Up at 6:30, packed and ready to go at 7. I’ll skip breakfast as usual, I refill my water bottles and can have something from my snack bag when I get hungry. I ask the receptionist what was up with all the late arrivals and she explains there was a beer festival nearby, that explains..
Another 500 km to go, but they should be a bit more exciting, as the landscape will be more varied. I leave under a clear blue sky, but quickly run into fog banks. Fortunately it’s extremely quiet at this time on a Sunday, so we can keep our distance. I do encounter the results of a recent accident, debris on the road, the cars already on the emergency lane with police vehicles, so I take this as a warning to remain vigilant. I pass Strasbourg – together with Brussels, the site of the European Union institutes – and though I never actually see the Rhine, it’s responsible for the wide valley I’m driving through, carving between the Vosques mountains on the French side and the Schwarzwald mountains on the German. It’s still pretty early, so at first the mountains are just a dark blob, sharply delineated against the brightening sky (with the occasional castle tower sticking out clearly), but they slowly gain resolution and color as the sun rises.
I have to pay close attention to the route, the highways crisscross the French-German border here and my route south is not always dead ahead, but I manage to make it to the Swiss border without mistakes. The trick is to follow the E numbers, these are the long distance routes across Europe and remain the same over countries. I stop to buy a toll sticker (43 €), which is the Swiss way of making you pay for the use of their highways, start a new Spotify playlist (Max Martin) and look up which cities are next. I follow the signs to Luzerne, then Lugano, keeping the car on adaptive cruise control all the way. Switzerland is fun to drive in because of the scenery, but also kind of boring, because the maximum speed mostly varies between 80 kmph (in the many tunnels), 100 kmph (on the curvy stretches between the tunnels) and 120 kmph (on the rare straight runs). One of the most annoying things is that the cell phone service is hideously expensive, so I refrain from making phone calls and disable mobile data entirely, having downloaded my Spotify lists yesterday on WiFi.
It’s great how everybody sticks exactly to the rules and limits, it makes driving very relaxing, even in the pouring rain we get after the 16,9 km long Gotthard tunnel. It’s infamous for both a fire in 2001 that killed eleven people and the long waiting queues in tourist season. I only have to wait for 15 min, slowly queueing at the lights at govern the flow into the tunnel. I leave the mountains behind, cross the border into Italy and drive the final hour to the city of Milan. It’s frankly a shock to cross the border, there’s a sudden change from law-abiding and rule-respecting traffic, to a free for all, rules-are-guidelines kind of situation. The road signs are less clear too, so I resort to mostly following the speed of the Italians around me.
I arrive at the Airbnb round two, plenty of time to unload the luggage and wait for my mom to arrive on her bike. I can actually see her coming closer, since we’re sharing location for the occasion, so I’m ready to wave her in and congratulate her on completing her 2000 km bike trip. We get changed into cool clothes (I mean clothes that keep you cool) and take the train to the center of town. We admire the Castello Sforzesco, have a platter of Italian meats with a tasting of Italian wines, admire the Duomo and buy some Nespresso for at the holiday home, after which we run out of energy and make our way back.
Tomorrow we’ll explore the town center on foot, hoping to see some old buildings and modern architecture. Tuesday is reserved for gastronomy and shopping, Wednesday for museums. Thursday we’re leaving for our next stop, Basel.
Febe writes 