with a brand spanking new grill!

For this first event there were only 5 people in attendance, so the boys grilled while the girls supervised from above. We totally used the walkie talkies to communicate instead of shouting.

Here are the guys as they prepare to go down to the grill, with their kindling hats on.

....and then the grilling commences. We had steaks for this, and I made roasted veggies, potato rounds, and caesar salad. Mmm! There was also a terribly delicious coffee cake made by Susan for dessert.

We watched from above, out of the way of the smoky grill with the novices.

Hubby enjoyed grilling so much that on Monday he came home to say that we were going to do another round of grilling on Tuesday, but this time there would be a few more people and we'd try hamburgers and hot dogs. He went to the Commissary for a few things, including sweet potato fries which I happily made in the oven.

He's so happy in our little sand pit!

This time we just hung out down at the grill. At one point one of our neighbors shouted down to us that we were too loud, and one of us said that we were allowed to be noisy until 10:30. He was kind of a crotchety old man.... and English speakers are super noisy....but I get that it was a Tuesday night.

Next time I suggested that we do some spicy grilled chicken and tin foil packets of veggies, mmm. Or bratwurst. It might be late in the grilling season, but I think the boys will probably be out there a few more times before we pack up for the winter. They really seem in their element.

We're on a boat. And going home the next day.

Early on Sunday morning, even before breakfast, we headed down to the lake where they guys had arranged that we take out a boat for two hours.

At 8am, the water was all ours aside from a few boats here and there. We went full speed ahead as we tried to find George Clooney's villa south of where we were.

Here we are at the dock getting the boat. The guys basically said "here's how to go forward, here's a button not to press," and that was it.

And we're off!

Woo hoo!

Here's that villa we visited the day before:

Super calm waters :-)

All the boys got a chance to drive while the ladies enjoyed the ride. And held on. I eventually sat down on the bottom of the boat in the middle so I would not literally rock the boat.

Look how happy he is! And so early in the morning, too!

Captain Red Beard.

Captain Red Beard and Mrs. Red Beard.

Sadly after we returned to the dock, two of our six had to depart back to Germany, so the four of us remaining headed back to the B&B for a hard-earned breakfast:

There were even hard-boiled eggs today! Yum.

After this, the food coma set in, and we retreated to our newly refreshed rooms for some primo napping.

In the afternoon we emerged craving an activity and gelato so we headed over to a nearby town where there was supposed to be a good gelato place. On our way we even explored some beach (this was before we realized this probably wasn't a public beach...)

Oh yum.... this was a tiramisu that I had:

So sad we had to leave! For a late dinner we went back to the same place we ate at two nights before, and it was just as delicious, and with better views sitting outside:

The next day, we had our last yummy breakfast before heading out of town. We stopped the next town over at this enormous grocery store to stock up on anything and everything that looked delicious. Hubby and I loaded up on all these delectable delights:

Soon into the drive, it started drizzling and then raining which wasn't pleasant, but by the time we made it to the mountain pass of the day, Splügen Pass, it lightened up.

It was super high that we literally drove through the clouds.

I even managed to get a video of us going down the pass. Unfortunately the file is too big to include here, so if you're interested in seeing it, let me know and I can try emailing it/Google doc-ing it to you. It was pretty good. To get an idea, here are some un-rainy shots courtesy of Google images.

Yay!

After driving back through Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Austria for too long, We finally made it back to Germany. When we stopped for gas, I got this little gem to drink in the car, because there are no open container laws in the land:

And yes, it was delicious. Later that night we made it home and because we love Italian food so much, made a late-night frozen pizza. Not completely as good as what we had been eating over the weekend, but after a long day of driving it definitely hit the spot.

Ferries and rolling the dice at Lake Como

Oh beautiful Lake Como, I love you so much! Here is the view from our breakfast table:

The breakfast here was outstanding. Freshly shaved ham slices, homemade rolls, cheese and assorted jams, not to mention cake, yogurt and cereal, orange juice, teas and coffee. With fresh milk. So much yum.

