One-night stop in Switzerland

Yesterday morning we packed our luggage into the car, said goodbye to our nice landlady and drove (the car full as hell of people and luggage) to Firenze airport to drop off our friend. We had had such a good time during our week in Italy and we had many bottles of excellent Chianti and Barbaresco and Barolo to take home with us. Let's hope the wine won't get spoilt in the warmish car trunk. 

From Firenze we drove to Lausanne in Switzerland. We stopped in Rapallo near Genova to enjoy the seaside for a while, but due to a traffic accident we got stuck in a traffic jam and didn't want to spend any more time in visiting Genova. In Santa Margherita, Rapallo, the seawater was really warm and I could barely resist going for a little swim..! The boys found some pretty stones and wanted to take them home as souvenirs. 

Heading forward to the north.. I can't embrace the fantastic landscape enough; the way through the mountains was again breathtaking! Gigantic mountains and picturesque little villages here and there; road trips just can't get any better than this!

I honestly believe that one hasn't seen anything yet if one hasn't seen any mountains. 

When we passed a long (approx. 6 km) tunnel from the Italian side to Switzerland, we had to pay a road toll of 25 €, if I remember the amount correctly. They also gave us an instruction leaflet about how to handle emergency situations if necessary. Good thinking in my opinion. 

Going towards the tunnel...

..and getting out. Welcome to the beautiful Switzerland! (Sorry about the smashed bugs on the windscreen..)

After a few more hours we got to Lausanne. To our surprise we saw lots and lots of vineyards!

Just lovely. Unfortunately our boys might have missed some of the best parts of the journey by playing with their game consoles. 

Can you see now, why you always should take blankets for your kids in the car, no matter how old they are? Without the blanket it's apparently impossible to see the screen of the console properly in a sunny weather.. Kids can be very innovative!

In Lausanne we stayed at Novotel hotel for one night. The room was just roomy enough and the bed was REALLY comfortable, I'll give full points to that! The dinner at the hotel restaurant was quite expensive and simple, not a very positive culinary experience. And, when we were checking out, there was a surprising additional cost as we had to pay some taxes. It was just a few euros though, but I would always like to know the full price when booking the room in advance!