Against all good judgement we've recently taken on (and completed) the challenge of a road trip, 2000 miles from home to Italy and back (strangely enough). Two year old child and all 
.
I thought I would document the trip here. There were plenty of amazing things to see, but I didn't get amazing pictures of all of them
I figured anyone making a similar journey might be interested in the logistics of it so this will probably just turn out to be me rambling on about stuff nobody don't cares about (including too many exclamation marks and brackets!), if so just scroll down and look at the pretty pictures
Feel free to comment on (and criticise) the photos or the journey.
They're not (all) photographically brilliant but some shots are there for completeness.
I'll start with the first couple of days and add more soon...
First of all the map of the journey with all the overnight (or longer) stops. (just the big circles, ignore all the road works and stars..)
They were all one night stops except - 7 nights at lake garda, 2 nights in paris.
Day 1 - Home to Luxembourg via Lille
Here's a hint for anyone on topcashback (or tesco clubcard users) - £50 cashback = more than 5000 clubcard points = £150 off eurotunnel (enough for a normal return basically). That's pretty much what started this whole road trip madness off the first place.
Eurotunnel is convenient and if you get there early they normally transfer you on to an earlier train. We got there about 2 1/5 hours before our departure and drove on to the train about an hour later. No pictures of that one though
We arrived in Calais and drove the hour to Lille in time for lunch in vieux (old) lille. No good pictures there but a tasty crepe.
There is however a free zoo in lille and it's totally worth the entry price - much better than you might expect, and actually the enclosures seemed much better and more spacious for the animals than many more expensive zoos around the world. You won't see the big guns like giraffes or elephants or big cats (or penguins) - the largest animal is probably a rhino, but it's definitely a good couple of hours of entertainment for a young one.
Leafy Lille by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
Reflecting, Slowly... by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
After spending longer than expected at the zoo (stuck in the playground), we drove another three hours through belgium to luxembourg city. By the time we got there it was after 9pm (no good pictures again - Sadly we didn't run in to the headquarters of any big international brands like Amazon, which must be photo worthy)
At this point we discovered the benefits of the price of food in Luxembourg. The benefit is not that it's cheap, it's that it's so expensive we had to walk around the whole town before finding somewhere to eat. We're talking about average prices of €30-40 for a main course at every restaurant!! There is of course a McDonalds there too, but there was no way we were resorting to that on the first night
If it weren't for this there's no way we would have seen any of the town as I had only managed to sleep 30 mins the night (i.e. morning) before and we'd been driving for 6 hours...
Day 2 - Luxembourg to Mt Pilatus, Lucerne, Switzerland
A good six or seven hours of sleep in an Ibis Budget hotel later we were up - I wanted to get to our next destination as early as possible because the weather there was critical!
After filling up the tank in luxembourg (much cheaper!) we headed off toward strasbourg....
only to get pulled over by the french police as soon as we left luxembourg. Thankfully they were just the customs police who wanted to know if we had any undeclared items worth more than £10,000. After chucking my 1000 packs of diamond encrusted gucci cigarettes out the window I told them I didn't. They seemed somewhat surprised that there might be british people on a road trip to Italy. Maybe they were on to something..
After passing strasbourg we were in the alsace, and I had already found online a nice little detour to take. In the village of Gertwiller (near Barr) there are not one, but two(!!) gingerbread museums. Due to the rush we only went in to the shop, but a good place to stretch ones legs (and there's a lidl not far away if you need some cheap chocolate with your gingerbread)
La Maison du Pain d'epices by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
Straight on then in to switzerland where the cheese is apparently holy (close enough), and they like playing with stickers enough that they have to stick one on the windscreen of everyone who drives on the motorway (and charge them 40 francs in the process, if anyone actually has francs when they remember switzerland aren't part of the EU [or the eurozone {funnily enough}])
We drove straight to the cable car station for mount pilatus at Lucerne, which is the one thing I really wanted to do on this trip (expensive though it is).. This is a bit like a gateway to the alps. On one side the relatively flat bit in the middle of switzerland, on the other side, a very bumpy bit.
You first board a 'panoramic gondola' which carries up to 4 people in the town (suburb?) of Kriens, which takes you on a reasonably long journey most of the way up the mountain.