Our main goal for the day was to head over to Lecco to check out the Villa del Balbianello. It was used in Casino Royale! And our other number 1 goal was to get gelato, obviously.

Here are a few pictures from the ferry....

And then at the villa/gardens. It was a long walk and it did cost some Euro to get in, but the gorgeous grounds and views were worth it:

 Even caught a shirtless boating Italian...

I think we all experienced some of the best gelato that we've ever had after a delicious lunch of bruschetta, pizza, and pasta. It was still a little too hot for me walking around, but the mint and chocolate gelato helped immensely.

We also hit Bellagio, the same town that hubby and I visited last month.

After another short ride on the ferry back to our cars, we found a small grocery store and stocked up on wine, cheese, and even some sausage to have an early dinner/happy hour thing back at the B&B. Since we had our wine picnic basket with us, we had a bottle opener, cutting board for cheese, two glasses, and had also brought along some plates and other cups for everyone else. I think we ended up drinking the first three (of six) bottles of wine out on the terrace before retreating inside to one of our rooms for a rousing game of Monopoly.

But not just any Monopoly... we played MONOPOLI! (As in, the Italian version!)

Oh the fun we had playing with lira and trying to figure out what the Chance cards said as we continued to finish the other three bottles of wine. Between our skills of other languages and of course Google translate, we figured it out.

Yep, that was our big Saturday night at Lake Como, we're the coolest.

Next time...our last day boating adventure, naps, and driving back in the rainy mist.

Road Trip Re-cap: Day Two.

Waking up, it's always a pleasure to see these views outside of your window. Italy is great.

We weren't to Lake Como yet, and had another day of driving ahead. Back on the road we went, into Switzerland. I took some more pictures today, feeling slightly better after getting through the worst of the mountain passes the day before.

Switzerland is super pretty... at some point we stopped for lunch, again in this expensive country. I got to sample delicious Alpine cottage cheese with my chicken salad, mmm! Still wasn't worth 25 Swiss Francs, though...

Soon after pulling out of this lake, the Focus took the lead in our caravan. This is only because when we finally caught up with our Saturn and Honda convertibles, we were coming around a turn quickly and couldn't pull over where they had stopped. We stopped a few miles (or kilometers?) down and were just pulling out as they were rounding a turn.

See that truck and SUV ahead? Hubby made a huge move and passed them. Both. At the SAME time, to the shock of the rest of our car team. The Focus can do things, too - take THAT, convertibles!

Rear view mirror shot... after we passed the truck they were stuck way behind as we traveled through a small town, unable to pass.

Enough of this Focus, they said....

Now that all was right with the universe, we pulled over again a bit farther up on our way to another pass.

Apparently this WAS the San Bernardino Pass (which I thought was yesterday and have adjusted my previous post to reflect) and it wasn't nearly as crowded as what we drove through the day before. As an added bonus, since it wasn't as high, we didn't have to just take steep turns the entire way - they had longer shots of road between the switchbacks.

We kept going a little higher and found some even better views.

Rocky awesomeness.

Don't look down!

(Don't worry, he's plenty safe)

I was glad I wore long pants and actual shoes today, it was plenty chilly way up there. We could also hear cow bells and mooing in the distance.

We decided to keep going around this pass despite Google's urging that we go back the way we came. Google is so smart - it definitely added significant time to our trip by ignoring this, and also got a few of us lost, but eventually we got ourselves together and made it to our Bed and Breakfast. Luckily, our proprietor made us a dinner reservation at a restaurant next to the lake, my beloved Lake Como.

It was absolutely delicious. Most of us got pizza. I got pasta and pizza because I can't resist either when I'm in Italy. Oh, and a bunch of us got panna cotta for dessert :-)

And cheap! Eight Euro for a liter of wine? Yes please... then we stumbled back to the B&B and crashed, the guys especially looking forward to not driving the next day. Hubby was tired from driving an automatic so I can't imagine the leg soreness experienced by our convertible drivers.

Hooray Lake Como!