Weekend in Lake Como…George, where are you?

Have you ever seen the cartoon Popeye?  If so, then you have heard Wimpy say "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today".  He always walks away with a hamburger and somehow, Tuesday never comes.

I've been on the OTHER end of that scenario since June.  I wanted to buy a slow cooker. Yes, I have several at home in the states, but the wiring is different here and they won't work, so I forced David to go shopping with me on a rainy Saturday.  We found a store in a town about 15 minutes north of us that carried them and were on our way.  We found the last "mijoteuse" on the shelf, paid and headed home.

Unfortunately, when I opened it up, it was damaged.  RATS!  You can imagine David's reaction when I told him we'd need to go back and exchange it.  Now, you can't RETURN most things in France.  No money back in your pocket….even if it's DAMAGED.  We were essentially given a "rain check" for the same item.  Our "receipt" had on it the item we paid for, including the purchase price and we have 6  months to "redeem" it.

A big hassle, sure, but I want the darn thing.  Well, I've been back to the store that is a 30 minute (without traffic) roundtrip trek 3 times now.  Each time, there is no stinkin' MIJOTEUSE on the shelf and each time I ask a sales person to go and check in inventory.  Each time, I've gotten the same response, "we will have them in stock on TUESDAY".  Now you understand the Wimpy reference.  I will keep you posted on my progress….if the raincheck expires before they finally get one in stock, I am CERTAIN that you will hear me roar from across the pond.

After my last attempt at securing my slow cooker on Friday, I stopped at the HUGE grocery store off the same exit.  It's called "Cora".  Cora makes a super Walmart look like a gas station grocery store.  As I wandered through the housewares section, there was a display for cast iron skillets that caught my eye.  I have an induction cook surface, so I can only use metallic skillets.  These said that they would work on an induction surface.  

They were very expensive, so I decided against the purchase and pushed my cart along.  As I was leaving the display, an elderly French man spoke to me.  I had assumed that I had perhaps "cut him off" with my cart and quickly apologized.  He made another comment to me (in French) that I did not understand and so I used one of my best French phrases on him…. "Je suis désolé, je ne comprends pas" (I'm sorry, I do not understand).  He then asked me what language I spoke and I replied English.

He then proceeded to tell me in English that "this is the best pan to use to correct my husband".  We had a good laugh and he made sure to tell me that his wife never had to use a cast iron skillet on him.  I walked away smiling and wondering how on earth this little man knew David :)

We had friends who were here in our area on a biking tour through the Alsace wine country.  I'm certainly NEVER going to consider daily biking as a vacation, but that's what they called it.  I felt so bad for them.  The entire week was frigid and it rained every day.  We were able to drive south and meet them for a yummy dinner in a fabulous restaurant in Equisheim.  Of course, it was pouring rain when we left.

Mark and Nancy 

We headed south to Lake Como early Saturday morning.  It's about 450km from our apartment to the Northern part of Italy. The lake was beautiful.  The forecast wasn't so nice.  The crappy weather we had experienced in France all week was following us.  We ventured from our hotel in Griante across the lake to Bellagio and spent the day exploring the village in the rain.

View from our hotel room.  Nice pool and Bellagio across the lake.

David can always manage to find a set of stairs to drag me up.

Sunday was a sunny day.  Our first one in about 10 days.  We lounged by the pool until mid afternoon and then headed to the neighboring villages to explore.

Our hotel.  Who knew that with a name like this EVERY Brit in Italy would be at your hotel?

Each village along the lake is filled with restaurants, a church, a tobacco shop, hotels and then the residential housing.  If the churches didn't look different, I'm not sure that you would know when you left one village and entered another.

Monday morning we had arranged to rent a boat for 4 hours and tour the lake.  We were one of only a handful of boats to be seen.  If only we'd had waterskis!  The lake was like glass.

We passed the villa that belongs to Richard Branson, the Virgin Airlines CEO











and of course had to go past George Clooney's Villa Orleandra in Laglio.  We couldn't stay in front of George's villa.  He apparently was able to get a temporary law passed to prevent boaters and/or swimmers from stopping in front of his property.  I guess he doesn't want anyone to crash his upcoming wedding.

I see those 2nd story bedroom windows open.  I know you are home George.

There are so many lovely homes along the lake….I picked out this estate to visit next time….it's called Villa La Cassinella.  It is one of the few lakefront properties that can be rented.  It's only 90,000 Swiss Francs for the week.  ($101,000 in US dollars).

Ok, so maybe we could afford this one instead…

Monday afternoon we began the long trip home.  Again, the tunnel traffic was causing a long delay, so we took the detour through Gottard Pass, Switzerland.  The views are stunning and I had to promise my husband a return trip so that he could hike through the countryside.

One last traffic back up was caused by loose animals on the autobahn.  Trust me, if your Navigation System is giving you this information, you slow down.

We finally arrived home and were able to grab a quick shower and watch some Bastille Day fireworks from our apartment window.

Not a bad weekend here in Europe.  I promise to stay out of trouble for the next two weeks and then I'm headed HOME!  Can't wait.  Hope to see as many of you as possible while I'm stateside.  Alternatively, YOU could visit US in September.