Grindelwald - Lecco - Milan

Apologies if you're a subscribed fan waiting on the edge of your seat for your daily dose of Griswold adventures but unfortunately wi-fi (that's the internet access thingo Mum) is not available at every place we stay at hence the intermittent posts.  

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Packed and left Grindelwald and headed towards Italy this morning.  Nicki’s favourite memory of Switzerland is the Swiss border receding in the rear view mirror.

Just your average waterfall over the tunnel.

Raining and poor weather as we headed towards the Italian border through the Swiss Alps.  Unbelievable rugged scenery as we ascended the mountains and climbed out of the tree line.  Roads like you’d see in Top Gear with hairpin after hairpin and the clouds and the rain making it even more special.  Waterfalls all over the place again and even snow as we got higher.

Stopped at a place called Sustenpass for a coffee which was the highest part of the mountains and went for a short walkabout off road for about an hour.  

On the walkabout Harry and Max found some local mountain wildlife that they took by the hand.

Bike with road on the left beyond.

Went to get back in the car but after speaking with the lady at the coffee shop and finding out the next 15km were downhill, and only downhill, I ripped the bike of the back of the car and headed down the mountain with Nicki following behind.  60km/hr was the top speed on the bike with an average of about 50kmhr for 15k’s straight.  A huge hoot.

We thought we'd drive to Lake Como (George Clooney holidays here, Nicki had her fingers crossed) and stop the night in a town called Lecco.  Hit our first major drama of the trip so far by underestimating the popularity of our next stop.  Our tactic of just rocking up to the tourist office and trying to get accommodation backfired spectacularly as the rooms listed at the tourist office were miles more expensive than the ones on the internet.  (We had been lulled into a false sense of security by how easy it had been so far.)

Decided to bail out of there and try our luck in Milan an hour away as we were going to go to the soccer the next day anyway.  Told the kids not to worry, it was only 4pm and we’ll get something "no problem".  

“If it’s dark and we still don’t have a place then we’ll start to worry”.

It's a big city, how hard could it be?

Four hours later and now driving from hotel to hotel to hotel on a Saturday night, in the city, in the dark, with trams, and vespas, and 4 million cars, on streets as wide as a tootbrush in the ever nimble Grand Kangoo we checked into a 4 star hotel on the outskirts of Milan for €150 a night blowing the accommodation budget right out of the water.

Local Swiss one-eyed trouser snakes. Hard to catch.

Stray observations:  Holidaying where George does without a reservation may not be a good idea.

Sustenpass.