Switzerland, France and many many many more hours in the car....
After our relaxing week in tuscany, we felt suitably recharged to start the looooonnnnggg journey back home. This time I had planned a 3 day stopover in the Swiss alps. The trip back from tuscany to Switzerland was not too unreasonable, a 6-7 hour car trip and this time we stopped for a break at one of the other picturesque italian lakes - Lake Maggiorri. Just as stunning as Lake Como.
From there it was a quick trip through to the Valais region in the Swiss Alps. As we passed through the multiple italian toll booths, hubby took every opportunity to yell ARRIVEDERCI to the automated toll machines in a perfect italian accent, soon joined by a chorus of 3 girls. And soon it was goodbye Italy, hello Switzerland!
The road up to the small mountain village where we were staying was as could be expected- windy and mountainous. The GPS on this one occasion did not quite perform its job and took us up a crazy narrow pseudo-street which was apparently two way, but mostly gave me vertigo from worrying about falling off the side of the mountain. We stayed in a lovely apartment nicknamed TinTin for its very tasteful comic book decor.
The views from the windows were unparalleled. I am not particularly good with heights so looking down to the steep mountainous drop directly below was disconcerting... One morning we looked out to see 4 or 5 young deer playing in one of the other chalets gardens. Priceless experience to see for the kids.
Switzerland, we soon discovered was not called the most expensive city in Europe for nothing. The night we arrived, we went to the local ski field restaurant and re-evaluated how much we really "needed" to eat when we found a basic pizza had suddenly gone from 4 euro in Italy to 17 euro just across the border! Thinking that maybe the remote ski settlements were probably more pricey than the rest of the country, we were sadly mistaken and found prices extremely high everywhere we went in Switzerland. However, the upside of this was that the food was delicious. We had our best pizza and best risotto here, slightly ironic having just come from italy. The highlight was the local specialty - a strawberry risotto. Admittedly, it looked less than delectable when it arrived, a kind of pale pink slop on a plate, but it was beautiful! Highly recommend trying it if you are ever there.
The swiss also seemed to be a happier bunch. The country felt clean, green and thriving. There was a general air of order and calm. The swiss might also be a bit pedantic, I suspect. The steep wild grass edges of the road leading up the mountains, were mowed on a regular basis???!!! Who does this???
I hadn't taken too much notice of the exact region that I had booked accommodation but was delighted that we were staying in the french speaking region rather than the german speaking. We spent a couple of days exploring the local city of Sion, eating lovely food, and using the free local bikes (ok this was cheaper than italy). Also parking was cheap, as with all of europe so far- 1-2 euro per hour downtown puts the $17-24/hour that downtown Brisbane charges to shame.
On our final day, we took a miniature train trip round the surrounding countryside. I was surprised to see that Switzerland was such a breadbasket. Acres of apricot, apple and pear orchards and cherry farms had us salivating in no time. The hills were lined with vineyards planted on precipitous slopes. The train took us to a local organic farm which had an honesty box shop where we bought local organic apricots, raspberries, broccolli and apples. Delicious!
The measly 1 hour trip home from Lille felt like a walk in the park and it was nice to finely get home and our own beds.
And that, my dear friends, was our summer adventure.
Things I learnt:
1) the GPS is always right, except when it is wrong, but you won't know this till it's too late. It is best not to abuse it though... You may need it when Google and route maps have left you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
2) my kids have now been broken in to car trips- we could drive from one side of Belgium to the other and back again without a single complaint. (Ok I admit, Belgium is a rather small country really, but seriously , the chorus of "I'm booorrrreeed used to start after about 20 minutes).
3) Take containers with lids for car trips.
4) Italy may be my favourite, or maybe it is Switzerland now. I can't decide. But Paris still holds my heart...
From there it was a quick trip through to the Valais region in the Swiss Alps. As we passed through the multiple italian toll booths, hubby took every opportunity to yell ARRIVEDERCI to the automated toll machines in a perfect italian accent, soon joined by a chorus of 3 girls. And soon it was goodbye Italy, hello Switzerland! |
The road up to the small mountain village where we were staying was as could be expected- windy and mountainous. The GPS on this one occasion did not quite perform its job and took us up a crazy narrow pseudo-street which was apparently two way, but mostly gave me vertigo from worrying about falling off the side of the mountain. We stayed in a lovely apartment nicknamed TinTin for its very tasteful comic book decor.
The views from the windows were unparalleled. I am not particularly good with heights so looking down to the steep mountainous drop directly below was disconcerting... One morning we looked out to see 4 or 5 young deer playing in one of the other chalets gardens. Priceless experience to see for the kids.
