Six Countries in ONE Day!

The hardest part about covering six countries in one day and literally covering Europe from Italy to Luxemborg is realizing along the way how many beautiful places you’d like to investigate but we came for France and this whirl wind of a day has made us appreciate the philosophy of sticking to one region per vacation.  Having said that, this trans Europe trek has been a blast!

The second hardest part are little bodies that need to stretch and move.  Suprisingly, or maybe not so surprising it is three year old Anthon who struggled in the last few hours before dinner.  But honestly, it’s understandable and really remarkable that the rest of the day was delightful.

Country #1:  Italy-  As we left Milano we recognized that the Italian Alps form the top of the boot as you could see the outline of the country’s border in almost all directions.  The Como Lakes Region was gorgeous and we would have been happy staying there for the rest of our trip.

Country #2:  Switzerland-  First off we stopped for fuel for our cars and our bodies;  diesel for the cars and Swiss chocolate for our mouths.  It’s what we all needed to make it through the long day.  The calm, peaceful, clean, green of Switzerland was breathtaking.  We wound through and climbed up through the valleys between the peaks of the Swiss Alps and we remembered who Switzerland is perhaps our most favorite countries in Europe for it’s beauty and peaceful pace of life.  As we looked at the waterfalls and the snow capped peaks, we paused before crowing Switzerland as our “favorite” to realize that deciding what your favorite is in Europe depends on what you are looking for:  food, culture, history, scenery.

Entering the border of Switzerland.

And the first thing you must do is pay the tolls.

But the second, is to get some chocolate.

Country #3:  Lichtenstein-  If you blink you miss it!  You’ve got two exits for the entire country, we took the first and drove through the entire country, wondering how they have remained a separate country from their neighbors, Austra and Switzerland and wondering how the borders of the countries were drawn and decided.  Lichtenstein was our least exotic, but most unique visit of the day.  How often do your travels take you to Lichtenstein?

Note the change between the Catholic Cathedrals
and the Protestant Cathedrals.

Country #4:  Austria-  Returned us to the charming, quaint, scenes of chalets on the hillside, cows in the pasture and picturesque villages of shuttered and window boxed homes.  We exited the freeway and toured the city of Bergenz and stopped to look at Lake Bodensee.  After stretching our legs and hitting the water closet, the children cheered because we told them we were headed for the Autobahn, and they knew from stories that we’d be going fast as fast as our car can go.  George policed his siblings for seatbelts because he was concerned for everyone’s safety.  The Autobahn did not disappoint.  Matt was only sad that he didn’t have his Audi. 

"Guys, I'm warning you.  I've had enough of these photos."

"I really meant what I said!"

"That's it, I'm going back to the car."

Country #5:  Germany-  Upon driving through German farmlands, George was struggling with some offensive smell in the car.  After checking siblings feet and the “sticky” cheese in the food cooler, we rolled down the window only to find that the offense was coming from outside.  George then said, “No wonder Germany is such a bad country!”  (He has been a little squewed from the WWII sites we have visited at Normandy, but his Papa, who served a mission for our church in Germany, is assuring George that Germany really is a great country with very good people.)  We ate dinner at a little pub in Karlsruhe.  A good brutworst and schnitzel!

Note all of the "fizzy" water glasses....
Erik and Anthon were the only takers.

Country #6:  Luxemburg-  After getting stuck behind an oversized load going a snails pace on the freeway, taking up both lanes making it impossible to pass, it made a long day in the car turn into a long night.  We pulled into Luxemburg, the city, after midnight, exhausted and frazzled a bit from crying babies in our cars.  Matt brilliantly saw a taxi cab driver and employed him to lead us to our hotel.  The NH Hotel was a lovely place to rest our weary bones. 

Luxemburg in daylight was impressive; a surprisingly sophisticated town and country.  We enjoyed pulling off the side of the road (illegally- we had a few honks from city busses) to take our photos in front of the Luxemburg castle and the entrance into the old part of the city.

Before leaving we needed to restock our food supplies (and dump the cheese that had gone from already smelly to very stinky- never a good sign) so we stopped at the Aushan and were overwhelmed by the largest grocery store we had ever seen.  The grocery store was in a shopping mall and it is sale week.  Countries in Europe have a mandatory two sales per year for every single retailer and this so happened to be the kick off of the sale week.  Honestly, it was out of control and we girls did drool a bit at the window fronts of many stores.  The grocery store was two stories high and had ramp escalators you could bring your grocery carts on.  The amounts of food, the quality of the produce, the variety of the cheese, the sights, sounds, and smells were amazing.  We found what we needed and a few treats we didn’t and were back on the road.  We were off to Belgium.