The Switzerland bypass

Lots of horizon all day

Well today was about zig zagging my way from Como over to the Italian side of the Alps, trying to avoid the motorways. It was a day of going around a lot of roundabouts, having a bit of a wonder around Como, and seeing a lot of the horizon due to the flatness of thee land.

So after a 20km undulating ride from Nesso where I stayed I get to Como. The road was quite amazing as for the duration you are about 100m up from thee lake, but the lake edge is only 30m horizontally out due to the sheer steepness of the land as it rises from the lake. I guess at least most people are guaranteed a lake view I guess.

Como was interesting, in that I was expecting more. The city is at the edge of the lake, of course, but there didn't seem to be much attachment to it once you were in the city; there was no lake front promenade, no bars (cafe) on the waterfront, everything seemed to be inland more. There was a fountain though so I took a picture of that. It was the only open space not built out that I saw there.

It has the usual massive cathedrals, old buildings and cobbled streets of course but when I left I thought there was probably not much there that I would remember in the future as it just seemed like an old city you ssee quite often in these parts. I guess it is more the surrounds of the lake that are famous not Como itself, or it is just famous for being famous? I actually preferred Bollagio, where I got the ferry to yesterday, more than Como.

Como cathedral

Whilst in Como I took the opportunity to have a coffee and pastry (as you do) and went to thee supermarket to stock up on food for the ride. I purposefully waited until Como as I knew they would have bigger supermarkets and hopefully a better chance of me finding some baking soda. I seem to be starting to get quite the stench emanating from my shoes, so much so that at times I think I even get a whiff while riding, and it has been a week or so since they have spent the night indoors. I tried to wash them the other day but that failed so on to baking soda, if I had remembered. I remembered the bananas, muesli bars, sneaky bit of chocolate, but for the baking soda. Oh well, job for tomorrow.

From Como I started my zig zag to the west. Last night I spent a fair amount of time trying to devise a route that was straight-ish but also avoided the motorways. It was harder than I thought as in a lot of cases it was the motorway or nothing, no secondary road close by. Got there in the end though. One thing I did overlook though was the sheer number of roundabouts I needed to go through. You expect in towns to have to slow down, stop and wait for traffic lights and all that stuff, but it seemed like they got a discount on roundabouts and ran out of corners when building the roads in the countryside as they seemed to be in the most odd places at times.

After the small hill out from Como the land is pretty much flat. There was a lot of harvesting going on, or recently completed, of wheat (I think) for most of the journey. The route took me from small town, through the country to another small town all the way. It was interesting as most of the towns had seen days of grandeur in previous years but were rather dilapidated today.

This was still usable, many towns I went through were 50% derelict buildings

That was pretty much 140 of the 165kms from today. Not overly exciting or much to write home about but was still nice to see some different views other than mountains and valleys, and it was also nice to cycle some flat land for a change too.

Tomorrow I will enter into the mountains again and start nutting out thee plethora of climbs left to do. I hope it is slightly warmer than Switzerland was but am not holding my breath.

Highlight: This was tough today, not because everything was bad but just because everything was nice and nothing stands out really. I guess just seeing the different villages and landscape to what I normally do was good. Or the cheeky hazelnut gelato I had at a truckstop enroute.  
Lowlight: The road surface today were fairly brutal in parts and a couple of times I didn't have room to maneuver or didn't see what was coming and Rose took a beating. She looks to have held up to the abuse though, although the knock is now back in its loud form (some days its not there, some days it is only quiet).
Lesson Learned: Take a shopping list to the supermarket otherwise you will have to put up with stinky shoes for longer.