Koningsdag on the Amstel

There are several eccentric things one can do in her life.

Visiting the Roman museum in Dublin; trying to go clubbing in sleepy Bonn on a weekday; looking for a slice of pizza in Casablanca; go walking along traffic-jammed Rue the la Loi to get the feeling of Brussels; bringing your hairdrier at the Ngoro Ngoro campground; paying a Bedouin with credit card in the desert around Petra.

But age brings the wisdom - or mainstream-ness - and one may happen to end up doing also normal stuff, such as going back to Holland on the most Dutch of the days, Koningsdag, riding a bike for 20 km along the Amstel, finishing with a picture of a windmill and a slice of appelgebak.

And yet, why  would one be too normal or too obvious. Why not getting a fine for speeding (by some extra 9 km) on an empty 5 lane-highway where the silly speed limit is set at 100 as a compromise with the environmentalist party?

Time for lakes

There are times when you hit the road and set off for 3 or 4 thousand km. 

The destination does not matter too much. And the memories you like to keep are journey events, not monuments or places: a mountain pass closed to traffic in the middle of night, missing an awaited call while making it through the Gotthard tunnel, mixing up city names on the GPS and ending up going around the Zurich lake for an hour, discovering that in Luxembourg a bottle of water costs 25 cents.

Besides, all in all, it was a ride from lake to lake: Zurich, Lucerne and Como, all the way down to Monticchio. 

Rich, beautiful, famous Como lake, mentioned in literary masterpieces, surrounded by the stunning Alps, home of celebrities and source of wonderful photos.

 

But Monticchio, what's that? Just a low profile, uncared, unknown volcanic lake in the deep south, home and source of some of the best (and yet ignored) mineral waters around.

Possibly another of those symbols of a land not believing its own promises.