Geneva to Garda via Chamonix - Tuesday 31st August 2010

The plan today was to drive from Geneva to Lake Garda via the ski resort of Chamonix. The 331 mile journey should take about 6 hours of driving.

The drive to Chamonix from Geneva is probably one of my favourites. Following the Autoroute Blanche, you drive from the flat and boring plains of France and enter the craggy mountains of the alps with their snow capped peaks and deep valleys.

The most awesome bit of the drive is an elevated flyover along one side of a valley called the Autoroute Des Geants. The views over the Alps from this section of road are outstanding!

Chamonix is one of my favourite places in France. It is only a small town but is home to a great ski resort and there are loads of things to do in the summer as well with a mountain biking route, para gliding and rafting.

We went for a spot of breakfast and to look at going up the cable car to the top of Mont Blanc. Breakfast was sorted very easily. Most of the food in Chamonix seems to be bread containing melted cheese and ham.

The cable car to the top of Mont Blanc was a different matter. We got to the bottom of the lift and it had changed since my last visit. The centre had been updated and there was a large car park. It looked very new and so were the information boards at the entrance. For the two of us to take a return trip to the top, the price was €82, not wanting to blow a weeks worth of food money, we decided that iit was probably a trip for another day, one when we have a grown kid interested in mountains and snow, and one where we actually have money saved up for it. It annoyed me a lot really because last time i came the prices were so much cheaper, only about 20 per person.

Never mind, the time we saved not going up to the top of the mountain we could then spend on taking the scenic route from Chamonix, over the Cul du Forclaz (1527m) into Switzerland, through the town of Martigny then back over the mountains across the Cul du Great St Bernard (2473m) into Italy for the final stretch of the trip.

The winding roads of the mountains soon straightened out as we joined the E64, the main West to East autoroute along the top of Italy. The traffic varied from being standstill to free and open. We passed Milan slowly (due to traffic) and made our way to Lake Garda.

Garda is a town on the East shore of Lake Garda. We arrived close to sunset and got to our hotel with only a little confusion. The Hotel Royal from the outside looked perfectly fine. A little dated in decoration, a bit 60's but no problems, our room however was more of the same, dark wood and a narrow space, our room looked as though in 1960 when the hotel was built, it would have been about 5*, it however had been a little neglected for the last 50 years with only the bathroom being sorted out in the 80's with brilliant white tiles and bright toolbox red accessories.
The room was clean and over the next four days; it really grew on us to being perfect for the money we paid and the breakfast supplied really made up for it. More about that later on!
Once we were sorted we walked into town to find some dinner. We found a nice little restaurant by the lake. We watched go down over pizza and ice cream before heading back for a freshen up and bed.

Dijon and Geneva - Monday 30th August 2010

What a sleep that was! And to wake up in another country and feel rested for the day ahead was just brilliant!
The trip today took us from Saint Quentin to Geneva, Switzerland via Dijon. Google told us that it would take about 6 hours to get there and that the trip would be 401 miles.
These are good distances we thought to be travelling. Anna had found it hard being in the heat of Cyprus earlier in the year and she didn't know how being 6 months pregnant would effect her being in the car for so long.

The Toll roads were once again kind to us and we reached Dijon in good time. I've been to this great town before as a first night stop whilst on my stag do with my brother and two friends.
We parked in the station car park and took a short walk into town. Since my last visit the town has started massive building works everywhere so we skipped some of the nice bits due to the bulldozers, diggers and scaffolding and headed into the town centre.

We moseyed about for a while searching for a couple of Geocaches before stopping at a cafe under an archway for a savoury crepe for lunch. We waited out a passing rain cloud and then headed back to the car. We stopped off to look at the incredible town hall that is more of a palace than anything in the UK, it was just outstanding!

Back in the car and south we flew. We weren't staying in Geneva itself becasue i am incredibly stingy and didn't want to pay out three times as much as the hotel we had. We stopped at the Hotel IBIS in Archamps, just outside the City and on the French side of the border.
Once again, the room was very clean and had a lovely view towards Lake Geneva, the only drawback was that the motorway was in the way.

