France–Home!

Well this is late, very, very late – but life happened at quite a high speed the day we got home and all of our free time has been taken up by our new circumstances. 

We knew that we had check out at 11 at our hotel in Giverney and we didn't get the train until much later in the evening so we needed to fill our day – rather than sitting around at the train station waiting.

We looked online and found an American Cemetery Belgium – Flanders Field – and it wasn't too out of the way.  We decided to stop there and then head to Dunkirk and then the station.

The drive was uneventful.  I was feeling much better than the night before.

We got to Flanders Field and it was quiet and calm and it was a very nice relaxing stop.  We were in the Dutch speaking part of the country and there were windmills all over.  When we got home we found that we were only about 45 minutes away from Holland. We headed to Dunkirk to have a look at the WWII museum – but after much searching we found that it was closed – I was getting quite fed up of driving and navigating around the towns so we decided to head to the station and hope they had a sooner space for us.

We got there and they did have a space – but we still had to wait.  We finally got on the train squished in-between 2 busses (scary).  We got into England and I really struggled to know what side of the road to drive on – my poor brain!  We stopped at Taco Bell (we have to take advantage of it because its so far away!!).  We got home about 11.

In all we drove over 2500 miles, but it was nice to be back in our own bed!

Switzerland–France

Good Morning!!! 

Wow, well I am feeling a bit better this morning after a restless sleep.  Lets just say that mild food poisoning + 7 hour car ride = MISERABLE!

I have a love/hate relationship with the sat nav.  She helps me get where I need to go, but seems to think that lesser known road would be the best.  I have a strong feeling this is why we ended up on the top of a mountain in the snow in Switzerland.  But, she’s (yes its a SHE) taken us through some of the most beautiful villages and towns that we’d otherwise probably not have seen.  Case in point – yesterday.  We drove straight through another mountain range, but were blessed with lovely, sunny weather. That detour made the long drive more bearable. 

After we got to the hotel we took a little rest and decided to go see Monet's house (the reason I picked this area in the first place).  It was closed until next week (NEXT WEEK!) but we walked along the streets and just took in the scenery.  It was peaceful and beautiful.

Here are the pictures from yesterday.  The pink house is Monet's and the huge river is the Seine.

 

Today we head back home.  We have to check out of the hotel at 11 – but we don't have to catch the train until 8 (its only a 3 hour drive) so we’ll see what we find on the way, or what the sat nav finds.

Italy–Switzerland

Hi Again!  Here we are safe in Bern, Switzerland.  We woke up to rain – so there wasn't much that we could do in Italy so we decided to head to Switzerland.  I was really nervous that I was going to have to go back through the Alps.  We stopped at a rest stop and found that we weren't (thank goodness) – the pass we drove over yesterday was actually closed today anyway because of the snow.  We did drive through the mountains and it was snowing but it wasn't bad and I could actually enjoy the scenery without thinking about plummeting to my death.  The camera battery ran out so here are some of the few pictures we got:

Italy:

Switzerland:

We got to Bern and it was raining (still).  We sat in the hotel room being a bit angry about the rain and then decided – who cares about the rain????  So off we went to the LDS Bern Temple – it was only a few minutes from our hotel.

We decided since we were out, we’d venture into the city centre.  We knew we’d get soaking wet – but we didn't mind.  I am so glad we did, it was an amazing town with lots of fountain's, statues, and clocks.

So now we are relaxing (its the first time we’ve had time).  We have a long drive tomorrow – 7 hours, our longest of the trip.  We are headed to France – hoping to find something to do on the way to break things up – so tomorrow will just be a surprise.