Our version of European Vacation: The Roadtrip

We left Paris after 5 days.  Renting the car was always the plan, one with three rows of seats so that Kelsey could have a row to herself to avoid too much sitting which is bad for her backside.  Plus, seriously, this trip with a 5 seater European sized car?  Heads would have rolled.

We had a pretty rigorous schedule lined out.  And that was with best case scenario travel times, but we left the hotel booking until "just in time" because it gave us greater flexibility to do cool things as we saw them.

5/20 Tue Leave

5/21 Wed Paris

5/22 Thu Paris

5/23 Fri Paris

5/24 Sat Paris

5/25 Sun Paris

5/26 Mon Paris to Lausanne  5 hrs 17 min

5/27 Tue Lausanne to Lugano via Montreux 27 min to montreux; 3 hr 43 min to Lugano

5/28 Wed Lugano to Florence 3 hr 59 min

5/29 Thu Florence to Venice 2 hr 40 min

5/30 Fri Venice to Vienna 5 hr 36 min

5/31 Sat Vienna to Prague 3 hr 27 min

6/1 Sun Prague

6/2 Mon Prague to Nuremberg to Metz 2 hr 56 min; 4 hr 9 min

6/3 Tue Metz to Paris 3 hr 1 min

6/4 Wed Home

First stop, Lausanne, Switzerland!  One of our best ever meals came from a Rick Steves recommendation for "The Blue Lizard".  We were heading into the old town section to the church square and found it again!  It was easy to get in on a week night and the food did not disappoint.  Lovely burgers, pastas and sauces and those delicious individual fryer baskets of fries.  

We were going to be in Montreux on Lake Geneva the next day and chose to skirt the French side of the lake to stay near Evian, France that night.  I found an amazing 3 BR apartment for less than 100 Euros.  It was off season for this spa area jewel and the "baths" were not yet in service.  But OMG, the views!  Driving up the mountaineous terrain with a beautiful view of a lit up Geneva on the other side of the lake that night was really an amazing way to end our day.  

We had arranged late check in, so we had a key code to get our room key.   Then it began raining.  Hard.  And we couldn't find the "door between two large potted plants" to gain entry into what we knew was the right building. Their little arrow on the map pointed to the wrong side of the building.  So after about 10 minutes of traipsing around in the pouring rain Lindley and Kelsey found the door and in we went.  Comfy beds all around, and because of our late arrival (dinner was good but definitely slower than a rest stop), we slept past our check out time on purpose and left when the man knocked on the door to clean the room.  Then off to Montreux!

Castle de Chillon and a photo op with the Freddy Mercury statue on Lake Geneva. Some souveneir shopping here and a fun visit in the castle scaring random strangers in the dungeon (Richard accidentally scared the heck out of some poor woman while waiting to scare Kelsey and Lindley).  Famous for the first "indoor plumbing", which was essentially a hole in a wood plank dropping 100's of feet down into Lake Geneva.  Yum.