Oh the places to go.....

Parma and beyond

I'm trying to finish posting my blogs about my trip before I really forget what happened. I'm going to try and do a few here and there till I'm all caught up.

Friday morning after getting ready we headed back into Florence to do some shopping, mainly for Charles. I still wasn't in a good mood so the thought of shopping wasn't too appealing. After Charles got his things, we left the city and the tent campground. I spent the morning just looking out the window and reading. I was really frustrated and disappointed at how bad our time in Florence was. Especially because I was so looking forward to it. It just became a huge let down.

The further north we traveled in Italy the prettier it got. I would love to come back and just go around northern Italy. It is so different from Southern Italy, much greener and cleaner and of course cooler. We stopped in Parma for lunch and had some really good panini's and then headed over to Brescia for the night. Our hotel was soooooo nice. I don't know if Charles was trying to make up for the bad night before because this one was fabulous. We stayed in, watched a movie and had donner kababs for dinner, which is thinly sliced meat on a yummy roll with grilled onions and a yogurt sauce. It's kind of like a gyro but I think much better. It was great!!

On Saturday we got up and headed up into Switzerland, Germany ending up in Strausburg, France. But after leaving we made a bathroom/food stop. Dave and Charles wanted me to finally do some driving. Our car we rented in stick because you can get a better rate instead of getting a automatic. I've driven stick before but driving stick in Europe is quite a bit different. The road are really narrow and hilly and you definitely have to concentrate driving over there.

I decided to bite the bullet and suck it up and get behind the wheel. That's where the fun and laughing started. This car we have has a very tricky first gear. Needless to say I stalled about 4 times before I could get going. The boys couldn't stop laughing. I finally got going and we were on the road again. Everything was fine for about the first couple of hours and then we headed into the ALPS!! First on the Italy side we were heading into the lake district. This area is so beautiful. There's a huge lake, surrounded by little cities with these huge mountains behind them. The lake is this incredible dark blue color. It was absolutely breathtaking. Definitely a place to go back and check out.

posted by Camille @ 5:31 PM