We shifted all the stuff from the car and into the room and set off looking at the sights of Geneva and attempting to find some food to keep us going. We arrived a little too late for the shops were closing as we arrived and got into the city centre. We had a wander about, looking at all the closed museums and churches. I thought to myself that i'd like a good couple of days here to really get to know the place and actually visit some of the many galleries and blow a large quantity of cash on watches for me and handbags for her,... we can dream right!??!

Anyway, enough day dreaming, up comes my most stupid idea of the whole holiday. I thought that i would be great fun to explore the harbour and go to see the huge fountain that erupts like a geyser from the lakeside. So off we trotted, it took a little longer to get there than anticipated. We walked out onto the pier and up to the fountain, MASSIVE! that's what it was, it was really tall! we kept walking out to a lighthouse at the very end of the harbour wall and looked back. Horror had stuck us as the wind had changed direction. The fountain which was once blowing out onto the lake was now blowing back onto the wall where we had just walked. Vast quantities of water which i couldn't even guess as to the amount were plummeting onto the path in front of us, trapping us by a lighthouse, far from shore.

Only one thing to do i thought, RUN FOR IT! So, we did, and got soaked. Anna was not happy with me. We were both tired, now soaked and very hungry. We couldn't even change at the car because all of the spare clothes were in the hotel. Nothing for it now, lets splash out i thought.
MCDONALDS!

A dirty burger and some fries later, we were on our way back into France and to the warmth and dry of our hotel room.

More Sleep :D

Saint Quentin, France - Sunday 29th August 2010

Another trip in the car to mainland Europe I'm afraid for our latest holiday abroad. This trip will take us south, through France, into Switzerland and Italy, then back out through Austria, Liechtenstein, more Switzerland, Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium then back into France for the last leg home to the UK; all with a boot full of luggage and a pregnant wife on board!
The plan is to do the trip in 9 days so, LET'S GET STARTED!

Day one for us started at around noon with our now well travelled Skoda. I finished early from work and we had already packed the car so we headed straight off and blasted our way to the Channel Tunnel. The aim of the afternoon's drive was to get to Saint Quentin, Picardie, a town about two hours from Calais so a nice and easy first leg of the journey to get us to 'The Other Side' without having to wake up mega early and have a very long drive on the next leg (to Geneva).

The mid afternoon drive was outstanding through France. The road was clear and the sun was lovely and warm as we drove steadily along the E15 and the E17, south to our destination. 
Google told us that this leg of the trip would take us 4 1/2 hours and it was 245 miles in distance. 

To be fair, it probably took us about this amount of time, stopping for the occasional toll booth and rest stop. It wasn't long before we arrived at the Campanile, St Quentin. This roadside motel didn't look much from the outside and was quite small from the outside but it was very clean, had internet access with the room and was very comfortable. I think if we plan another journey out this way, this place is an ideal overnight stop.


We unpacked the valuables into the hotel room and took the car into town. It was getting gloomy at this point and in true Sweeney Family style, the rain clouds had moved in over our heads. Being on holiday and annoyingly stubborn, i'd refused to wear trainers and trousers (being still summer) so i was sporting sandals and 3/4 length trousers. The footwear i would very much regret later on. 

The town of St Quentin is very nice indeed. It has a large town square with a beautiful town hall, loads of places to eat and quite an impressive church, all of which were closed to the public due to the late hour. The only option was to grab something to eat at a local pub / pizza parlour. What a lovely place it was too! It always makes me a bit nervous when continental drinking establishments are called 'Pubs' but this one was great. The food was awesome, the waiters were fast and even the local gendarmes came in (in uniform) for a beverage, something not seen in the UK for a good number of years!


After food a wander back to the car through the soaked market place led me to stub (and take most the end off) my big toe. Classy Andy, very classy, another holiday with a painful foot.... A quick bandage and drive back to the hotel followed and then sleep, a very deep sleep.

Beziers - 22nd July 2009

We did LOADS of things today and are quite proud of ourselves actually for being super ace!

