See Me Now

Once again, I’ve demonstrated my knack for scheduling a vacation that coincides with unpredictable drama   This time it’s Hurricane Lee, which hopefully will have calmed down to tropical storm status by the time it whams into Halifax sometime during the next 24 hours. Yes, here I am in Nova Scotia.   I arrived here late last night in preparation for – wait for it – a bicycle tour. Hahahahahaha.    Bike route                                                                                        Approaching storm       Let me just say in my defense that I DID research autumn weather patterns for this area; September typically has less rain than the surrounding months. But I guess you never c...

I’m home now and reflecting upon the many lovely places we visited. As you I know, I crossed Torino off of my fantasy-live-in-Europe list, but I continued doing reconnaissance as we traveled the beautiful lake communities. When we reached Locarno, Switzerland I immediately settled into a state of mellow contentedness. Maybe Locarno is the place!    It’s at the north end of Lake Maggiore at the base of many majestic alps. Beautiful viewing in every direction. You could live down close to the lake or further up the hillside accessible by funicular, cable car, and chair lift. The lakeside pedestrian area was clean – free of graffiti and cigarette butts. It didn’t seem all that crowded, although we were off hiking during prime daylight hours.  Locarno’s population numbers around 15,000 which makes it larger than Orta or Bellagio and, I think, not 100% tourist dominated. It seemed like in Locarno, you would have more access to ‘normal’ services and retailers. Not Target or ...

When we were on our own, food was a challenge.   The biggest problem is that in Italy, restaurants serve lunch from around 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm.   Then they close and re-open for dinner at 7:00 or 7:30 pm. But our schedule usually delivered us to our new destination around 3:00 pm.   We were famished by then and couldn’t last until 7:00 pm for food.   So we’d find some sort of sub-par café or a grocery store and get whatever we could. The hiking tour was entirely different because Mt Sobek and our guide, Giovanna, had it all worked out.   They scheduled ahead of time with restaurants or farmhouses who provided amazing, multi-course meals made from locally produced meats and cheeses, and from beautifully prepared fish and game. It was more than all of us were used to eating but it was fantastic.   In Italy, it goes like this: first an antipasto platter that includes cheeses, lean slim-cut meats, and maybe some veggies or olives. Second, a pasta cour...

It’s hard not to take photo after photo of the stunning scenery surrounding the beautiful lakes in Northern Italy and Switzerland.   Following are some choice photos capturing the latter few days of our tour.  For those interested in the food (which was amazing), I’ll make a separate food porn post.    North end of Lake Maggiore View of Lake Como from our hotel roof garden           Scenes from hikes              I tried to post two panoramic video clips here but had to load them to youtube instead.  Here are the links: Link to panoramic video # 1 Link to panoramic video # 2    Scenes from Bellagio and Varenna on Lake Como Grotto in a Bellagio garden Walkway as viewed from our hotel room balcony Varenna Our entire hiking group all dolled up for our final dinner Happy me high above Lake Como