Tri-Country Road Trip

Hello all. Since Jen gave me the password I now have free rein of the blog. If you had a chance to look through our photos, you can see some pics of the road trip we took on Sunday. It was an adventure, but like everything, a learning experience.

We started out a little late, around 11, and decided to go see the mountains. We googled a route that would take us through Switzerland, Italy, France and back home again. Google said 4.5 hrs, it was actually around 6.5 (oops).

We first drove across the East side of Lac Leman, through the vineyards and small villages, (and the cows really do wear bells). Then we headed south through the Great St. Bernard tunnel passing into Italy. Next time we may try the St. Bernard Pass, which actually goes over the mountain (and it's free!), but since we are just exploring, this was the only route we knew. In retrospect, it was probably best to take the shrotcuts as the kids don't quite appreciate all of the "scenic views" just yet, thank goodness we brought the DVD players.

The mountain views are quite spectacular, especially for a family of flatlanders. We are driving a VW Passat Break (wagon), diesel, which is a big car in Europe, but still a little tight for the family of five. I'm also getting used to roundabouts and tight corners, but there is this little beeper in the car that tells you when you are getting close to backing into something, what a lifesaver!

By the time we made it through the St Bernard tunnel, it was well past lunch. We sought out a pizzeria in Italy, but alas, I didn't have Euros, only Swiss Francs, so eating in the small towns on a Sunday was too risky. We opted to go to Aosta, Italy where we found a nice Pizzeria that was still serving lunch at 2:00 in the afternoon. They had stopped serving, but we ordered the pasta (and Grissini) and the food was excellent.

With full stomachs we travelled West to Courmayeur, Italy to see the Mont Blanc. It was spectacular, even though the kids were getting tired and a little bored. We stopped for a soda (the kids love orange Fanta) and looked up at the mountain. We just missed the last cable car up, which again, in retrospect, was probably a good thing to save for next time. After buying some postcards and using the restrooms, we were off again to go under the mountain to Chamonix, France, then home.

The French side was just as, if not more, spectacular, and we will definitely visit again. We didn't spend a lot of time there, only enough for a few pictures, as everyone was getting a bit tired. Since Ben has been adjusting to the new times he has been addicted to his Nuk (sp?) which he dropped at least three times somewhere along the trip. We finally head back home, but instead of taking the route back up the East side of the lake, we ended up weaving our way back to Geneva. When we hit Geneva and finally Lausanne everyone was a bit tense. But nevermind, we will only look back on the pictures and remember the great food and beautiful scenery.

I am very grateful to Jen and the kids for taking on these wacky "dad" ideas. As we live and grow in this new country there will be many new experiences and we will learn from and enjoy each one, I only hope that they don't kick me out of the family (that's Sam's new phrase and he uses it on me often : ) ).

If you haven't taken a look through our photos on Flickr please do.

Au revoir,
Dan