Our first stop of the day was at the 9 Locks of Bezier on the Canal Du Midi.

The locks are a set of 'Staircase' locks on the canal and it consists of 8 chambers that raise and lower boats up and down through the set. Due to the limited size of the chambers, only small boats were able to pass through so a plan was divised!

A giant multi wheeled contraption that looked more at home emerging from the belly of Thunderbird 2 was created. The vehicle was set upon runners above a large slope from the high point of the lock to the bottom. The idea would be that the large boats were attached to the vehicle which was used to stabalise the boat and water would be allowed to flow down the slope. The vehicle would then tow the boat slowly to the bottom.  This was a French invention that has only ever been used twice since (1985?) due to insurance reasons - FAIL.

Beziers was next on the list. I quite like this town and was dragged round it a lot when younger. As usual for French towns there was a lot of dog poop on the ground but other than that, not too bad.

I would recommend staying away from the lower old town, It is very shabby and run down and there is not a great deal there apart from drunks and hobos. As you move up towards the theatre and the old town the streets become cleaner and more welcoming.

We popped into a church to have a look round and ended up having a tasty omelette outside the theatre in the main avenue.

After leaving the city we went to a feature known as the Oppidum d'Enserune, this is a hill top settlement, founded by the Romans in 6BC. The hilltop has views over the former Swamp of Montady. This circular swamp is now cut up like pieces of pie after it was drained for form farmland in the 13th C.

In a very cool coincidence we met a couple of Geocachers here from the Netherlands. We were both standing, looking out over the view, GPS in hand thinking to ourselves “Who are they? Are they geocacheing? Should I speak to them or will they thing I am mad…?” In the end, we spoke and climbed down a cliff face to find a cache. Awesome fun!

Carcassonne - 19th July 2009

Today we got up really quite early again. Anna swears we are turning into our parents.

Our trip today was to Carcassonne, a medieval walled city about 30 mins away from Lagrasse.

A beautiful Gothic fortified city in the region, it was not always so pretty. The settlement has been around as an important city for trade etc since around 6BC and reached it's height in medieval times. One thing led to another over the next several hundred years and sadly by about 1850 the city was in such a bad state it was condemmed to be demolished. It was saved by public outcry and rebuilt and repaired to a former glory over the next few years.

Now the city is a tourist hot spot. Excellent photographically and it is a lovely place just to walk around and take in the atmosphere.

We got there nice and early and had a look round before the hundreds of coach tourists arrived and spoiled everything, it is very much worth while getting into town early at about 8 or 9am, the air is much cooler and there are a lot less people about.

Giving up with the crowds we explored the town around the city and found a few more Caches.

I’m really starting to get into this Geocache lark, its actually really good fun and it takes you to places that you would never have usually found unless by accident or being guided by a local.

I was less than enthused with essentially trespassing across someone’s vineyard as it was a shortcut to the next cache, but apparently, our defence of “We’re English” would be sufficient to save us from pointy, hurty death. I’m glad that we’ve yet to test this theory, as I’m sure it might not be quite as effective as we think.

Anyway, lovely place, well worth the visit again!

Millau - Friday 17th - Saturday 18th July 2009

Right, I’m getting a bit sick of this Anna,… 4.30am,… this is a little bit ridiculous now, I mean 4.30!... oh, hang on, it was my idea….

A very fast drive to the Shuttle, and early tunnel crossing to Calais, in an effort to save time, we even went without our traditional trip to Auchan (a decision we would later come to regret).

Generally the trip went very well, we got to Calais at about 8.30 local time and drove, and drove. This time we went left out of the tunnel in stead of right, it felt quite odd actually. We drove south on the A16 – A28 to Rouen, south to Chartres, south some more to Bourges, further south to Clermont Ferrand.

It was a very long, grey and mainly rainy trip with a couple of driver changes with Anna so that I could get some kip and not kill us.

