Switzerland

After sitting in the Newport News airport all day, being delayed until the next day, sitting in the Washington DC airport for 8 hours the next day, and being told our tickets weren't valid... we made it! We flew in Thursday morning with the sun shining on the mountains as we landed. Definitely the most beautiful place I've ever seen from a plane. The hillsides were so green, with little squiggly roads and paths. Blue, blue lakes and snow capped mountains. An awesome first impression.

Picked up our rental car and darted out onto the roads, to risk our life... the people here actually drive really well, and carefully, but who knew a red light turns yellow before it turns green? And who knew a sign with a red border and two cars next to each other means no passing? And who knew that was a border crossing we just flew through, without blinking?? Ooops, now we're in France!

Our first stop in France was Carrefour - the Super Target of France. We grabbed some mickey mouse cheese, strawberries, and a baguette for a picnic in the parking lot, on the edge of a field of wheat. We were starving. Then off for our first cafe au lait and pain au chocolat! SO delish.



Everywhere you go in France - and Switzerland- the flowers are amazing! We had to stop in a cute little town called Evian,on the shore of Lake Geneva, because the tulips were just too much! Plus, they had these really weird flowers that I'd never seen before. Also, Evian is where the bottled water comes from.





That night we stayed in Montreux, Switzerland with a couple we met through Airbnb - a website people can rent rooms through. It was a great first experience, the couple was very kind and their home was incredibly unique. The attic of an old home that once housed vineyard workers - it was so cool. We were completely exhausted by the time we got there. We wanted to eat and go to bed. Every restaurant we looked at around town - including the cheap ones they recommended- was over $30/plate in US dollars! We spent an hour or so looking around and finally decided we'd just grab a burger at McDonald's and have Chandni help us the next day with eating out. Holy price tag shock. It would have cost us $25 for us to both eat at McDonald's. MCDONALD'S! (Chandni later clued us in that this is the token visitor mistake made when visiting Swtz, one she herself made :) ) So instead we got half of a rotisserie chicken, another baguette, and carrots from the grocery store and had a picnic on the lake.