We had a couple of days without reliable internet connections so I am going to try to catch up today! We are currently in Lausanne, Switzerland —the whole reason for the trip finally got here. Chris left the room this morning to go to his Leadership Course and I won’t see him till late I am sure! I think he will be wiped out after this week but I hope I am wrong!

We had such a great time in Venice—-we left on Saturday and even managed to get our best deal yet in Europe—a free ride on the water taxi. Don’t ask me why but the guy was too lazy to collect our fee and believe me–with all the fees and tolls we have paid I don’t think Italy will miss one little fare for a water taxi!!! We made it back to the parking garage, found the car safe and sound and got on our way to go to Bellagio for the night. Chris had booked a nice family run B & B –kind of a small hotel type place and it was small but perfect for one night. The trip there was another one of those adventures—very skinny road on the side of the mountain and windy at parts. It reminded me a lot of going to Port Douglas in Australia and once again I was glad Chris was driving. We usually take turns driving but I let him do it all this trip! We were happy to arrive and just settle in a bit. We hiked all over town and found a nice little restaurant that served food 24 hours so I had some pasta and Chris had some veal and both were quite tasty. Good service since it was too early for Europeans to eat!!!

We got on the road early —after the “mama” of the family tried repeatedly to run our credit card. We finally gave up because we could not get her to understand that it does not have a chip in it and you have to slide it instead of putting it in the machine the other way. I don’t know what she was doing but so far she is the only one who has not been able to do it. Fortunately we still had a few Euros left—and guess what—between the 2 of us we had EXACTLY the right amount in paper! Nothing more, nothing less!!! Was that meant to be??? We have some coins left but I wanted a few bills to take home to Meredith (our niece) so she may just get coins this time. Anyway we got on our way, found our way back to the Autostrada and headed back to Geneva to the airport.

It was really foggy and I could not get many pictures on the way —you could barely see the mountains which was disappointing but this is the first weather that we have had since we have been here that has not been nice. I can not complain! We got the car returned—of course the whole messed up bumper from the rear ending in Pisa is going to be a huge long drawn out process but the guy seemed okay with all the info we had gotten from the driver. Chris will call the rental company when we get back stateside to see what they can do to expedite it I think. We grabbed a shuttle to the train station—-found the train, got on and settled in for the ride to Lausanne. The little dude came through to check our tickets and guess what—-unbeknown to us we were in the first class car and had not paid for that so he was quite insistent that we do something about it. Chris pulled out the credit card once again……now we know. Look for the 2 on the car! Lesson learned. Made it to the train station, unloaded and found a taxi. Got to our new hotel (will tell you more about that later!!!) and Chris handed the driver the credit card. Nope. Only cash. Fortunately I had gotten some Swiss francs before we left home so we paid and got out and got checked in! Whew. You just don’t always know what to expect. I thought all taxis took cards and we are trying to keep track of everything that way–it is just easier.

So I am getting ready to head out for a walk and explore a bit. I will have to pace myself!!! LOL I will be able to get some pictures hopefully of where we are staying and have a nice “report” on that!!!

Oh and I got hacked on my email overnight—-I blame it on the Swiss! I am changing passwords and hoping that that will help so please if you got any weird emails from me—ignore them!!!!