The Road to Munich

The mountain range we were trying to get over



Kailani being a trooper with all the driving, after we were "out of the woods" and well on our way to Munich.



15 April 2008: We woke-up at Lake Como to some fresh snow dusting at the top of the mountains. The rain from the night before subsided and it was absolutely beautiful. I’m sure this place is as awesome to visit as the scenery suggests, but it was still bone-chilling cold when the wind blew and another weather pattern could blow in quickly. So, we put this place on our “must see next time for at least a week” list and moved on, with still one last hope to make it to Munich by nighttime to see our friend, Rory. It was noon at the latest and I figured it would take 5-6 hours to get to Munich. So, even if we stopped along the way and didn’t arrive until the show started at 20:00 (8pm), there as a chance we could still see No Use for a Name play after the opening band(s). We set the GPS and headed off, still stunned by the beauty of the area.

As we headed up a hill, I noticed the GPS couldn’t pick up where we were. It does this temporarily sometimes, and did this a few times on the way in. We started switchbacking back and forth, and back and forth, up a hill. Still, the GPS wasn’t picking up where we were. Looking back at it, I’m sure it was the mountains in the way of the satellite signals. Finally, we headed toward a tunnel (Remember, there are lots in the hilly parts of Italy!) that was 2.6 meters high. Our camper is 2.85 meters high. OK, that wasn’t going to work!!! So, we had to turn around and head back down. Of course, the GPS started picking up signals now that we were facing the other way down the mountain AND it kept telling us to turn around!

We stopped for lunch at a cafeteria on the way down, where it appeared a lot of people eat on the way to/from one of the snow mountains close by. We weren’t hungry, but we didn’t want to make the same mistake as on the way there. Most places close in the middle of the afternoon, which is when we usually get hungry for lunch. We checked the map for some alternative routes and headed toward one that looked like it went straight through a valley with no snow near it. This looked promising until we started going through the longest tunnel ever, about 10 kilometers (most others in the area were about 2-3 kms.). When we got out, there was a big mountain in our way. Luckily, there were no more tunnels too small for us, but all the passes at the top of this mountain were all closed. I believe I saw some signs going towards the ski areas that had “2000 Olympic” signs, and the town below was Tirano. So, would this be the area where the “2000 Torino Olympic” games were held? I was half tempted to suggest we get a room and stay and snowboard for a day or two, but Sean looked like he was on a mission to get out before a big snow storm locked us in. After suggesting that he stop and ask for directions about 10 times, we finally found an alternative route.

Try number 3 finally worked! But still, there were two other passes we needed to get over. One was more like a 1 ½ lane road and the second was so high that deep powder and chair lifts were aside us. By then, it was late afternoon/early evening and I suggested we stop. But, Sean was so sketched out about the snow that he wanted to get off the mountain first.

When we were out of the snow area, it started getting dark and we were obviously not going to make it to Munich any time soon. I opened the campground books and found a place close by. It was not only “just” a campground, but a 4 star campground with wellness spa and all! Wouldn’t that be nice after our day of endless driving, getting lost, unshowered and all! The place not only ended up being closed for the season (the end of the snow season), it CLOSED THAT DAY! We used their parking lot to eat dinner and headed a block down where I spotted the bright green blaring lights of a Holiday Inn sign. Normally, I would probably choose to stay at a locally-owned hotel with character rather than an American chain hotel, but this place was looking pretty nice, crisp and clean at this point. We were dreaming of a shower and a good bed. Well, the place was so crisp and clean because it was newly built. And, it was SO new that it wasn’t even OPEN yet! Strike #2!

The next place I could find was completely out of the Alps and off the autostrada. It wasn’t a campground OR a hotel, it was merely a parking lot in a shopping center that campers were allowed to stay at. Whatever! We didn’t care at this point. By then, Kai was asleep for the night in her car seat, and we just needed to crawl up to the bunk and do the same. Luckily, they usually post plenty of signs towards campgrounds and camperstops, so we were pointed the right way. Unfortunately, the spot where the shopping center SHOULD have been was a fenced off construction zone. Yes, strike #3! So, we just found the next parking we could and slept “upstairs” feeling like stowaways for the night.