My name is Michael and I am a recovering planner!
5 years of engineering school and 20 years as a practicing Engineer and project manager have left a mark on me.
I am used to planning things out in gory detail in order to make things work out successfully. I used to (and still) subscribe to the seven P’s ………..Proper Planning and Preparation Prevent Piss Poor Performance.
I also know from practicing Tai Chi for over eight years that for every Ying there is an equal and opposite Yang. One is no better than the other- they just only define each other.
Yvonne and I were so busy over the past 6 months planning and preparing for our latest adventure we did not have a chance to really prepare for the details of how to get from Calais France to Lucca Tuscany in Italy.
We just let it happen……. Yvonne is a big believer in going with the flow……….
We do have a master plan – for each of us to visit at least 100 countries before we leave this earth.
Sometimes having a plan gets in the way! I was told before departing to Europe that Lake Como, Italy was a must see. Therefore we added it to our itinerary and researched a cute little guest house, complete with lake views to stay in.
We departed Saarbrucken Germany at 10 AM with Como lake as a target. 6 hours of driving to our chosen destination, with fingers crossed that they were not fully booked when we got there.
Upon arrival at our GPS navigated destination we realized that the map indeed was not the territory and there was no lake or parking in site just the discombobulation of Friday afternoon traffic chaos and no target hotel in sight. Just a scuzzy street, with shady characters hanging around. Yvonne’s spidy sense said no way, so onwards it was despite now being past 5pm!
After dealing with chaotic Italian traffic for another three hours and observing Vespa’s (motorbikes) being implanted to car grills we finally arrive in Lecco on the other arm of Lake Como. The GPS or Sat Nav! Did come in useful and pointed us in the right direction of local hotels we ended up in a nice hotel on the lake front, with a lake view room!
The weekend was mostly a wash out ,no dramatic sun drenched views for us…….. we took the opportunity to collect ourselves, feed on Pizza and red wine before pushing on to our house sit in Lucca, Tuscany.
Rainy, wet days are really good for catching up on sleep and getting used to that crazy Italian driving!
Michael
