There’s only 1 Lake Como. Plus Zeppelins, plus F-18’s!

[offshore171]

Wrapping up the last couple of days of the Lake Como portion of the trip, we visit Varenna and Menaggio for lunches.

One morning towards the end of the week, we notice the first dusting of winter snow has appeared overnight on the peaks around the lake.

Then there’s some more exploring the back streets of Bellagio and we have a couple of great evening meals.

One of these is at La Punta. La Punta | Fantastic Food | Top location | Panoramic views

This place is right on the tip of Bellagio where the lake divides in two. It’s a spectacular location and the meal is accompanied by a wonderful bottle of Barolo. Northern Italian wines are some of the best in the world.

Final evening at Lake Como is at one of the waterfront restaurants in Bellagio, watching the sunset, along with all of the comings and goings of the ferries
on the lake.


The colours in the sky and on the water keep changing while the sunset lingers on and on.


Tomorrow morning it would be an early start as we head up into Switzerland.

Still forecasting rain for the Zeppelin flight in 5 days time.

 

[offshore171]

Big travel day today. Leaving the Serbelloni around 7am for the ferry to Varenna.

Wander up to the Varenna train station and have a surprisingly good breakfast at the cafe in the station, then it’s the train to Milano Centrale.

Then 3 more trains:


This gets us into our next part of the trip, Grindelwald.

 

[offshore171]

Our accomodation in Grindelwald was a small and typical alpine hotel called the Hotel Tschuggen, well positioned in the centre of the village about a 3 minute walk from the station.

The room has its own private outdoor deck, with something of a view of the Eiger.



What I wasn't expecting is that the town was exceptionally busy. It's the end of the 'summer' season and well before ski season. And where Lake Como was full of mainly American and German tourists, here it was almost entirely tour groups from mainland China.

Our plan is to visit the Grindelwald First area, up the top of the mountain and accessed by a Gondola. On offer is a suspended cliff walk, downhill go karts, and a range of reasonably extreme zipline activities.

Grindelwald First – Top of Adventure | jungfrau.ch

Grindelwald First: In the summer, it's a hotspot for adventure with the First Flyer, mountain cart and trottibike scooter. In winter, it's a Mecca for freestylers and snowboarders.

www.jungfrau.ch

As we've arrived in the afternoon, we walk around the village and have an early dinner at a restaurant with a great view. Then something odd happened, I've not experienced this before.

The restaurant was pretty much full, then a huge group of tourists basically stormed the place, occupying every inch of standing space between the tables..

I couldn't work out what they were doing at first. They weren't customers of the restaurant, but then I noticed they were bristling with cameras and selfie sticks. They were using the restaurant to get photos of the view.

It was a bit boorish to be honest and some of the diners were pretty unhappy about it, but they all left after 5 minutes or so.

 

[offshore171]

Next morning, the Eiger has disappeared.


Pouring rain means we won't be going up top today. So we head to the excellent public swimming pool complex in the Village and have an otherwise quiet day.

Forecast for tomorrow is good. More importantly, the forecast for the upcoming Sunday, when our Zeppelin flight is scheduled, is now improving.

 

[offshore171]

Next morning the weather has cleared so we’re back in business.

We walk about 5 mins to the Grindelwald First base station and get the tickets for the gondola, plus the mountain karts and the Glider.



The glider is a genuinely scary experience. You are slung underneath it in the hang glider position and suspended from a cable that extends up a steep gradient.

They then send you up the hill - backwards - at 75kph, and at some points more than 100feet above the terrain.

After locking in at the top, you are released and go hurtling back down at over 80kph.

It’s very intense.

 

[offshore171]

Still up at the Grindelwald First area, we roamed around a bit, did the cliff walk, mountain karts and general sightseeing.

A great day on the mountain.

 

[offshore171]

Next morning we leave Grindelwald for the trip to Friedrichshafen.

It’s another cracking day. Waiting at the station in Grindelwald, I notice two vapour trails in the sky moving very fast and way too close together to be commercial.

Next they both start some pretty crazy manoeuvres. They are F18s doing some sort of exercise. Then a third one joins in, and they put on quite a show.

