"Ski Week" part 1

A little bit of our road trip to Italy here.  We took along a Flat Stanley for a friend in Southern California.  Doesn't he look like a SoCal boy?  He was a great traveler...the kids could learn a lot from Flat Stanley and his impeccable manners.  

Leaving Belgium, hello Luxembourg.  Funny how things suddenly look shiny and new when you cross this border.  Not a lot to report from Luxembourg but it is a beautiful little country.  The morning we traveled was so gray so not the prettiest of pictures.

Now in France and whizzing past this beautiful, very French looking home.  Lots of little villages dot the scenery, lots of orange roofs.  France is waiting to be explored but not quite yet. 

White wine lovers, the Alsace is your place.  On the way home, the GPS took us through the countryside of this region and it was gorgeous.  It is along the German border, so has some of that German village look, but is very, very proud to be French.  Our landlords have a house in the Alsace and have great stories to share about the area.  Loads of wine knowledge too.

Gee thanks Jill GPS.  She told us to turn on "road".  Helpful.  Honestly though, we wouldn't know what to do without her over here!  

 Switzerland!  The beginning of many, many tunnels going through the Alps.  Including one that was 17 kilometers long, or the kids and I counting to 386 and driving our driver insane.

 Teeny tiny room at the Holiday Inn Express in Lucerne.  We were cheap and pretended to only have two children in order to not have to get a second room for just one night.  Our kids fight over who gets the floor, so normally this wouldn't be a problem, unless there is no floor to fight over.  Kate won and slept under that table thing.  This tiny room is good prep for Paris, only then there will be two so hopefully we won't have to duke it out over floor rights.

 Scenes from Switzerland.  There was a horse stable behind the hotel and great riding, biking, running, walking etc trails everywhere.  How perfect is that?  Load up on the free breakfast and head to the trails to burn off as much energy as possible before sitting in the car for 8 hours!

The pictures below were all taken in Lucerne.  It is a beautiful city, and we hope to return sometime in the summer when it's not so gray!  Switzerland was stunning.  Very clean, very friendly, phenomenal scenery and ridiculously expensive.  Ten euros ($14) for a pint of Ben and Jerry's anyone?  Probably not a bad thing in that case.  

Lots more to come.