Day 26: 22 July 2010

Today was by far our craziest day yet, and quite possibly the most stressful travel day we’ve ever had.  Woke up to the usual beautiful sunshine in Montegalda and knew the dreaded day was here.  As it was, neither of us wanted to leave Italy or the comfort of Lisa & Benson’s house in a country that we’ve fallen in love with for the past three weeks.  But like all good things, we knew our time here had to come to an end.  Even with a week here, we still didn’t have enough time to do everything we wanted to do.  We barely scratched the surface in Venice, we didn’t make it to downtown Vicenza, and we hardly spent much time in the relaxing town of Montegalda.  Of course that means we’ll just have to come back.

We spent the morning packing our bags, doing last minute checks online for the week ahead, and drove to the town center to pick up some food at the unbelievably cheap grocery store and quaint bakery.  Upon checking the weather in Gimmelwald, we were getting reports of rain all day tomorrow and temperatures of less than 18 degrees Celsius.  All morning we debated whether to drive to cold, rainy Switzerland today or to just eat the hotel fee and relax in the sunshine at Lisa & Benson’s for one more night.  In reality, I think we were really just putting off our inevitable departure. 

We finally hit the road around 2pm for what was suppose to be a 5hr. drive, 6 tops. We made a pit stop at the mall in Vicenza, and finally got on the A4 around 3pm.  We knew going into the drive that we needed to check in at Pension Gimmelwald by 10pm, and that meant making sure we could get a cable car to the top.  We hit a little traffic in Milan, but otherwise made decent time to the Swiss border probably by 6pm. Driving past Lugano, we were reminded of how much we loved Switzerland and this same drive on our last visit in April 2009.  Even in the light rain and fog, the mountains still looked beautiful. 

It wasn’t until about an hour and half out that everything went downhill.  As we neared St. Gottard’s Tunnel, we hit a ton of traffic and started crawling at a snail’s pace.  We watched the GPS as our arrival time got later and later, and finally decided to get off around 7:45pm at a rest area after about 40min.  When we inquired about the traffic, we were told that the Saint Gothard Tunnel (a major 17 KM tunnel through a mountain pass) had been closed and part of the road to Lucern had been shut down due to a fallen tree on the road from some severe thunderstorms in the area, and that it could take one hour and fifteen minutes to get through.  We started to panic as we did the math, and got even more frustrated when we had no choice but to eat the expensive cafeteria food and wait out some of the traffic here.

Back on the highway at 8:15pm, we moved a bit faster and discovered part of the hold up.  There are timed traffic lights heading into the 17km St. Gottard’s Tunnel so that in case of traffic, people are not stuck in the tunnel for hours on end.  Once we got to the tunnel, traffic moved fine, and we arrived at our exit towards Interlaken a little before nine.  Assuming we were home free, I called Pension Gimmelwald, explained our situation, and told them we would try our very best to make it tonight.  I was pretty sure as I hung up that the kind lady on the phone said she could leave our key for Room 1.  We were a little relieved knowing that we would almost definitely make it in time. 

The next hour and half were some of the most terrifying minutes we’ve ever had.   What we didn’t realize was that the GPS was sending up on the Sustenpass, a windy mountain pass toward Interlaken.  Even the AAA map made the road look like a fairly big highway.  They couldn’t have been more wrong.  What would have been a beautiful drive on a clear day was a horror ride.  The first 17km were by far the worst.  The entire way we were surrounded by waterfalls and rock ledges to the right, and steep cliffs to the left. With darkness approaching and the fog getting thicker and thicker, the road was barely visible more than a few feet in front of us.  The car temperature dropped to 10 degrees Celsius (Down from 35 Celsius in Milan), and we saw occasional lightening bolts as the rain started to fall.  We passed several gates that were still open signaling that if the road was indeed bad, we would not be allowed on it.  I can’t imagine what it would take to close this road because what we drove on tonight should have been impassible.   Unfortunately, there was not a good place to turn around, so we followed the white median strip at a tortoise’s pace.  I can’t even begin to describe how terrified I was at times.  All I could imagine was that the road would become impassible and we would have to spend a night here or that we would get caught in a mud or rock slide.  Somehow Joe kept his cool and kept on going.  After driving through several creepy/rocky tunnels (some with roadwork tools along the sides), we reached what looked like a hotel or village after 17km only to find out that we had 28km more to go on the same road.  This time, the road was winding down and although the fog lightened up as we dropped elevation, the rain picked up heavier.  We passed a few small towns and a doe (a deer…a female deer) on the side of the road, and finally made it to a more civilized area in what must be the valley.  By this time, it was easily 10:30pm, and when I called the hotel, I got no answer.

We arrived in Interlaken a little before 11pm.  While we were glad to be out of the mountains, we didn’t have the slightest idea of how to get to Lauterbrunnen, and we were cutting it very close to the last cable car to Gimmelwald at 11:45pm.   Asked a taxi driver for directions, but his broken English wasn’t much help.  Somehow our crazy GPS managed to find its way.

After nine and half hours in the car, we found our way to the Schilthornbahn cable car station with 15min. to spare.  At this point, we weren’t even sure if we should go up because if we went up and couldn’t get into the main entrance of the hotel, we would be stuck outside for the night in cold temperatures.  We finally found someone working and he offered to call the Pension.  As we suspected, there was no answer.  The gentleman must have sensed our distress at this point (and noticed how ridiculous we looked in shorts and short sleeved shirts) because he told us we could take the last car up, check to see if the Pension was open, and then ride back down the lift with his friend who works the lift if we couldn’t get in. It was not a scheduled time, but a lift just to move the lift workers from the top of the lift to the base so they could get home.  We agreed to give it a try.  Somehow we came across all the right people tonight.  Liesi, who used to own Pension Gimmelwald before starting her own place, assured us that we should be able to get in, and that we could stay at her place if not.  She helped me carry my suitcase up the path to meet up with Joe who had run ahead to see if we could get in.  To our surprise, the door was open, and we found a note for us saying that Room 1 was waiting for us upstairs, key and all at midnight.  Can’t even begin to describe the feeling of relief and shock that we actually made it here, just in the knick of time.  Although we had a horrible drive here, we’re hoping the town will be just as lovely as the people we’ve met so far.  In the meantime, I know we’ll sleep well tonight!