I managed to get a photo from the train.


Now it’s a big travel day. Train down the mountain to Interlaken, then two more trains and finally a ferry across Lake Constance. This leaves from Romanshorn on the Swiss side and arrives at Friedrichshafen on the German side.

 

[offshore171]

Arrival into Friedrichshafen



After checking in to the hotel, we go for a stroll along the promenade. It’s busy and the restaurants are in full swing.


This gets us to a large Bauhaus style building which houses the Zeppelin Museum.

In we go...

 

[VPS]

Stunning photos

 

[rginoz]

Great photos and scenery, offshore171. We spent a week a few years ago cycling all the way around Lake Constance (Bodensee), which must be one of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine River. Very enjoyable (and nice and flat for an infrequent cyclist!). Thank you for your TR so far; I'm very much looking forward to the future posts.

 

[offshore171]

Great photos and scenery, offshore171. We spent a week a few years ago cycling all the way around Lake Constance (Bodensee), which must be one of the most beautiful parts of the Rhine River. Very enjoyable (and nice and flat for an infrequent cyclist!). Thank you for your TR so far; I'm very much looking forward to the future posts.

Yes the cycle routes are excellent around the lake and mostly well signposted. They were being well used during our visit.

A bike circumnavigation of the lake is definitely on the radar for a future trip.

 

[offshore171]

Friedrichshafen was the home of the Zeppelin industry from around the turn of the 20th century. They were built there and tested out over the lake.

The Zeppelin museum serves to document this history, and doesn’t gloss over the fact that the Zeppelin industry was taken over and nationalised by unsavoury forces in the lead up to WW2.

Prior to this though, It was an exciting and experimental era in the early days of aviation.

Probably the highlight of the museum is the full scale reproduction of the passenger deck of the Hindenburg. Visitors enter via a ladder and walk through the main lounge areas of the famous airship, as well as the passenger cabins.

It’s all done in that Bauhaus style of the era.

This is how passengers spent their days crossing the Atlantic, or flying to South America.



An example of a passenger cabin.



There’s also a hall of interactive science exhibits for kids, with a focus on aerodynamics.

 

[offshore171]

Afterwards, we stop for dinner on the lakefront promenade, and a modern day Zeppelin flies past.

 

[offshore171]

Next day we visit the historic nearby city of Ravensburg, about 15 mins away by train.

Probably best known for the Ravensburger brand of toys, games, and puzzles, it’s also an extremely well preserved mediaeval town, as it wasn’t bombed during the war due to it having no strategic value. (Unlike Friedrichshafen which was heavily targeted)

Today it was farmers market day, with various fresh food stands set up in the town squares and laneways.





Dinner is back at the Friedrichshafen waterfront. Another Zeppelin sighting.

Tomorrow is our Zeppelin flight and the weather forecast is now looking near perfect.

 

[offshore171]

The day of the Zeppelin flight has arrived and the weather gods are smiling.

Broadly.





Time to head out to the airfield...

 

[rginoz]

I hope it's a great flight. Looking forward to reading all about it!

 

[offshore171]

Friedrichshafen has a small international airport about 10 mins outside town. The Zeppelin base is at the opposite side of the airfield to the airline terminal.

Passports are required for check in, and you must be there at least 60 mins prior.

Check in desk:



Ticket/BP

 

[offshore171]

Once checked in, you move into a lounge area which has a well equipped restaurant, plus an outdoor observation area.



Seasonal specials from the menu:



About 30 mins prior to the flight you are called to the departure gate, where you go into a room for a safety briefing. As the only non German speakers on our flight, we received a separate English safety briefing.

 

[offshore171]

Some specifications:

It‘s 75 m long (longer than a Falcon Heavy rocket)

Hull volume is over 8000 m^3, or about 3 Olympic swimming pools.

A useful number: One cubic metre of helium gas has a lifting capacity of about 1kg, so it has about 8 tonnes lift in total.

If that sounds large, the Hindenburg was 200,000 m^3 in volume...

 

[LadyC]

Some great photos - a few more places to add to the bucklet list. I look forward to reading more about your zeppelin ride!