FLASHBACK #18: European Adventure (Part 2) - Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, France

We woke up at 9am, suprisingly alert. After a fortifying breakfast of cereal, ham, cheese, sausages and bacon, we left Hamburg at 11am. As it was raining heavily, we gave a quick tour around Hamburg a miss, rejoining the E45 and heading towards Stutgart via Hanover. In a matter of minutes, we were on the infamous Autobahn and, here, the basic rule is drive as fast as you like! We zoomed along at 210km/hr which felt like some kind of hyperspeed! With the roof of the car down, the heat of the sun was barely detectable as we drove at speed, the cool air engulfing the interior of the car. I remember at one point, I had opened the large map a little bit too much and the gusts of wind completely covered me with the maps. It was actually quite funny as I battled to get the maps off me and back in their original form! The E45 was flanked with sprawling farmlands and beautiful villages.

The day's final destination was a place called Fussen, a small town in the South of Germany, just a few kilometres from the Austrian border. In Bavaria, the town's main feature is the beautiful Neuschwanstein Castle which feature in the 1968 musical 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Until this day, I hadn't realised how big Germany is and the number of foreign cars zooming down the autobahn was testimony of its popularity. We cruised along Country Route Number 7 and, after much meandering through farmland and quaint villages, I noticed something in the distance. Something solid and white, resting in the hills. It was the Castle. It was the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Castle! Bree was rather amused by my excitement, but I explained again and again that it was the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle!

In the town, we found a hotel with a rather spacious twim room and a bathtub! Lovely! We dumped our stuff and traipsed through the deserted town hoping to find somewhere to serve us a meal at this hour. We found an Italian and had a wonderful meal, followed by a walk around the town.

After breakfast the next day, we headed straight to the ticket office at the base of the castle. After an arduous 40 minute trek up the well-paved path leading to the castle, a queue for people requiring the tour in English began to form. Our tour guide was a young German girl who spoke perfect English. She explained that building of the castle started in 1869, at the request of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He was dethroned on June 8th, 1886, on the grounds of supposed insanity. A second attempt to arrest him was successful on June 12th. However, on the 13th day, his body and the body of his doctor were found in a lake. Suicide? Murder? Assassination? The mystery was never solved. The rooms in the castle were grand and majestic. The weather was fantastically bright and, after the tour, we headed towards a suspension bridge which offered amazing views of the castle.

We returned to Fussen by car, sent postcards home and stopped for a quick lunch. As we attempted to leave the area, we repeatedly got lost, as we didn't have a detailed enough map. In our frustration, dialogue seized completely and we ended up having our first argument! He thought he was right and I thought I was right! The atmosphere was charged for a while, but we both conceded that the maps just weren't detailed enough. Before long, having gone through an area of roadworks, we drove along some meandering mountain roads and, by doing so, were in the Austrian Tyrol.

We progressed along the E60, eventually reaching the 14km/long Arlberg Tunnel. When we reached the end of the tunnel, which seemed to feel like forever, the sunlight hit the back of our eyes and sunglasses were needed. Shortly after, we passed the exit for Klosters, where members of the British Royal Family usually go skiing. Stopping at a service area, we had a quick snack then continued along the E60, before entering Lichtenstein, about 8pm.

We passed masses of villages adorning traditional houses and ornate churches with slim, slender bell towers! Despite the constant pong of manure, the landscape conjured images of the musical, 'The Sound of Music'. Bree told me that the Hauge, which houses the European Court, was nearby. I was amazed that such a structure was built in the middle of such farmland. I questioned the validity of his statement to which he pointed out the rapidly approaching sign which read: 'Haag, 4km'. That's Haag, not Hauge, I said. He laughed, convinced that he had me fooled for a minute.

As we began our descent, you could hear the rush of a river nearby. At the bottom, the same river raged with the clearest water I had ever seen. We spent many hours in this kind of dream world, surrounded by nature. While Bree did all the driving, I was constantly pointing to things, exclaiming 'look at that!'. We saw signs for a place called Zermatt, where Bree's parents visited many years ago and decided to stop for a while and stretch our legs. Since Zermatt was a park-and-ride area, we had to abandon our car and take a fifteen minute taxi ride into the town. Dominated by the peak of Matterhorn (4,478m), Zermatt is a 'dead end' in a valley that sits just 10km from the Italian border.

As we strolled through the centre of town, we noticed what resembled some kind of terminal. We checked it out and discovered that you could take a train up to a place called Gornergrat (3,130m). It was expensive, but we did it anyway. At Gornergrat, we took loads of photos, chilled by the fresh air of the Pennine Alps. The region where we were now contained 29 mountains, nine of which feature in the list of the highest ten in Europe. I bet it was really cold in Zermatt at night and how is it that, in July, this much snow remains during the peak of the European Summer?

About 4pm, we were on our way again, back in the car and travelling through the Rhone area. We saw the signs for Evian which sits on the southern side of Lake Geneva, our destination for today's stop before heading to Nice. We were driving alongside the southern of the croissant-shaped lake when I suddenly suggested that we stop and swim in it! It was hot, we had been in the car for most of the day and it was nearly 6pm. Our swim in the lake was one of those moments where you just wanted to relax for a while and absorb as much of the view as possible. Lake Geneva is the largest freshwater lake in Western Europe, with Germany on one side and France on the other.

We grabbed a quick ice cream in a nearby outdoor cafe before continuing our drive. The fantastic weather showed no sign of wandering off - temperatures had been in the mid-20's and, so far, I have managed to avoid getting sunburnt. The traffic got quite busy as we braved the last of the rush hour traffic, but before long we were in France and Nice was 300kms away. Oh, shit, I thought! It was already nearly midnight and we had another 300kms to cover.

The journey to Nice is something I will never repeat. With no direct highway to Nice, you are forced to use a combination of dangerous mountain roads with very little - or no - lighting and non-stop toll roads. France seems to love taxing it's motorists every ten kilometres. Criminal, I thought! At times, the roads were very narrow and, in the blackness of the night, moonlight was the only source of light. I couldn't sleep, wouldn't even dare to sleep. About 2am, we were alerted by what seemed to be like someone walking down the middle of the dark road. Nearby was a car and what looked like a body on the road. I remember my heart starting to pound wildly, fearing that we had stumbled onto a scene we shouldn't have. Had someone been run over in this isolated area? A tall, lanky guy blocked the way, waving his arms in the air as he approached our vehicle. I told Bree to be careful as it might be some decoy, some plot, some crazed madman on the loose. Have I seen too many movies?! The guy started rambling in rapid French. We explained we spoke English and, in broken English, he explained that he run over a wild pig which, until he was sure was dead, he could not approach in case it attacked him. We slowly drove past the 'body' and saw what seemed like an over-sized dog quivering its late minutes away. Poor thing!

Not long after the incident with the wild pig, we approached a very remote town whose centrepiece seemed to be some kind of candle-lit medieval castle, an enticing image to stimulate our tired minds! Eventually, we left the confines of this madly constructed mountain road. To cut a long story short, we arrived in Nice about 3.30am. Only then did Bree declare that he had no idea where the hotel was. He didn't even have a map. All he had was the address of the hotel. I went nuts! Having got lost a few times, we finally arrived at our hotel about 4am! The hotel, the Best Western Hotel de la Flores, was right in the centre and our week in the French Rivierra was to be full of new experiences.