Switzerland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium....in one day!

Our great friends - Post Belgium

Ella, Thomas, Callie & Camryn - Tiger area - France Zoo

<Derik> We landed a bit tired after our one hour flight from Koh Samui to Bankok and 12 hour flight from Bangkok to Zurich Switzerland.  The time change wasn’t as bad as we had previously, only 5 hours.

A super quick dash through customs and snatched up the bags, a local sim card, and rental car pick-up, and we were on to a local hotel for the evening.

No Santa sightings

The next morning we were up at 6:00am (no alarm necessary, thank you time change) and were on the road by 7:45am.  Driving in Europe is a piece of cake, although my manual shift clutch work took a an hour or two (and a sore neck) to smooth out. 

You tend to forget the geography of Europe is a lot different than home.  Over the course of the drive from Zurich to Post, Belgium, we left Switzerland into France.  We decided to take a 20 minute detour and travel into Germany where we had lunch in a cute little village named St. Nikolas.  We went to a small restaurant for some schnitzel and beer which was great.

The Blockhaus restaurant -  Germany

From Germany we made a quick drive through Luxembourg and then to Post, Belgium where we met with Annaleen and Jacque and their children, Nicholas, Thomas, and Ella.  It had been far too long since we’d seen them and to have both families together was truly memorable.  Amazing meals, wine, laughs, and a trip to a great zoo made for a tremendous visit.

Sleeping is hard work

cheese fondue - Laussane, Switzerland

Fondue in a 300 year old resturant

Breakfast - Post Belgium

We then were off to Lausanne, Switzerland on the shore of Lake Geneva/Leman.  It is a gorgeous city on a great lake.  We took a ferry across the lake to Evian, France for a crepe lunch, toured the Olympic museum, rented a peddle-boat with a slide on it and went out into the lake for swim to cool off as it has been in the mid 90’s here.  We wrapped up our time with a farewell dinner of cheese fondue and some great beer which was amazing even in light of the high temperatures.

On the Lake and cooling off! - Lausanne, Switzerland

View from Olympiqu museum - Laussane, Switzerland

Crepes in Evian, France

We are off to Geneva by car, dropping off the rental, and then heading to Rome by air.  Here we go!