switzerland, liechtenstein, italy, france, monaco....

Hey everyone! Well....since I last wrote a LOT has happened!! This is gonna be a long one...so I hope you have time!!

On the second Saturday in April, Ola (my au pair friend) came to my place for lunch, which was a BBQ and I ate SO much meat!! Mmmmm mmm!!!! So yummy, and it's been a while since we've had BBQ'd meat......not like at home...!!! Anyways, that was cool, she stayed for the day and we watched a movie, then we both went to Gegenwind that night. She enjoyed going there, which I was pretty happy about :)

The next day I went to a "Bretzkenmarkt" (not sure how to spell that.....!). Basically, in this valley about 5-10mins bike ride from here, they had a whole heap of stalls set up. There was food, craft things, clothes, and also just a lot of....well....crap! You know the stalls, they're like the cheapie shops, a hundred different stalls that sell the same things! ;) It was cool to go there.

Afterwards I went to a birthday celebration at Lisa's, the lovely old lady from months ago - the one who gave me the bible! There was so much cake there!!!! So, we had coffee and cake and played games. There were a few people from Gegenwind there, so it was good fun! I was full as a goog....but I ate tea as well!!

Now on to the stuff you probably all wanna know about......!!

On Tuesday, 11th April, I went to language course which was normal, but I wasn't completely concentrating on what we were doing......that was the day that John got here!!! I went to Herbrechtingen to meet the bus, and after waiting at the wrong bus stop and making the taxi dude wait, John rang me to see where I was!! Good thing the taxi driver knew where it was that he was waiting!! After a long long LONG wait, we finally saw each other again! :) :) :) :) It wasn't at all awkward, as it very well could have been, so that was really good. We adjusted to actually being able to SEE each other pretty easily!

On the Thursday, we caught the bus from here and then the train to Ulm - where we picked up our rental car. It was a cool little car! It was a "Seat Leon" and I won't say if it had a name, because we couldn't decide.... Anyways, I drove first, because it was a manual and I'm more used to driving on the opposite side of the road than John....and also cos he's not a 'frequent' manual car driver......
After leaving Ulm, we drove down to Lake Constance, or "Bodensee". We drove to Lindau, where there is an island, so that was cool. It was really nice travelling around the lake, very pretty. It was pretty overcast and foggy, but it was still nice! We stayed in Konstanz that night and the spread the next morning for breakfast was amazing! It won the Best Breakfast Prize!! There was meat, cheese, bread, croissants, eggs, jam, cream, quark, cereal, fruit, juice, tea, coffee, yoghurt...man, it was good!! I wasn't feeling that great, so I had one bread roll with quark and jam (mmmm mmmm!!!!!!!!), but John ate a LOT!! Like, 5 times as much as me!! Hehee! That was Good Friday, and we were able to find the Lutheran church and go to the service in the morning. It was in German, so it wasn't so difficult for me as it was for John. Konstanz is half in Germany, half in Switzerland - the border literally goes through the city!! We went for a walk and had to change direction cos there was a checkpoint and I didn't have my passport.....! Hehe! Anyway, that day we drove to Zürich, via Liechtenstein! That was a very beautiful drive! Along Bodensee again. The Swiss Alps were absolutely gorgeous!! So pretty! This photo is just a small taste of our view!

After paying €1,50 to get our passports stamped to prove that we'd been there (Liechtenstein), and buying the countrys' flag ;), we headed to Zürich! Once there, we caught up with John's uni friend Adam and his Slovakian girlfriend, Ella. It was a beautiful day and we took advantage of the sunshine (like the hundred thousand other people!!!) and took a walk along Zürichsee. It was really really nice :) We stayed at Adam's place and then the next day, we looked around Zürich, took a round trip boat ride on the lake, and then we had our fill at a Swiss Restaurant - fondue and raclette!! We all ate SO much food, but it was really really yummy!!! We had a lot of fun with Adam and Ella - they showed us around and were just really good company!

We then drove to Locarno, which is still in "die Schweiz", but in the Italian-speaking area. It was a lil difficult to find somewhere to stay, seeing as we got there after 9pm...but we managed ok! The next day was Easter Day! We found a church to go to, which was good, (although the incense gave me a terrible headache, so I wasn't in there for very long). After that, we drove around and just happened to notice signs to a Funnicular! So, we headed up there and ended up going all the way to the top, first in a cable car and then in a chair lift. The view was amazing!!! At the very top, we were 1670m above sea level! The lake in the piccie, Lake Maggiore is the lowest point in Switzerland at about 160m asl.

From Locarno we travelled to Lake Como, which was only about 100kms away - in northern Italy. By chance, we found the Hostelling International Hostel! That was quite a relief, cos there was a LOT of traffic as we were coming into Como, and we were glad to get out of it! We ended up staying there for 2 nights, cos it was cheap acc! We walked to the city area a couple of times, and we also went on the funnicular there. (Night photo of Como)

Bellagio was our next visit, also on Lake Como. It was only 30kms from Como, but it took a long time to get there, because the roads were right on the side of the hills, and there was only just enough space for cars to pass one another! Tricky driving, beautiful views. We went on a boat there, just going on a round trip again. That was really nice. The sun was shining and it was pretty sitting on the boat, just looking at the scenery. (Lake shot of Menaggio)

Our next stop was Genova, on the coast of Italy. It took a lot to get there, cos we accidently drove through Milan....!!!! We were gonna stay on the autobahn aand avoid the very centre, but somehow we ended up closer in than we wanted to! It was crazy!!! The Italians aren't that great on the autobahns, but in the busy city areas they're even worse! Talk about double parking and lack of indication!!!! That was kinda tricky sometimes, but we got there....I think it took us over an hour and a half to get from one side to the other...!! The traffic wasn't much better in Genova, but there was traffic galore and Vespas!!!! Vespas were EVERYWHERE! The roads wound up the hills, so it was quite tight in places! We found the youth hostel - eventually...and were again, quite happy to be out of the traffic!

