Mountains, Rain, Etc

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Blimey, we thought it rained as we crossed the mountains into Switzerland last week, but today... Solid downpour from dawn to dusk without a break. I saw a man with a beard building a big boat and pairing up animals.
After Austria we drove a hellishly long way to Lake Garda, experiencing the deep joy that is Italian traffic management. They simply don't see two-hour queues as any sort of problem that might need attention, and when you finally crawl to the holdup it turns out to be... a badly parked moped. Or a tricky left turn crying out for a traffic light. Or a pedestrian crossing by an icecream shop. Mind you, Italian drivers don't help. I'm not exaggerating when I say we saw an accident every single time we drove on Italian motorways. Anyway the last 40 miles to our campsite took over 4 hours to drive. Top tip: never drive in italy in August.
Met up with Emily, Steve and the boys who were at a nearby campsite and chilled with them for four days. Went to Aqualand Theme Park, slides and fountains and pirate ships and that ... but hellish traffic chaos of course. Had a barbecue, had a torrential downpour. Went out in our boat on Lake Garda, Steve dived off the boat trying to reach the bottom but couldn't see it, let alone reach it; nice warm water, not salty of course, but a bit murky. Drove to Verona for the day (holdups for accidents, queues for exit to Gardaland, Italy's number one theme park). On the spur of the moment Steve enquired about Opera tickets in the Roman Arena and there were loads left for Turandot that night, so I drove the three kids back to our campsite in the van (only four seatbelts, you see) so the others could have a posh grownup evening at the opera. Brownie points earned I think. Em and Steve were visibly relaxing as the days passed, very stresseda bout imminent new house, new job, etc. Less bickering by the time we left.
Then drove to Zernez in Switzerland through heavy rain. They speak Romansh here, a weird cross between Italian, German and French which looks like Portuguese written down. For the first time we were confronted with a monolingual menu and a waitress who spoke no English - not many tourists down there. That night we went to a tiny touring circus, a dozen young incredibly fit people doing amazingly bendy or strong things. Amanda actually preferred this to the opera, but don't tell Emily. St Moritz the next day was blocky dull shops and hotels, adverts for Wealth Management and skinny women in furs browsing in Hermes and Rolex shops. Went up a mountain and nearly got soaked.
Then yesterday we drove north to St Gallen via Davos and Klosters over a 2300m pass, and at the top it was sleeting. Just above us the snow was settling. And cyclists were slogging up over this pass, carrying rucksacks. Oddly enough, they were all men. Davos is big and dull, Klosters is smaller and ridiculously attractive, all Heidi wooden balconies and pretty meadows, but a nightmare to get to. Crappy road took ages. In a suburb of St gallen we met up with Monica and Jonathan, and Ben who was very excited to see Grace again (what is it about our daughter, she charms everyone except us). Had a meal with Monica's parents and had a short walk past farms and orchards - they're very big on cider here - then finally got to our site by Lake Constance at 9pm.
Today they came over to see us, and it rained all day, as I mentioned. Hope you're ahving better weather, wherever you are. These pictures bring us up to date and should be self-explanatory.

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Photos

02 Top of the World
Up an Austrian mountain. We took the cablecar up, walked down

03 Driving over the Top
The Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse

04 Personal Jesus
Little shrines everywhere in the mountains

05 Summer Sledging
St Johann in the Tirol

06 Austrian Cemetery
They recycle EVERYTHING

07 Everyone Say
Grace, Toma and Edward

08 Opera Props, Verona
Think these are for Aida

09 Matching Monsoon Outfits
Steve and his two wives

10 Bye Bye Lake Garda
And your traffic hell

Comments

[Clym]

Rain Roads and more Rain
Well I'm sure you've seen your fair share of rain. Over here in blighty, we have had a rather cloud ridden summer. Occasionally sprinkled with the odd sunny day here and there.Still We're off to Brittany this weekend, fingers crossed for better weather. Gill and Dave came back with a host of goodies,including a lot of juicy prawns,which were immediately devoured,and in the process of producing a decent bit of stock. We were all saying how jealous we were of you guys out there, but the levels of precipitation you've been experiencing have somewhat eased our suffering. But apart from Italian drivers,rain,dull Davos and tiresome Turandot(no wonder they had spare tickets),at least your having an enjoyable time out there. Take care and see you soon.

[Jim]

I love Garda Lake
Lake of Garda is really an enchanting place! ps. I live in Sirmione near Garda

[Emily]

Lake guarda is fab!
Well we had a fab time in Italy, the second week of our holiday the Italians went back to week and the traffic calmed down a bit so don't let Dan put you off if you fancy it. We had some rain too but it has to fall occasionally, I fear Dan and Amanda may have a bit of a shock when they get back to British weather and holidays in school holiday periods. We went to Venice at high tide and paddled in St Marks square, ate lots of yummy food and drank wine while kids played with loads of children in the camp site. No yobs or nightclobs just a nice family holiday.