Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : Belle vista le Italia .........

Yesterday was thoroughly enjoyable day taking in the magnificent scenery of Lauterbrunnen.

The expected rain arrived around teatime and barely let up all night which left us a little despondent this morning.

It pains me to say it, given our lovely location in this valley, but with a cool breeze, the cloud cover at about 300 feet and regular drizzle, it felt more like Wales than Switzerland ! Nothing against Wales, or Switzerland, I love both the places, it`s just with the rain, that was how it looked and felt, ie too close to home.

Camping Jungfrau by the way is a lovely site, one of the best I have ever been on, the shower block was so clean you eat your tea off the heated floor tiles whilst listening to piped music or a refreshing hot shower.
Also, it was not as expensive as I had feared, it worked out about £30 for the night, so not too bad given the location and facilities.

The weather forecast didn’t give much us cause for optimism though.

So after a brief discussion, we did what any good motorhomers would do, we set the compass for south, selected first gear and set off for…….Italy.

After all that`s what a motorhome is for, it gives you the flexability to change your plans at a moments notice, so that’s what we did.

I am very disappointed though to have missed some of the activities I had planned in the Lauterbrunnen area, but who knows, maybe we will return one day. That would certainly be my ambition.

Apparently there is an app you can download to your smartphone and on wet misty days like we experienced you just point your smartphone in the direction of whatever you want to photograph and a high definition, crystal clear photograph of whatever you had pointed at is downloaded to you phone automatically !!! Cheating or what, but very clever, and necessary unfortunately.

We had to back track somewhat towards Lucerne as part of the Susten Pass is still closed due to snow. The St Gotthard Tunnel was decided upon as our route and most of the journey was done in rain and mist so I think we missed some of the scenery due to the low cloud cover but it was still an unforgettable journey.

The St Gotthard Tunnel is quite a feat of engineering and takes about sixteen minutes to transit. Quite a bit of concentration is needed as it`s a single tunnel with a single carriageway carrying traffic in both directions, so no room for error or wandering !
A comfort break was taken as soon as we re-emerged into daylight.

Heading south (and north for that matter) it is quite a climb up to the entrances and is frequently the source of severe traffic delays. Thankfully we passed unhindered but there was a queue heading north.

We also passed the St GotthardBase Tunnel which is for train cargo traffic and is even longer.

We exited Switzerland through an unmanned border crossing and entered Italy through their very own unmanned border crossing.

Lake Maggorie was the destination we had selected and we arrived just after lunch at a small village in the foothills of the Alps called Germignaga in the Province of Varese, on the banks of the lake.

Whats more, we had found some sunshine, it`s not quite cracking the paving flags yet but it`s very welcome.

In the way Germany calls their motorhome stops Stellplats, the Italians call them Sostas and we are on a very good one looking directly over the lake. There is a park to the left of us and a recreational, a super clean childrens play park the other side with those fountains that squirt water vertically to their amusement, and best of all, our very own beach ! So all in all it’s a very pleasant stopover. Cost, well just 3 euro for electricity and 1 euro for fresh water if you need it. We didn`t. So very good value as well.

We walked 5 minutes to the local Carrafor supermarket for some groceries and I had a walk around the village this evening, it`s nothing special, but has quite a charm and some flower decorations contained in bicycles !

Also, “Door of the day” is back ………

We`ve not decided on plans for tomorrow yet, watch this space.

By the way, remarkably, we have UK tv tonight ! don`t know how, but we do !