We were intending to leave Genova in the morning, but after talking to the lady at reception, we spent the day just walking through the streets, looking at the buildings and streets! There was a cool little lady playing the violin near the huge church we looked at. She was really good, and it gave the place such an authentic Italian feel, it was very cool! At times it was interesting when we were buying things, because of the language barrier....and was at times quite funny!! Interesting!! Oh, and we also went on the funnicular there!

Menton, France, was our next overnight stop. We got there late as well and struggled once again to find accomodation! All good in the end!! The morning there was absolutely lovely! We got up late and had an overpriced croissant, juice and coffee!! It was yum, but pretty expensive... Then, we went down to the beach of the Mediterranean! Oh, was so pretty!! It wasn't sandy right by the water - it was small smooth, round stones! The sound was, I thought, so soothing and beautiful!! I loved it! John was still hungry and decided to buy another croissant, ended up getting 2 cos the girl misunderstood! Heehee! We then discovered the little market area! Wow! There were stalls of fresh produce, like meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables, bread and there was also a table of spices! Smelled delightful!! We bought some salami slices, some cheese, quiché, fruit, and some yoghurt! We found a spot overlooking the beach and ate it! The food was so tasty! And it was really lovely just sitting there eating in the warm sunshine, on the coast! Beautiful!

After Menton we headed to Monte Carlo, Monaco! We just drove through it, well......we did a few laps of a certain area, because there happened to be a big car expo on....we also drove on a few sections of the track for the Formula 1 race! The other thing, more exciting for me, was that the Tennis Masters was on! We drove past there twice and I was so excited just to know that 'the other side of that wall, are world class tennis players'!!!! It would have been sooooo good to just go to a game, but parking was a no-go and there was too much traffic. Oh well....

Èze, France, was our next stop-off. The reason we stopped there, was because a certain favourite singer of John's has a house there..... We had a look at the Éze village, which is very small, and right on the top of a hill!! It was very cool and very interesting to wander through the small streets, all of cobblestones and to see the little houses. I think people actually live up there, which would be really quite and interesting life! At the very top was a 'Jardin Exotique' in which there are a lot of cactuses growing. And the view....the view was absolutely gorgeous!! It was just sooooooooo beautiful! :)

Our plan was to stay at a hostel in Nice. As soon as we caught our first glimpse of the city.....we said 'no no no!' It was huge......instead we drove through and out! A little way out of Nice, about half an hour, was Cannes. We saw a sign for an Etap hotel and just drove in! We'd had enough for that day! That night, we drove down into the centre of Cannes. We saw where the Cannes Film Festival is held and checked out a lot of the famous hand prints! I also got to paddle in the Mediteranean a lil! It was sooooo good to put my feet in the sea again, as cold as it was...!

The next day, we decided to head inland. We drove to the 'Gorges du Verdon' in Provence, which is Europe's deepest gorge! It was amazing! The rock formations were truly impressive to see and the little river winding it's way through was very cool! We stoppped at a quaint little town and splashed out on a nice restaurant meal.....three-course, as well as a serve of 'escargots' - snails! They were actually quite tasty! Once I got over the thought of it, it was yum-o!

At the start of the gorge, was 'Lac de Ste-Croix' and it was stunning! It was absolutely my favourite scene for the trip! I loved it! The colour of the water was an amzing cool bluey/aqua colour......oh wow.....God is an awesome God! :D

That night we stayed in a cabin at a caravan park in Digne-les-Bains, which is also in Provence, or the French Riviera. It was cool! We had a supermarket tea - including a vienetta rip-off for €1 - bargain!!! We played some games, and it was cool just to relax for a bit and hang out. We also bought food for brekkie, so that was nicer for the finances!! There was a market on that Saturday morning, so we had a look around there...needed to use the toilet, so we bought a cappuccino at a café just so we could use the toilet - €3....expensive toilet!!

From there we drove through the French Alps, which was an amazing sight to see! So high! The highest one we saw would have been 4102m asl! WOW! It was so cool! The highest pass which we drove on was 2058m asl. The views of the mountains so tall and looming were just...well, beautiful!

Grenoble was our last stop for the trip. We found a decent place to stay, in the valley of some very cool mountains, which had some amazing formations and were just....I've run out of sufficiently good expressions to adequately describe what we saw....

On Sunday we drove allll the way back to Heuchlingen. It took us 8 1/2 hours, and we went 800k's. Not a bad effort, considering we stopped an hour for lunch and a few other times in between! The autobahns were great, especially in Germany where there is no speed limit! We may have been caught a few times in France and Switzerland where it was apparently 130km/h limit......the next few weeks will tell I guess....!!

Our trip was really really good, it was a perfect opportunity for us to get to know each other more, and see what things may annoy us and all that jazz.... ;) God kept us safe the whole time, and with some of the drivers out there, that's a great effort!

This week we've just been hanging out, playing games (all while I haven't been looking after the kids that is!) and it's been nice just being able to just relax!

We're going to Vienna on the weekend, so I think you'll all be able to read something again next week!!

Take care everyone and God bless :)
Lots of love,
Vivien (& John)