A Week in Lake Garda

Post date: 13-Oct-2009 17:07:41

After travelling by train in first class and then changing to second class for a short 90 min journey (to save money), I witnessed first hand why you do not go back. (Our rail passes are good for 5 train trips, but we are taking 6 trips and this was our shortest journey so we didn't use the pass.) It was a rougher ride, it smelled, the windows opened but that did not help the smell. The seat of the toilet had dried puke all over the rim. There is no space for luggage, the seats are not as comfy and the coach looks like it has not been cleaned even once this year. Also, there is no drink service. Therefore, lesson learned. Don't travel second class by train. First class is always worth the money and is way cheaper than upgrading to first class on a plane.

Lake Garda is like Sylvan Lake but larger, with better food and a much warmer Lake (20 C). There are many amusement parks including Gardaland and Movieland. There is also a water park. The local bus service is a coach bus that had really comfy seats. We arrived in time to attend the Wine Festival in Lake Garda. People wander around in groups with wine glasses strung around their necks in little pouches. Most people receive an entire bottle of wine which they drink themselves or share with a group of friends. The host couple that Colin and I stayed with, Samantha and Tiziano (met them through homeexchange.com) took us out the first night to the wine festival. We met their friends and enjoyed many nice wines.

Samantha and Tiziano each have a bike so we biked to the Vino Museum one day. We thought it would be nice and fast to have the bikes for getting around and it was. However, I haven't biked in over a year when I was in Washington for work 2 summers ago. Colin also hasn't biked since he went with me years ago. It took us 20 minutes of huffing and puffing all up hill to get to the wine museum. Colin was doing just fine speeding up the hill but I had ran for an hour the day before so my leg muscles were killing me. I am also out of shape when it comes to biking. The bike ride down from the wine museum only took 5 minutes because it was all down hill. It was free to visit the wine museum and we had many free samples. That is my kind of touring. We bought a 4 euro bottle of Bardolino (a type of red wine that is produced in the Bardolino region where we are staying). There were also bottles of wine for 2.00 euro and even 35-50 euro too.

Samantha and Tiziano own their own business and work very hard designing sets for exhibits. For example, they would design sets for the home show etc that we have in Edmonton. They live in a very nice ground floor condo with an outdoor pool about 2 minutes up hill from the Lake. From their backyard, you can view green and black olive trees in an orchard. The trees are harvested for making Olive oil. The home is a very important place for people in Italy and opening up your house to other people is a fairly new concept to them, so we were very lucky to stay with them. They both have great and similar personalities to us so we were instant friends. However, it took their cat Lello a bit longer to warm up to the two strangers invading his house.

While it was snowing in Edmonton, we enjoyed many days biking to our favourite beaches, swimming, and for me running around the Lake at Sunset. It was sunny almost everyday and 20-25 C. I received quite a few strange looks from locals when I was swimming for hours in the Lake because they are wearing jackets and jeans while I am in shorts and a swimsuit. It's also off season for swimming in the Lake. However, as a Canadian, I could swim in the lake all year.

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