Getting to Bellinzona, Switzerland

62.7 miles

62.8 miles

62.9 miles

The tenths of a mile were slowly clicking by on my odometer.

Wow it's hot!

Honestly, I think I forgot how painful it was to sit in a bike all day!  But then again Connor did 30 miles to meet me in Milan Malpensa, so he was just crossing 100 miles.  He can do it, he's only 21!

But I get ahead of myself.  I haven't told you about having lunch on Lago Maggiore, or putting my feet in the beautifully cool water, or taking the ferry to Intra, or the sketchy guy who asked if he could hitchhike on my bike!

The day started out great.  I got to Milan without incident (only an hour late), and Connor met me.  Here we are leaving Milan Malpensa:

My bike had been packed beautifully by my bike shop, and we got on the road by about 12 pm.  Once we got outside of the airport, the scenery started to improve dramatically.  You may not realize that the Lake District is only an hour outside of Milan.  Now you know why the Milanese are never in town on the weekends.  Who would be with the abject beauty just a 60 mile drive away!

The Lake District of Italy reminded me of my own childhood, and the trips my Mom and Dad took me on up to the Finger Lakes, in central New York State.  The story the Seneca Indians told was that the five lakes were formed by the hand of God when he pressed on the earth.

When we rode in the car to get the Finger Lakes, it seemed to take forever.  On my bike from Milan it also seemed to take forever too.  I guess some things don't change.  My Dad would always give the first one of us to see the lake a nickel.  Today we came upon the lake in full force, it was amazingly beautiful:

We got to ride along Lago Maggiore for a good hour or so.  We then came upon the town of Laveno.  We had lunch at a great little cafe right on the water.  In fact, there were steps down to the water's edge, so after ordering we both took our shoes off and went down to cool our hot feet in the lake!

When it was time to get on our bikes again, we noticed that the ferry was pulling into town.  We did a quick check on the map, and decided to take the ferry and go a slightly different route.  The ride on the boat was great.  We ran into a British couple who were also riding their bike. But theirs was motorized! Here our our bikes on the ferry:

We hiked for a few more hours, and eventually came to the border of Switzerland.  True to form in Europe, no passports, really nothing.  Just a sign saying Italy was finished!

From there we had about 20 miles to go.  I must admit, I thought I was in good shape, but those were 20 long miles.  Along the way I had a laugh when a hitchhiker asked if I could give him a ride!

And of course if you are 21, you have to do the selfie thing!

We finally arrived in Bellinzona, weary but happy to be done with our first day.  We got dinner, and now are completely surrounded by mountains.

Guess what tomorrow brings???

And here is the climb we are doing tomorrow:

Just joking.  But we will be doing a lot of climbing tomorrow!