On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED
On the road (1) – Five countries, nine days
Pre-trip report
Dates: Friday 19 – Saturday 28 March Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (37) and DH Mark (44) Destinations: France (Dijon, Grenoble and Lyon), Switzerland (Geneva, Bern, Zurich and Lake Bodensee), and Germany (Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Cologne) Meets: we’ll be seeing our friends Sabine (Disneybine) and her DH Manuel towards the end of our road trip Celebration: our first European road trip marks our 10th wedding anniversary.
First off, I’d better explain the title of this trip report. This is the first of three road trips that we’ll be doing around various parts of Europe in 2010 and, as the name suggests, during the course of our time away, we’ll visit five countries. Not bad going.
This road trip really started on a Saturday in early September. Mark and I had talked about eternity rings, I think not long after we got married. He told me that most people didn’t get them until their 20th wedding anniversary, but me being an impatient so-and-so, I said I’d want one for our 10th anniversary. Lots of joking followed about how many years away that was and, every so often, the subject was returned to over the years.
By the start of 2009, the subject was coming up more and more, mainly from my lips – unsurprisingly enough - as our 10th anniversary fast approached. Heck, I didn’t want him to forget that conversation all those years ago, did I? : So, fast forward to that day and, in what Mark now happily admits was an attempt to cheer me up, because of all my health problems with chronic fatigue, he suggested heading to the jeweller’s where we had got my engagement ring and our wedding rings from to browse what was offer.
After a fair bit of trying rings on and nothing working, I came across something that worked perfectly, with diamonds and rubies in it. It was beautiful and the second I slipped it on my finger, Mark instantly told me how good it looked. I couldn’t help but agree and that was it, sold! A week or so later, in another attempt to cheer me up, he told me to go and pick it up, rather than waiting until November, which was fine by me. He’s a real keeper.
Anyway, what the heck has this got to do with a road trip to Switzerland? Well, obviously I now knew what Mark was buying me. What was I going to get him? We had that very discussion as we were in town, with me going through various ideas I’d come up with, which included a return trip to the Naples area of Italy, so we could go back to Pompeii and see more of the area, a weekend break in Copenhagen or Geneva. Somehow, the idea of a road trip came up during that conversation and it became a road trip to Switzerland, spurred on by the mention of Geneva. In fairness, I’ve always wanted to go to Switzerland as my mother is Swiss and the last time I went, I was only a few weeks old as a baby, when they took me to visit relatives. You won’t be surprised to know that I have no recollection of it...
Mark told me he’d been spurred on by the idea of a road trip by two things – 1) the fact that we had a lovely new car, which was an absolute dream to drive and 2) the fact that Sabine and Manuel were off on their own road trip to the Arctic Circle. It also had something to do with the fact that his parents had road tripped down to their villa in the south of Spain a few times now and I knew it was something he wanted to do.
I went into full planning mode and quickly started to work out where we could visit and stay and what would be achievable. It wasn’t long into this process that I suggested to Mark that maybe I should get in touch with Sabine and see if she and Manuel wanted to meet up. At the very least, I figured we’d at least get together near the end of our trip, as I knew Cologne wasn’t that far from them. That’s the plan, we’ll see them for the last couple of days of our trip.
By the middle of October 2009, I pretty much had our whole itinerary figured out, although there were a couple of bits, particularly the stretch between Zurich and Cologne, where I just couldn’t work out where we’d go and what we’d do. I tried and tried to figure it out, but the plan just wasn’t coming together. Eventually I worked out what the problem was. We needed another day, so we got the Friday before we were planning to set off as holiday from work and now we were set. Suddenly things were working out.
In fairness, I didn’t pay for anything for this trip until early 2010. I was just looking around in Expedia and saw a stupidly cheap rate for a Hilton hotel and it turned out that, until 31 January 2010, there was a sale on weekends in the whole of the year, with 50% off. I was able to get a great rate at the Hilton in Lyon for our first weekend and then at the Hilton in Cologne for the second weekend. Sadly, my hopes of getting a similarly good rate at the Hilton in Frankfurt didn’t pan out, but as the song says, two out of three ain’t bad.
As the time wore on, I’d book more bits and pieces. I found the most amazing looking hotel in Stuttgart that was a really good price and one of the top rated in the city, according to Trip Advisor, so that was a no-brainer. I stuck to our old favourite, the Holiday Inn chain, for our stays in Dijon, Geneva and Zurich, as they all seemed to be well rated hotels. For the last couple of nights, I did a lot of research on Trip Advisor, as there were no chains to be seen for our nights in Montreux and at Lake Bodensee and I managed to come up with some (hopefully!) nice places. We’ll be staying at a bed and breakfast called the Tralala in Montreux and then at the Golden Tulip in Konstanz, where I opted to pay a premium for a lake view.
So those are our plans – here’s what we’re doing throughout our trip in a bit more detail:
Friday 19 March:
Take the Eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais.
Drive to Reims in France and stop for lunch there and explore.
Drive to Dijon and stay the night.
Saturday 20 March:
Explore Dijon.
Drive to Lyon and see the sights there.
Stay the night in Lyon.
Sunday 21 March:
Drive to Grenoble and explore.
Drive over the border to Switzerland and Geneva.
Stay the night in Geneva.
Monday 22 March:
Explore Geneva.
Drive to Lausanne and see the sights there.
Drive to Montreux and visit the Chateau de Chillon.
Stay the night in Montreux.
Tuesday 23 March:
Drive to Bern and explore.
Head to Interlaken and drive around Thunersee lake.
Drive to Lucerne and explore.
Drive to Zurich and stay the night there.
Wednesday 24 March:
Explore Zurich.
Drive to the Rheinfall waterfalls.
Cross the border into Germany and stay the night in Konstanz by Lake Bodensee.
Thursday 25 March:
Drive around Bodensee Lake, going back into Switzerland to see St. Gallen.
Then head into Austria and see Bregenz.
Drive into Germany and final the tour of Lake Bodensee.
Head for Stuttgart and spend the night there.
Friday 26 March:
Visit Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart.
Drive to Heidelberg Castle and visit that.
Head for Frankfurt and spend the night there.
Saturday 27 March:
Visit Frankfurt.
Head for Cologne and visit the sights there.
Spend the night there.
Sunday 28 March:
Head home through Belgium and then back to Calais.
Take the Eurotunnel back to Folkestone.
So there you go – five countries (France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Belgium) in just nine days... it should certainly be interesting!
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PassPorter Guide Author
- as our 10th anniversary fast approached. Heck, I didn’t want him to forget that conversation all those years ago, did I? 
: So, fast forward to that day and, in what Mark now happily admits was an attempt to cheer me up, because of all my health problems with chronic fatigue, he suggested heading to the jeweller’s where we had got my engagement ring and our wedding rings from to browse what was offer. 
We had that very discussion as we were in town, with me going through various ideas I’d come up with, which included a return trip to the Naples area of Italy, so we could go back to Pompeii and see more of the area, a weekend break in Copenhagen or Geneva. Somehow, the idea of a road trip came up during that conversation and it became a road trip to Switzerland, spurred on by the mention of Geneva. In fairness, I’ve always wanted to go to Switzerland as my mother is Swiss and the last time I went, I was only a few weeks old as a baby, when they took me to visit relatives. You won’t be surprised to know that I have no recollection of it... 
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