Cabin View by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
It's possible to walk/hike all the way up the mountain for those who have gone a little funny in the head, but we stuck with the easy option.
At the second stop you have to get off, and there are some activities, for example a large rope park:
Don't Look Down by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
or alternatively "switzerland's longest summer toboggan run", which we of course had to do. It involves sitting on a sled with wheels and rolling yourself down a 1350m steel slide as fast as possible. Fun for all the family! I've done this before in america, but there they have manly concrete slides that leave you with lifelong souvenirs if you fall off. The steel construction here means you can't do it in the rain, but amusingly if it rains just a little (as it did) they just send down a toboggan with a giant towel out the back of it to dry the slide off.
You can then take the larger cable car up the rest of the way which, being quite a long way off the ground, gets a little hairy in the wind.
Pray you don't fall by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
The top of the mountain is often covered by cloud which is why I wanted to make sure we got here when the weather was good. We stepped out of the cable car (which somehow feels like it swings a little precariously even in the station, where 'mind the gap' is more like 'mind the 100ft drop'), and it was rather chilly. Luckily there is quite a lot of 'inside' up there as well as outside.
You can just about see at the bottom left of the below that there is also an alternative route up the mountain (from May - November) - the world's steepest cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad - but if you go this way there and back you don't get to stop at the toboggan run!
Pilatus Ascent by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
Nearly There by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
At the summit there are even two hotels. I can't imagine wanting to stay in one that much since the last cable cars / trains run at about 5.30pm... but I guess you get the unique experience of being there at night time.
Hotel at the Top by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
And finally for this post, the view from our hotel in Horw (close enough to Lucerne). You can see the hotel on the summit from the previous picture, and the rest of the stuff at the top of the mountain..
Guests only now by TheRealZogger, on Flickr
At this point we had slept for one night but had already driven in 5 countries. It's not the first time I've been on a very similar route but since I was 9 years old last time, it's the first time I was driving... It's a funny feeling that you don't get if you just sit on a plane or a train.
.I thought I would document the trip here. There were plenty of amazing things to see, but I didn't get amazing pictures of all of them
I figured anyone making a similar journey might be interested in the logistics of it so this will probably just turn out to be me rambling on about stuff nobody don't cares about (including too many exclamation marks and brackets!), if so just scroll down and look at the pretty pictures
Feel free to comment on (and criticise) the photos or the journey.
They're not (all
) photographically brilliant but some shots are there for completeness.I'll start with the first couple of days and add more soon...
First of all the map of the journey with all the overnight (or longer) stops. (just the big circles, ignore all the road works and stars..)
They were all one night stops except - 7 nights at lake garda, 2 nights in paris.
Day 1 - Home to Luxembourg via Lille
Here's a hint for anyone on topcashback (or tesco clubcard users) - £50 cashback = more than 5000 clubcard points = £150 off eurotunnel (enough for a normal return basically). That's pretty much what started this whole road trip madness off the first place.
Eurotunnel is convenient and if you get there early they normally transfer you on to an earlier train. We got there about 2 1/5 hours before our departure and drove on to the train about an hour later. No pictures of that one though
We arrived in Calais and drove the hour to Lille in time for lunch in vieux (old) lille. No good pictures there but a tasty crepe.
There is however a free zoo in lille and it's totally worth the entry price - much better than you might expect, and actually the enclosures seemed much better and more spacious for the animals than many more expensive zoos around the world. You won't see the big guns like giraffes or elephants or big cats (or penguins) - the largest animal is probably a rhino, but it's definitely a good couple of hours of entertainment for a young one.
Leafy Lille by TheRealZogger, on FlickrReflecting, Slowly... by TheRealZogger, on FlickrAfter spending longer than expected at the zoo (stuck in the playground), we drove another three hours through belgium to luxembourg city. By the time we got there it was after 9pm (no good pictures again - Sadly we didn't run in to the headquarters of any big international brands like Amazon, which must be photo worthy)
At this point we discovered the benefits of the price of food in Luxembourg. The benefit is not that it's cheap, it's that it's so expensive we had to walk around the whole town before finding somewhere to eat. We're talking about average prices of €30-40 for a main course at every restaurant!! There is of course a McDonalds there too, but there was no way we were resorting to that on the first night
If it weren't for this there's no way we would have seen any of the town as I had only managed to sleep 30 mins the night (i.e. morning) before and we'd been driving for 6 hours...
