The trip so far...

Sorry we haven't written from the trip so far- we have been stuck in traffic. Literally.

Tuesday: we left a rainy Finland and landed in Munich about half an hour late. Without too much trouble we managed to rent a car from Sixt- an Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI S-line Quattro, black with black leather seats. Fortunately we have air-conditioning in the car; otherwise it would have been a disaster.

Anyway, as soon as we got our car we were on our way. Our route was the following: Munich- Freising- Füssen- Ehrwald (Austria). The weather was fine in Munich, but as we reached the border of Austria, it started raining cats and dogs. Unfortunately the rained stopped us from having a good look of the castle in Füssen- we only drove past and took some photos. As soon as we reached our hotel we went for dinner. After that we were so tired that we just had a Paulaner in the hotel bar and then went to bed.

On Wednesday we drove from Ehrwald to Stelvio pass. You have to go through the Stelvio pass if you have the chance. It was amazing and nerveracking. On our way up to the top, which is at a height of 2700 metres, we had pretty good weather. The higher up we got the worse the weather got. On the top it was +5 degrees Celsius, misty and raining. All we did on the top was buy a bratwurst from the Würstmann, who surprised us by knowing the Finnish word for sauerkraut. We didn’t stay long but continued our journey down the mountain on the other side. The weather on the way down was better. From Stelvio pass we drove through the little Italian town Nauders. We were supposed to take a relatively easy route from Nauders to Limone sul Garda (where we stayed the night). So, we drove up along a mountain road only to discover that the road was closed due to washbasins falling on the road. Well, not really, but that’s how we interpreted the Italian road sign. We had to take a detour on a tiny, tiny mountain road. And again, it was raining cats and dogs. But we got trough and reached Limone sul Garda late at night. We stayed at Villa Margherita, which was a cosy little hostel overlooking Lake Garda. We strongly recommend it.

Thursday then: From Limone to Rapallo via Lake Garda and the Valpolicella area. We went on a little wine tasting at a Masi wineyard in a little village in the Valpolicella area and bought a couple of bottles of Amarone wine. After that we switched drivers and all went to hell. We took the wrong exit on the Autostrada and ended up in the wrong direction. If it had been raining cats and dogs earlier it was now raining horses and hippos. We survived though, turned around and drove to Rapallo. If all would have gone according to plans, we would have been arriving in Rapallo quite early on Thursday evening. It didn’t. We got stuck in traffic for almost 2 hours because of some truck that had tipped over on the motorway. Nice. Our plans were f**ked. We arrived in Rapallo, checked in, went for a pizza and some wine and then went to bed, tired but still quite happy. A really long and exhausting day that didn’t go according to plans at all.

Today is Friday and we drove from Rapallo, Italy, to Monte Carlo, Monaco on the autostrada. The drive was rather uneventful, although we did notice that Italian motorways do not show the distance to any destinations nor do they display the speed limit. Mostly, we were going between 120 and 140 km/h. It rained a little on the way to Monaco, but the closer we got, the better the weather got. When we finally arrived in the little kingdom, it was blue skies and high hopes. We drove down the small winding roads to Monte Carlo with our long station wagon, but we dreaded the search for parking lot. However, after having driven right past all the Bentleys, Porsches, Lamborghinis and whatnots in front of the Casino, we finally found a parking garage. Then we went for a small sight seeing tour round the casino. We didn't want to waste too much time in Monaco, so we mostly photographed the nice cars and then we went on. There's not enough time to list all the cars now, but you can be sure to get a detailed description later on, when we have more time to blog.

After Monaco, we drove on the minor roads by the french riviera towards Juan-Les-Pins, where our next hotel was located. We drove through many nice small villages, but also Nice and Antibes. We arrived at the hotel at around 15:30, after which we checked in. There were some troubles for two of us, since we got the key to a room which was already occupied. After sorting that out, and getting a new room, we threw our stuff in the room and headed on to the beach. We had a quick crepe with jambon et fromage, and then we found the local public beach. It felt so good to lay on the beach, relaxing in the sun, and then to take a dip in the ocean. After a couple of hours of worshipping the sun, we went back to our rooms, and took a well deserved rest. As I (Henrik) am writing this, we are waiting to go out and eat some dinner.

Tomorrow we are heading towards Briancon. It will be an interesting drive via the Verdon Gorge.

Note: This post is a concoction of the writings of Annette, Anna and Henrik.