Lake News

We officially arrived at the source of the Rhine exactly one month after we left England. We had a long cycle up to the top of the cycle path and decided to extend it with the 3 hour hike to get to the actual source of the river. It was immensely calming to sit by the lake and feel the water (despite the very annoying sound of the drone some kid was flying above us). We had followed the river upstream the whole way on our bike which was an empowering and emotional achievement for us both. As we cycled down and away from our beloved Rhine we followed the Gotthard pass which is a long cobbled road full of switchbacks which brings you from the heavens back to Earth. Luckily we did this gorgeous path in the sun before doing the remaining 60km of fast downhill in torrential rain. As we descended, there was one question which was burning in my mind to distract me from the drops pouring from my helmet into my suncreamy eyes: what next? 

We knew we wanted to spend some time in Italy, mostly for the food. We had toyed with the idea of going round the famous lakes, or heading to Venice or even down to Rome. We even talked about going back up into the Alps to avoid the intense sea-level heat. I don’t know if it’s the emotion of reaching our first goal or the overwhelming, endless possibilities of what we could do next, but I started to feel pretty exhausted and was ready for a break. Not an ‘eating a banana by the side of the road’ break that we had come to know and love but a real, relaxing, multi-day break. We had recently stayed with someone who recommended Lake Como to us and so we looked online, found a good deal on a B&B with a view of the lake and booked 4 nights.

One thing to remember if you ever book a place to stay which has great views over a lake but isn’t on the waterfront: it is probably up a very steep hill. The last portion of our ride to the B&B was the absolute opposite of relaxing. We wound up the steep, narrow and cobbled streets and did our best to avoid honks, shouts and close passes from angry Italian drivers who clearly desperately needed to get up the hill as fast as possible for some unknown reason. As we pulled into the B&B and locked up the bike I collapsed on the comfy bed with immense joy at having a room with solid walls to call home for a few days. To say I slept very well that first night is a massive understatement.

We had two main aims while on our mini break. First, decide what to do with our remaining 7 weeks and second, relax. The latter seemed like it would be easy so we decided to tackle the planning on the first day. I spent hours looking at cycle tour suggestions, reading different trainlines’ bike policies and thinking through our options. In the end, though, we pretty much just decided to put Santander (our final destination) into Google maps, press go and follow the line, getting local trains to skip any unpleasant sections. Our (very rough) route plan for the second half of our trip is to head south to the Mediterranean via Milan to see the Cinque Terre, follow the coast to France through Nice, Cannes, Marseille etc and then continue West along the foothills of the Pyrenees before crossing into Spain to see Bilbao and then heading to our ferry home in Santander. To be honest, it’s probably easier to just look at the picture below. 

This planning consumed our first day by Lake Como and then the following days were spent swimming, wandering through beautiful towns, exploring villas and eating a mountain of food. Oh, and playing with the B&B’s gorgeous fluffy grey cat named Kylie. We unfortunately did not reach my goal of meeting George Clooney but we did manage to try at least 10 different gelato flavours. On a side note: we are thinking of starting to make and sell wacky ice cream flavours back in England.

We both slept extremely well and our bodies thanked us for the rest from cycling. It was pretty surreal how quickly we forgot that we had actually cycled the whole way to the lake and it often just felt like a completely separate holiday. We both felt a bit nervous before leaving, as though the trip was starting all over again. When I was a kid, to help me if I was ever nervous, my parents always told me that 90% of nerves were excitement. I know this doesn’t make biological sense and it was just something they told me to comfort me but as we zoomed out of the B&B towards Milan, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe they were right.

Speak soon,

Jack and Baz