purple room vents: I CAN'T KEEP TRACK!!!

Again, no wifi! Truly they need to get with it here.

We picked up our car at the airport and headed off. Bill, having trouble feeling his feet (due to type 2 diabetes) was simply unable to drive the standard, so April took over the driving. She is amazing! The highways in Europe generally travel at 140 to 160 kilometres per hour and she did it very very well. She has never driven long distances before and for sure not at those speeds and she did it like a pro.

We dipped through some little French towns, intensely followed the map, not always successfully, and eventually made it to Brugge. April fell in love with the place instantly. We found our hotel, (again I say so easily), unloaded and then drove the car to the parking parkade several blocks away. We then strolled the beautiful cobbled streets of Brugge, to the scent of chocolate, listening to the clip clop of horses hooves as the carriages swept by, carrying happy people. We dined at one of the many little restaurants on the big square, mussels, frites, seafood pie, flemmish stew, salmon and beer beer beer. We laughed and ate and had so much fun. We then slowly made our way back to the hotel and put a tipsy Bill to bed and April and I went out again. It had started to rain again and everything was closed and very few people were about. The canals were all lit up and it was truly magical

The next day we got up and packed up and checked out, after having an amazing breakfast down in their wine vault in the bottom of the hotel. The hotel used to be an aristocrats’ house that has been converted, a truly wonderful place to stay.

We put our stuff into the car and went out and about again. This time we found the canal boat tour place and hopped onto one of their boats for a forty minute ride through the canals. Our guide was hilarious, in several languages, and the sites were truly beautiful and interesting. We then did some shopping and then back to the car and out of Brugge. The rest of this day wasn’t so great. We were zooming down the highway, heading in the direction of Freiburg, where we were to meet Emily the next day, when Bill mentioned he wanted us to swing into Zele, his ancestral town on his dad’s side (rightfully so, I would want to too)but it took us so severely off our route and we couldn’t get back to the right freeway. We ended up downtown Brussels, (a hell hole for driving) going in circles. Poor poor April. It was traumatizing. And one thing we have learned here in Europe, unless something is within six blocks of where they work and live, the Europeans have absolutely no clue of where anything is. They don’t even understand simple words like hotel, which is actually written on every hotel here in Europe. But if you say Hotel? they shrug and say “no english...can’t help” Useless. The only people we have found so far that really tried to enthusiastically help were a bunch of Arab guys in a gas station we stopped at....and they actually helped, with no english. (I was going to apologize here to any Europeans reading this but they don’t know English so there is no point)

Anyway, we finally got out of there, but now severely behind schedule. We only made it to somewhere near Bern (I think). Then we discovered we had been looking at the wrong Freiburg (there are three with a variety of spellings) and the one that Emily had actually told us to go to was only two hours away! Bonus!!!! Even then though it took us from 9 in the morning til four in the afternoon to get there. And how wonderful it was to finally see her, sitting at MacDonalds having coffee!! We were so excited to see her!

We left Freiburg and headed for Lausanne...getting as far as Basil. We stayed in a very odd place, a casino in fact. But it was the only hotel we could find with two rooms, and they actually were lovely rooms, if a little off. Breakfast was a wonderful buffet and we visited for a while before pulling up stakes and heading, once again, to Lausanne....which we finally did reach. We had such fun there! Thanks to April insisting on driving and driving and finally finding the most beautiful little spot along the lake. We hopped out and took lots of pics and then onward.

We drove for hours, towards Zurich, past Zurich and into the dark and the rain. Zurich, the part we drove through, was pretty ugly and sad. Graffitti everywhere. We finally, after driving around several little towns looking for hotels, found the perfect one along a lake. We took in our stuff, then went downstairs to have a few drinks. The big football game was on a tv in one of the big rooms along with a few very vocal and hugely fun older German couples. Oh did we ever have fun with them!!! We didn’t need language to enjoy each other and the game. We also had a great time with one of the fellows that worked there. He gave us some tips on what to do the next day on our way to Munich and......told us that at that particular spot we were in was Austria, not Germany as we thought!! Crazy!!

The next morning (this morning) we left for Munich....stopping at an awesome little town by the name of Landau on the way. It was on a lake and totally beautiful. Everything was closed unfortunately but it was still well worth the stop.

We then drove on to Munich and, in the driving pouring rain we walked around the centre..which was very very beautiful. We sat at one outdoor pub, under umbrellas, and had a beer, along with some very very exuberant very happy sport fans. They were shouting, singing, chanting, dancing and entertaining! Gave the place a real crazy cheerful atmosphere.

After leaving Munich we travelled on to Erding where Emily lives. It isn’t far from Munich and she is in a “homestay”. She lives with a fantastic family where she feels comfortable and at home. The home was lovely. Tonite we went to dinner in a true Bavarian restaurant and had the most amazing schnitzel dinner. So good. The girls are now at Emily’s and Bill and I are nearby in a lovely hotel. Tomorrow we visit Dachau. I think that will be hard but good for the kids, as well as us, to see. Then Emily will be coming back here by train and we shall wing off for Paris, ready to fly home. This trip has been amazing and I am so glad we took the time to do everything we did. I think we did pretty well, and I do believe that at times its been hard for April to be with us, a couple of old farts, one way too slow and deaf and the other way too loud and filterless. Poor Emily I think it was hard for her too. But what can I say? We are who we are!! TTYL ps: I can't post pics here.....its just too slow .....I will try but if there are no pics you will have to look on facebook if you are my 'friend'.