Strolling In And Around My Head

The Villa del Balbianello was built for a Cardinal Angelo Maria Durini in the 18th century and now they rent out the villa. Three famous movies were filmed here.    Casino Royal - James Bond recovery scene    A Month by the Lake - with Vanessa Redgrave and Uma Thurman    Star Wars Two - wedding scene  We stopped in the small town of Bellagio and had what else, lasagna. Notice the hydrofoil pulling into Bellagio from Como. Trip time is about 40 to 45 minutes on the hydrofoil.  Orrido di Nesso - is a little village placed between the eastern shore of the lake, between Como and Bellagio. Medieval bridge with waterfall in the back.  Small town on the side of the lake. I think this is the town of Argegno.  Varenna, Italy has been a town since the Iron Age Old fishing village.  Deepest lake in Italy. One of the highest mountains in Italy. 🇮🇹  This Villa rents for $7,000 per hour.  Our guides favorite villa.

Rain rain go away. Stormed in the morning.   We are in Italy 🇮🇹. !!!  Beautiful small streets the Roman's designed . Tam in front of a church.  Every Italian speaks English with an A at the end of every sentence-a.  Cars are not allowed in the walking area of Como, unless you have a car. Something like that.  Marketplace road. High fashion is the name of the game in Como. Basilica di San Fedele Church is the main church in Como.  Front door of church.  Lake Como from Como City Small home on the water. Just below the Hilton. Free to walk the grounds.  Cassa Perrotta Restaurant. For the Foodies in the house.

Stopped at a gas station and this was in the back.  The walk turned into  Tunnel and this was the view. Still at the bathroom break. Stopped for quick break.   Castlegrande - Medieval castle dating back to the 13th century. Anyone passing had to pay toll. Just 60 miles from Milan.  Looking down on the city.  Castle Grande looking to the passover the city. 

Mechanical Foundation  in the middle of Basal.   We started in Amsterdam and the river cruise ended in Basel. We are now off to Lake Como Italy. From river to lake life is an easy move.  I am sitting on the top of our river cruise ship with only the crew, they are waiting for me to ask for something. I am not as comfortable as I would like to be. Black Forest in the background. Minster Church Switzerland,  Germany,  France on the Rhine  The doors are small. The people averaged 5 feet tall 500 years ago. 

Hotel, restaurant and hotel on the right. Watch tower that is now part of a school. Canals built by Nepolian   Tam and our tour guide. Bob and Tam. Built as a Catholic Church but, became a Protestant church.  Notre-Dame. took 400 years to build. 

Ludwigshafen is a large industrial city.. During WWII, thirteen thousand Allied bombers hit the city in 121 separate raids during the war, of which 56 succeeded in hitting the IG Farben plant. Those 56 raids dropped 53,000 bombs each containing 250 to 4,000 pounds of high explosives, plus 2.5 million 4-pound magnesium incendiary bombs (the bombers also dropped millions of leaflets warning the civilians to evacuate the city, plus counterfeit ration coupons). By December 1944, so much damage had been done to vital utilities that output dropped to nearly zero. Follow-up raids every week ended production permanently. By war's end most dwellings were destroyed or damaged.  I have no idea.  In this town I went to the toilet. They were marked D and M. I had to wait for someone to come out before I went in. Heading to Ladenburg, Germany 🇩🇪.  I kept telling our guide that I needed to stop for "pictures". It was a long trip on a bike.