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!

Back from our mini road trip! Re-cap of day one.

So sorry for the lack of post on Monday. We were on a road trip that we wanted to extend, so we spent Monday driving back through a bunch of countries.

This trip was a multi-couple trip, with two other couples traveling separately toward a goal of Lake Como, but first getting to really really REALLY enjoy the drive. To get to Lake Como from us going the long scenic way, you drive through Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland.

Over the Alps.

Please note that I say "over" and not "under." We're talking mountain passes through the Alps, which can be a harrowing experience. I didn't know our Ford Focus could do the things it did. I've never seen so many hairpin/switchbacks in my life. And traffic circles (roundabouts). It wasn't that I didn't trust my trusty driver hubby, but when you're following these spiffy cars of our friends, it gets lost that you are actually in a Focus and not a convertible.

I will say it was super fun driving in a caravan situation like this, because we all had walkie talkies. While they wouldn't work unless you were close to each other, it was highly entertaining to talk back and forth, confirm what our GPS/directions were saying, and to comment on our surroundings.

Anyway, the first day I wished I had a Xanax or something. You don't go fast but it feels like you do because you have to take the turns so sharply to keep up and keep the car in control. I eased up the second day but man, that first day was rough in the passenger seat.

Here are some scenic shots I got while hubby was driving, before the scary Alp-climbing:

Hi there!

Hubby said, "quick take a picture of me next to this lake!"

We attempted to stop in Lichtenstein for lunch, but couldn't find any food. We were forced to travel into Switzerland for sustenance, and pay exorbitant prices. The Swiss Franc is pretty much 1 and 1 with the US dollar right now, which made it really easy to tell how much of a ripoff Switzerland is - I got a 9-pack of nuggets at McDonald's (yes, McDonald's!) for just under ten Swiss Francs.

Ugh. Switzerland is pretty, but it's stupid.

Eventually we came upon the first of our two passes for the day. The first was one that didn't really have a name, but is where I saw tons of cows and mountain goats on the side of the road. It would have been way cool if I could position myself to take a picture, but I was far too much of a nervous co-pilot. By the end we caught up with our convertible team and hubby posed next to the car. You can't smell it through these pictures, but I assure you, the burning rubber was coming from our car.

On the way to the next pass (and eventually to our hotel for the evening), we stopped for some more pictures. It was definitely a great driving day - perfect weather. Obviously I'm wearing a sweater because we are still climbing higher and it was getting nice and brisk.

Our little Focus that could!

Finally it was time to test our skills on the Stelvio Pass. The Stelvio Pass is the highest pass you can take in the Eastern Alps and about halfway up, you really start to feel it. There are over 40 turns and the signs at each switchback helped me to count down how many we had left.

You can also see snow! Aside from the feeling that death was just a quick turn to the right, you feel like you're ascending into the heavens with the clouds close enough to reach out and fluff.

I hope you appreciate those pictures, because all I wanted to do was strap myself into my seat and hide, not twist and turn to get pretty shots with my camera. If that's not love for my friends and family, I don't know what is.

Finally we were at the summit. Here's a few shots of what we just drove - see what I mean about the turns?

Someone is pleased with himself.

Going down is pretty scary too... did I mention that the turns are so steep that you almost never see who is coming from the other side until juuuust the last second to get out of the way? Yeah, that's pretty freaky, especially on the turns where the only thing marking the road edge is a rope.

After a full day of driving, our car team was really happy to get to the hotel. We were all even happier that there was a fixed menu dinner that came out really quickly so we didn't even have to think about making other decisions. And, since we were in Italy now and not Switzerland, we got a four-course meal for 20 Euro.

Oh and wine. Lots and lots of wine. Our reward for surviving.