Switzerland, we soon discovered was not called the most expensive city in Europe for nothing. The night we arrived, we went to the local ski field restaurant and re-evaluated how much we really "needed" to eat when we found a basic pizza had suddenly gone from 4 euro in Italy to 17 euro just across the border! Thinking that maybe the remote ski settlements were probably more pricey than the rest of the country, we were sadly mistaken and found prices extremely high everywhere we went in Switzerland. However, the upside of this was that the food was delicious. We had our best pizza and best risotto here, slightly ironic having just come from italy. The highlight was the local specialty - a strawberry risotto. Admittedly, it looked less than delectable when it arrived, a kind of pale pink slop on a plate, but it was beautiful! Highly recommend trying it if you are ever there.
The swiss also seemed to be a happier bunch. The country felt clean, green and thriving. There was a general air of order and calm. The swiss might also be a bit pedantic, I suspect. The steep wild grass edges of the road leading up the mountains, were mowed on a regular basis???!!! Who does this???
I hadn't taken too much notice of the exact region that I had booked accommodation but was delighted that we were staying in the french speaking region rather than the german speaking. We spent a couple of days exploring the local city of Sion, eating lovely food, and using the free local bikes (ok this was cheaper than italy). Also parking was cheap, as with all of europe so far- 1-2 euro per hour downtown puts the $17-24/hour that downtown Brisbane charges to shame.
On our final day, we took a miniature train trip round the surrounding countryside. I was surprised to see that Switzerland was such a breadbasket. Acres of apricot, apple and pear orchards and cherry farms had us salivating in no time. The hills were lined with vineyards planted on precipitous slopes. The train took us to a local organic farm which had an honesty box shop where we bought local organic apricots, raspberries, broccolli and apples. Delicious!
On our final day, we left bright and early but with the small problem of 2 out of 4 children vomiting... Luckily I had brought vomit buckets with us with lids (great tip from another travel website). Our Google maps instructions (which I had printed out from start to finish) estimated a travel time of 7.5 hours. Quite doable for the almost final leg. We get in the car, turn on the GPS, put in the destination, and look at each other in horror- estimated travel time = 11 hours!!! 11 hours - how can this be?!! Especially with the possibility of much vomit along the way.... Hearts heavy, we set off, hoping that just this once, the GPS is wrong. We make good progress until we come to the Swiss-French border, then things get a bit hairy. The GPS and my Google maps are trying to take us in opposite directions. We decide to follow Mr Google with the help of my European road map. Immediately 1 hour gets shaved off the GPS travel time- good choice! But we soon end up off the main roads and no longer have any route maps to refer to. Mr Google and GPS are still arguing between themselves and we are still attempting to follow the rather ambiguous Google instructions, until we come to a roundabout in the middle of nowhere and the road that Google wants to take us down has been closed off. Google -0, GPS-1. We wander around a bit more in the wilderness until we stumble across signs pointing to McDonalds and eagerly follow the signs to this haven of wifi internet. More directions were downloaded as we refueled and we set off again, this time with 3 sets of conflicting directions. Finally we stumble upon the main autoroute and we get on with hightailing it up to Lille. The rest of the 10 hour and 45 minutes journey was relatively uneventful, and the consumption of all those transfats, and additives appeared to have cured the upset tummies. Our trip up the middle of france was probably less scenic than the trip down, or I may just have been more fatigued. One difference, we did not see any IKEAs on the journey home whereas there was an IKEA every few 100kms on the way down. We probably counted about 15!
Arriving in Lille, we were meeting an old friend for dinner. We hastily found the apartment and the parking garage that I had booked, and promptly almost got stuck again as our car with the luggage pod was too high for the garage. A few scrapes and some lights almost taken out and we made it in. We had a stunning apartment in Lille, a few steps down from the main centre and absolutely beautiful. The type of place I would absolutely book again. The next day, we spent the day in Lille and found a free zoo and year-round carnival which had inexpensive rides and the kids had a ball.The measly 1 hour trip home from Lille felt like a walk in the park and it was nice to finely get home and our own beds.
And that, my dear friends, was our summer adventure.
Things I learnt:
1) the GPS is always right, except when it is wrong, but you won't know this till it's too late. It is best not to abuse it though... You may need it when Google and route maps have left you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
2) my kids have now been broken in to car trips- we could drive from one side of Belgium to the other and back again without a single complaint. (Ok I admit, Belgium is a rather small country really, but seriously , the chorus of "I'm booorrrreeed used to start after about 20 minutes).
3) Take containers with lids for car trips.
4) Italy may be my favourite, or maybe it is Switzerland now. I can't decide. But Paris still holds my heart...
