Winding Down As We Wend Our Way North

01.12.2016 06:00 AM •

January 10 saw our final stay in Italy. We dwelt here the longest of any one country, about 4 weeks. Heading north on our final trek toward the airport in Paris; leaving Rome, our most southerly location in Italy, we returned to our host in the Tuscany area for one night. A few reasons caused us to choose this one-night stop rather than try a new location. For one, the kids begged, and two, the lure of more fresh EVOO. It didn't hurt that Mark is an Englishman and therefore speaks fluent and lovely British English, eliminating the awkward language barrier. I could listen to that accent all day.
Excitement was high among the children, to them it was like coming home. It highlighted to me once again how good it is going to feel to actually come home to Bainbridge.

From Florence, our route north took us right through Italian and French Alps complete with heavy snow at the highest altitudes. I had never before been particularly partial to tunnels, and I had driven through quite a few, but in those conditions they are marvelous! Italy and France frequently tunnel through their mountains rather than scale them and I certainly appreciated that in mountains of this magnitude. The Alps are certainly spectacular!

We are presently lodging just outside of Geneva, Switzerland in France. Our Airbnb host is the owner of a bakery located just below our living quarters. The smell is heavenly in Al's and my bedroom starting at about 6am! In the mornings we are allowed to choose one baguette and each choose a pastry for our breakfast. Two nights is too short a time here...

Originally we had been planning on spending a day in Geneva but when we actually researched what to do there we realized for us, in winter, it would be a fairly 'boring' town so instead we headed around the lake and visited Chateau de Chillon on the most northeast tip of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
It ended up being a very good choice in spite of the rain, semi cold, and windy conditions. Al loved it. The children and I have been through significantly more castles than he has consequently we are a bit more jaded than he is on the subject, but it was undeniably good to go through a castle once again after the myriad of cathedrals in Italy.

Below is a collection of pictures from our day there, January 11, 2016.