Off On A Bimble

Mandello to Grindlewald - 171 miles - 10 July This day was one of the finest days of motorcycle riding and scenery in my life. We got moving from Mandello fairly early and filled up, then rode north up the lake to Varenna for the ferry to Menaggio. When we got there we found we had missed the ferry by about 5 minutes, so had nearly an hour to wait. The good news was there are worse places to stand around than on the shores of lake Como. While we were there a geezer turned up on a V85TT with a aftermarket exhaust. I said  “that must sound great” but apparently he was too cool to talk to the likes of us riders on old Guzzis….The ferry ride across the lake was pretty amazing, wonderful scenery and a lovely start to the days adventures. It was going to be another hot day. We climbed out of Menaggio and rode through the hills and a past a lake until we got to Lugarno - back in Switzerland and out of the Eurozone. Lugarno was frankly a pain in the behind, road works seemed to be everyw

Mandello Rest Day - Miles = 0         9 th  July Our room at Grigna was very comfortable, with a balcony looking out over the main road and the Guzzi factory, and it was equipped with a very efficient air conditioner that we had left on before we went to bed, but turned off when we did actually hit the sack. That was a mistake, as the heat of the day bled out from the road and the stones of the buildings, and it was a bit warm to get really good sleep. Still and all, we were reasonably rested in the morning and wandered off down towards the lake looking for something to eat, which we found in a bakery on Via XXIV Maggio, the name of which I cant recall. The pastries we bought were filled with delicious vanilla cream and were washed down with lemon iced tea, while sitting on the benches facing the lake. With all the retired people, some of whom arrived 2 up on scooters. It was a lovely way to start the day, very relaxing and it was good to not be quickly packing and setting

It was pretty nice to wake up to the amazing views from our balcony, and after showering and packing the gear we toddled off down to the main Agropobitzer for a rather lovely breakfast washed down with multiple strong Italian coffees. By the time we had finished that and walked back to our house the Africa Twin parked next to the Guzzis had gone. Quite mysteriously, the night before the rider had spoken to us quite happily, but his wife never showed her face. Maybe he should have been paying attention to her instead of speaking to us and drinking whisky! First job on leaving the B & B was to go into Mals town and sort out a few things; painkillers and hay fever tablets for me, and a different card for Jeff's helmet cam, and he’d been sold the wrong one and therefore recorded zero footage. In the pharmacy my bad German and bad Italian (almost none) were supplemented by gestures, smiling and pointing, and the young lady behind the counter seemed to get the message and we bo