The end of the toll road at Clermont Ferrand brought us our first real challenge of the holiday, other than trying to stay awake while driving 800 miles on boring motorways; we got stopped by the Gendarmes, just after the toll booth, I had tanked it a little and saw the oh so familiar lights, little flashing blue ones on top of a Peugeot, “dammit, was it us?” the flicks pulled up behind us and moved to overtake, “phew!” I thought to myself, noooooo, pulling up alongside us I saw a haggard looking policeman pointing towards the side of the road. The car pulled in front of us and we followed him off the motorway at the next junction, finally coming to a rest at the side of the road.

Engine off, got out and watched as the aged policeman walked towards me with his (very impressive) moustache and a strange pair of binoculars. Coming towards me he said “Speed” and pointed to his binoculars. There was a small display on the back and it read “134”, immediately I thought “Well that’s fine! The limit is 130” (as it was dry). I gestured with four of my fingers (not in a rude way) at the chap “Quatre?” The policeman explained to me that after the tolls it was 110 and that I owed him €45 for the fun of it. The policeman didn’t like us not having cash with us (we had €10 and a UK £5) when we asked him if he took card he wasn’t so sure. I gave him my wallet and said “Suivre a l’ATM”. The policeman looked at my wallet, opened it and saw my drivers licence, then my work ID. He walked over to the police car and came back moments later saying to me “Il’ya un cadeux, a gift, where you go?” I told him we were going to Millau and he said “Follow me to main road”….

I got my wallet back and got back in the car before he had a chance to change his mind. I briefly explained what happened to Anna and we drove off, being VERY careful not to obliterate any more speed limits, at least for the next 200 miles.

Sometimes I hate my job, but its good being part of the club!

The journey was partially familiar as we headed down further to Millau. Exhausted, we arrived but decided to head on over the “Viaduct De Millau” and have a look, designed by Norman Foster and completed in December 2004. It’s bloody big too.

It was beautiful (so my Dad would say), all crisp and white and very, very long.

Dropping down the hills from the other side of the valley into town gave us outstanding views of the hills, city and viaduct.

We finally arrived at our hotel, the city centre Mercure. I have stayed here before but not for about 10 years. It had changed a lot since. Our room had an EPIC view and all was well with the world.

Hungry, we left the hotel in search of food. This is where our luck just plain gave out on us.

A short wander round town led us to the only place that sold pizza, and having a craving for said tasties, this seemed like a good plan. I’m sure I have eaten there before and I’m sure that it was good.

Well, we had to wait about 30 mins to be seated, fine we thought, it was a busy night. Then, having waited for over an hour and only receiving one of our pizzas we decided to cut our losses and leave, which was a shame as the pizza that we did get was actually very good! Just to elaborate, we’d worked out that Andrew’s coke (I’d had to make do with just water, as he’d run out of everything else) and the one pizza we did get came to about €12, so we threw down a €10 note on the table and left. As we made our way down the road, little Monsieur Panic McUseless called after us and gestured disapprovingly for us to come back. He said “Is not enough” to which we responded “No, it’s not is it” and told him just how angry we were with the distinct lack of service, having watched what we know to have been our pizzas served by the waiters wife to a table right next to the kitchen as they’d complained that their kids hadn’t eaten and they’d been waiting ages, and then looked rather surprised at what they’d been given as the

y weren’t what they’d ordered and the resulting panic this caused in the kitchen. The wife’s offer for us to take away the remaining pizza was responded too with “Well it’s a bit late now and we don’t want to pay you anymore. BYE” was met with rolled eyes and a look of resignation. Thoroughly disheartened and a bit hungry we went back to the hotel to feel sorry for ourselves.

We returned to the hotel and slept very well until the morning.

The following morning we woke fairly early and went for a walk in search of breakfast. Not wanting to spend about £7 on a croissant and a coffee in the hotel, we went back into the old town to the bakers. A Brioche and two Pain au Chocolats for under €3, bargain!

Before leaving Millau and continuing our trip to Lagrasse we found a couple of Geocaches. One of which was only a mile from the town centre (as the crow flies) but in reality is about 6 miles on switch back roads up to the top of one of the mountains that surround the town. The view from the top was awesome, it was very windy and cold but it took a while to prise ourselves away from the view and on to finishing our trip.

