K and the kids and I are all working on our own little lists of things to do before we leave Germany. For some, it’s eat as much chocolate as possible, while for others it’s been things like trips and sightseeing. (What? I like chocolate!)
With an Army friend who is a fellow Mini owner, I’ve been planning a trip to the Alps. I saw it as yet another driving adventure for me and the kids (we go on lots of them, often through the Black Forest but also to car museums and stuff, while K stays home and quilts.) A group of us tried to put together a trip last fall but, well, I ended up in Romania for the summer (Romania — it’s the new black [Romania = awesome]). But this year, we’re going, and we’re going to go to 5 countries in 4 days (the other guy will do 6 countries, as he lives in the Nederlands.)
Some friends from the neighborhood are Swiss, and I have been asking them questions for over a year, to help plan this. The other night, I took over the details and showed her on the computer where we are going. It turns out, we’re going through her hometown.
I think I uncorked something. An hour later, my head was swimming, because she gave to me all kinds of great advice of where to go and what to do on our first day. Last night, she came over with a giant bag of stuff about her country and her part of Switzerland — homework!
Lions and tigers and bears Books, and DVD’s, and clippings — oh my! That was the tipping point for Kristin. “Oh, I want to go, too!” she announced.
So, all four of us will cram hop into a Mini Cooper S (what? It’s roomy!), and head out in a couple of weeks, for 4 days of driving through the Swiss Alps and listening, I’m sure, to a Harry Potter or other book on CD. Lots of pictures will be taken, I’m sure. Maybe the next 12×12 theme should be mountains!
If you’d like to see where we are going, you can open this file (right-click and save-as) in Google Earth. Each day’s travel is a separate item, so you can look at things day by day. I love that Google Earth will even show you photos that people have taken, and where. Neat stuff.
If you live out this way, or have traveled through these parts, please, I would welcome hearing from you and to hear your advice about our travel plans. We’re all excited about the trip — this should be awesome! Remember — we’re going to be in a Mini, so you can ask her to buy you 400 meters of the finest Swiss fabric she finds, but I will use my VETO power!
Sadly, I do not think there is popcorn or corn growing along the roads in the Swiss Alps.
And this one, below — that’s not Swiss German they’re speaking, it’s just German-German, obviously! The Swiss would NEVER drive like that!
