After our month trip in The Philippines,  my husband and I thought of continuing our journey in the summer. We just thought of going to Italy, so we can visit one of the lakes there. But since everything is along the way, we ended up going to 6 different European countries.

In a week, the order of the places we have been travelling with our car were: Netherlands, Germany, France, Germany, Switzerland, France, Switzerland, Italy, France, Monaco, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and finally back to the Netherlands! We drove 3620km in total!

We live in The Netherlands. We live at the coast and summer is just beginning! But even living at the coast, we decided to go somewhere warmer during this hot season.

We left 22:30 from our point. So, it’s a night drive… Let’s begin! By the way this is just a summary!

First day: We arrived in Colmar, France around 06:30 in the morning. We roamed around the city before we can actually enter our hotel. After sleeping in the morning, we went out again to roam around the city and found a restaurant that is not so far from the center.

Second day: Rise and shine! We first planned to visit Chatel, France. After our little detour in France, we reached another destination which is in Les Crosets, Switzerland. Then we slept a day in the mountain of Switzerland. We experienced heavy rain and thunder.

Third day: Woke up early again! We are now headed to our next destination which is in Italy. But before that we went to Chamonix, France where we can have a good view of the Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. Then after visiting we went to the tunnel of Mont Blanc which is 11km long just to know that at the other side of the mountain is the beautiful land of Italy. After several hours of driving we finally reached our place of stay in Cannero Riviera. We swam at the lake called Lago Maggiore and we ate at the boulevard. It was full of mosquitos so bring mosquito repellent.

Fourth day: We made sure to take it easy and went island hopping. We first went to Stresa and then we payed for the boat. The boat was 10 minutes sail to the island called Isola Pescatori. After spending an hour in the Island, we went to the beautiful island and palace called Isola Bella. Then at night, we just decided to rest.

Fifth day: We are going to the coast. Our house that we booked was in Cipressa. We got a medieval house. But before that, we visited along the way a place called Pietra Ligure and Albenga. Then ended the day with a very nice dinner at the medieval Ligurian town.

Sixth day: We decided that we liked to swim at the Mediterranean Sea. From 11:00- 15:00 we were baking and swimming at the very warm beach. But gladly that we have our little beach tent with us. After swimming, we rested and at around 16:00 we decided to visit the famous Sanremo. It was too busy, so we ended up in Menton, France. It was also very busy. Until we realized that we were 15mins away from Monaco. We decided to visit and took the F1 route!

Seventh day: We decided to go home. But before reaching home, we decided to have a little stop over in Germany. But before reaching Germany, we have to cross countries of Italy and Switzerland and got nice view of the lakes and mountains. After nearly 700km, we are finally in our stop arriving at 22:40. It’s in Sulz am Neckar. It is a very little town with a nice view of the mountain and we were near a church.

Eight day: We drove another 690km and finally reached back home!

So that’s our week! We did not have any agendas, we were literally blank with the places that we wanted to see.

More posts to come for the full stories of the places we visited! 

8th- 16th of July 2017