The second cache was at the viaduct visitor’s centre, at the top of the valley where we had begun our Millau experience the day before. Outside the centre is a Norman church that overlooks the valley. Kinda unused for worship today, the simple structure had been reconditioned and was manned for visitors.

Apart from a few traffic jams o the last stretch of motorway full of people visiting the beach, there is not a lot else to report for the rest of the trip to Lagrasse,… oh and it was really quite hot…. And there were roadside whores on the N9… nice. Oh yes! Actual real life, middle of the day ladies of the night! In negligee and everything! Dirty! Now where’s a smiley to indicate a dirty lecherous grin…

We arrived in Lagrasse at the end of a weekend music festival. We went into the town and there were lots of crusty hippy types and they were setting up for the all night party in the town square. A short walk about and then up to the house as the family had finally arrived.

A Bitche of a Journey - Saturday 9th - Sunday 10th May 2009

As we have with all our holidays, a REALLY early start. This one was an 0530hrs get-up. We got out of the flat as quickly as possible and left to get our new travel buddies Katie and Andy. It was Andy’s first trip outside of the United Kingdom and there was some apprehension as we approached the Channel Tunnel as Andy did not have a passport. We won’t go into it but after a traumatic series of events, he did not have one.

As usual, it didn’t pose a problem at all. Waved through by French border control we continued our onward journey down thorough France, a bit into Luxembourg, a bit into Germany and finally ending up back in France at the beautiful city of Bitche.

Bitche is a lovely town on the eastern fringes of France. The town which was formed by the joining of the villages of Rohr and Kaltenhausen in the 17th century, gets its name from the old stronghold Bytis Castrum. This stood on the rocky hillside 80m above the town.

This stronghold was destroyed by the French and a new Citadel was built in its place in 1740. This citadel was proved impregnable until WW2 when it was occupied by the Germans as a control centre for the area.

The city was liberated by the yanks at the end of the war – History Done!

The city today is very quaint and more akin to being occupied by coach tours of elderly people from all over the region. There is only one decent hotel in the city centre, Hotel l’Strasbourg. We stayed there and it was lovely, expensive, but lovely. The hotel backs onto the gardens that sit in the shadow of the citadel.

We had a quick wander through these gardens, a quick walk that turned into a long stroll with loads of photos! The colours were amazing and there were a number of small art type gardens with lots of different themes.

After the gardens everyone was getting a little hungry so we went in search of food…. Worryingly there was very little to do of an evening in Bitche. There was the over-priced restaurant at the hotel and apart from that there was only a kebab shop in town,.. so,… dirty burgers it was! It was such a shame, the place really needs a nice place to eat and drink of an evening, there is so much potential but it was generally rubbish.

We retired for the evening and the next day we decided to storm the citadel.

Now, the citadel is completely ACE! It is really high up and you can see for miles around, it is a perfect place to defend the town and the local area. The place could exist for months on end under siege; it had a massive reservoir for drinking water and huge grain stores. On site was a bakery and a network of underground tunnels meant there was ample room for cold stores.

We were amazed by the local inhabitants, not the people but the Herons. Circling the citadel, coming into land and having a wander around, I have never been so close to these amazing birds, they are huge and look incredibly powerful.

We collected a quick Geocache and then left the city behind us to make our way over to our home away from home, Titisee!

Titisee on first glance is a lovely little german town, on the edge of lake Titisee and, like Bitche, is FULL of tourists and coach parties. In the heart of the Black Forest, people come from miles around to go on walking, driving and spa holidays, also to row and sail on the lake.

We were staying at the Hotel Alemannenhof, they have some blocks of apartments just up the hill from the main hotel that would be our base for the week. The appartment was huge as they go and the views from the balcony were astounding. You could see all the way left to town, to the right into the Black Forest with the lake stretching from one side to the other in front. With mountains and hills on each side the air was pretty still and and reflections off the water were beautiful.

We explored a little and walked down to the waters edge, where i made a promise to go for a swim, a promise that i would later fail to keep.

We had a quick beer and a bit of cake at the hotel before heading up to the room for a sleep.