Stresa on the banks of Lake Maggiore, Comar to our Stresa Hotel

After a leisurely breakfast we wandered across to catch the train for our onward journey to Stresa. The railway station at Colmar has a large stained glass window in each gable end. These date back to 1991 as the originals were destroyed in an explosion in 1944

Unfortunately we couldn’t travel all the way to Stresa by train due to engineering work on the line so we had to take a coach from Domodossola for the remaining part of the journey. Like in the UK there was a replacement bus service laid on, but GRJ chartered a private coach to take us directly to our hotel. We managed a few photos from the train as we sped along.

Our hotel for the week was the Grand Hotel Bristol which we found very comfortableIts quite a rambling old building but still quite plush with 5 floors. Their main trade seems to be coach holidays although there were a couple of corporate events going on while we were there. It is situated right on the lake front but you have to cross quite a busy road to get there.The hotel even looked nice at night when lit up.

Like most of the hotels along the sea front it  has a fountain out front, but not as smart as the one at The Grand Hotel Des Les Borromees  next door

Our hotel’s fountain

Next door’s fountain

We also had an indoor swimming pool, This was at the end of a very long sloping corridor, but to save walking they had a Horizontal “lift” a real weird sensation going from the foyer  to a large vestibule with the pool and more rooms running off it. Above the vestibule was a large stained glass ceiling dome to let light in and a similar but slightly smaller one in the foyer.

      The hotel also had a large outside swimming pool with solar heating, Diana enjoyed it but I gave it a miss.

Our bedroom was on the third floor and was served by two lifts which was handy, we were at the side so not overlooking the lake, not important as we wouldn’t be spending all day in our room looking out of the window, but we did have a view of the end of the swimming pool. The room was quite roomy and very quiet with a balcony and an ensuite bathroom toilet. Needless to say I was in trouble for taking the photo when the bed was a mess.

Other than Breakfast and a couple of included evening dinners we didn’t use the hotel much but we did have coffee in the terrace.

 

The hotel next door, The Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees I think was a 5 star establishment and was a bit grander, Behind the fountain  was a kind of grotto which was illuminated at night, not only that, it had a set of clarions that played on the hour. The windows all had flowering window boxes and it all looked a bit grander, however the main entrance seemed to be tucked round the back.