Day 2 - Luxembourg to Mt Pilatus, Lucerne, Switzerland
A good six or seven hours of sleep in an Ibis Budget hotel later we were up - I wanted to get to our next destination as early as possible because the weather there was critical!
After filling up the tank in luxembourg (much cheaper!) we headed off toward strasbourg....
only to get pulled over by the french police as soon as we left luxembourg. Thankfully they were just the customs police who wanted to know if we had any undeclared items worth more than £10,000. After chucking my 1000 packs of diamond encrusted gucci cigarettes out the window I told them I didn't. They seemed somewhat surprised that there might be british people on a road trip to Italy. Maybe they were on to something..
After passing strasbourg we were in the alsace, and I had already found online a nice little detour to take. In the village of Gertwiller (near Barr) there are not one, but two(!!) gingerbread museums. Due to the rush we only went in to the shop, but a good place to stretch ones legs (and there's a lidl not far away if you need some cheap chocolate with your gingerbread)
La Maison du Pain d'epices by TheRealZogger, on FlickrStraight on then in to switzerland where the cheese is apparently holy (close enough), and they like playing with stickers enough that they have to stick one on the windscreen of everyone who drives on the motorway (and charge them 40 francs in the process, if anyone actually has francs when they remember switzerland aren't part of the EU [or the eurozone {funnily enough}])
We drove straight to the cable car station for mount pilatus at Lucerne, which is the one thing I really wanted to do on this trip (expensive though it is).. This is a bit like a gateway to the alps. On one side the relatively flat bit in the middle of switzerland, on the other side, a very bumpy bit.
You first board a 'panoramic gondola' which carries up to 4 people in the town (suburb?) of Kriens, which takes you on a reasonably long journey most of the way up the mountain.
Cabin View by TheRealZogger, on FlickrIt's possible to walk/hike all the way up the mountain for those who have gone a little funny in the head, but we stuck with the easy option.
At the second stop you have to get off, and there are some activities, for example a large rope park:
Don't Look Down by TheRealZogger, on Flickror alternatively "switzerland's longest summer toboggan run", which we of course had to do. It involves sitting on a sled with wheels and rolling yourself down a 1350m steel slide as fast as possible. Fun for all the family! I've done this before in america, but there they have manly concrete slides that leave you with lifelong souvenirs if you fall off. The steel construction here means you can't do it in the rain, but amusingly if it rains just a little (as it did) they just send down a toboggan with a giant towel out the back of it to dry the slide off.
You can then take the larger cable car up the rest of the way which, being quite a long way off the ground, gets a little hairy in the wind.
Pray you don't fall by TheRealZogger, on FlickrThe top of the mountain is often covered by cloud which is why I wanted to make sure we got here when the weather was good. We stepped out of the cable car (which somehow feels like it swings a little precariously even in the station, where 'mind the gap' is more like 'mind the 100ft drop'), and it was rather chilly. Luckily there is quite a lot of 'inside' up there as well as outside.
You can just about see at the bottom left of the below that there is also an alternative route up the mountain (from May - November) - the world's steepest cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad - but if you go this way there and back you don't get to stop at the toboggan run!
Pilatus Ascent by TheRealZogger, on FlickrNearly There by TheRealZogger, on FlickrAt the summit there are even two hotels. I can't imagine wanting to stay in one that much since the last cable cars / trains run at about 5.30pm... but I guess you get the unique experience of being there at night time.
Hotel at the Top by TheRealZogger, on FlickrAnd finally for this post, the view from our hotel in Horw (close enough to Lucerne). You can see the hotel on the summit from the previous picture, and the rest of the stuff at the top of the mountain..
Guests only now by TheRealZogger, on FlickrAt this point we had slept for one night but had already driven in 5 countries. It's not the first time I've been on a very similar route but since I was 9 years old last time, it's the first time I was driving... It's a funny feeling that you don't get if you just sit on a plane or a train.
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