Wayhey we are in Switzerland!!!

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  Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Well hello,
We are in Switzerland having gone via Champagne in France but it wasn't all plane sailing getting here...

Having spend over 2 weeks getting everything organized, bought and packed in to our beloved Randon, we broke down on the way to Dover.... (see pic one!)

However as I had gotten mega insurance coverage on EVERYTHING we were able to call the RAC and âlong came our hero Paul the man in the big orange van! He got us on our way within 30Min's and it was foot to the floor to Dover, we arrive at Dover with 2 minutes till boarding and as Murphy would have it our ship was delayed by 20 Min's!

We arrived in Calais a bit the worse for wear after staying up late packing everything I am convinced we will need... and having not worked out a route or anything sensible like that off we go to find our first perfect park up, no camp sites for us hippies...
The light is fading and as we are loosing the light (in more ways then one!) I am totally knacker ed and Ned is desperately trying to read the map, we are guided, yes guided to...... see pic 2 is all I can say on the matter!

So there we stayed in all that can be described as well there is no description really... and no Skinnie it's not a motor home show room, this my dear friends is where the French motor homers go on their holidays....

So having regrouped, well just gotten some sleep and had numerous rows, we were determined to find the perfect park up - me thinks lets go and have some Champagne in Champagne, seemed like as good a reason as any to have a direction and indeed the county were celebrations are bottled by the million did not let us down.

Off to a great start

We parked up by a beautiful river for a few days, popped a few corks and chilled out in the sunshine.

From here we decided, not to travel to the Boom festival in Portugal and to go straight to Italy however we had no desire to go via Germany so we traveled to the heady heights of Switzerland instead.

Trusting our trusty satellite navigation system (Tom) and what with being on an adventure we mapped the route not using toll roads and going via the scenic route..... big whoops.......... now this may work in other countries but when traveling to Switzerland through mountain passes, all I can say is my gawd was it the scenic route! Not even sure if they were proper roads in some places but the scenery was amazing even if it was a white knuckle ride for both driver and passenger and our arrival into Switzerland across a tiny bridge were the max width was inches bigger then randon, was well worth the white knuckle ride.

Having not learned from our French mistake of looking for a park up whist its still light, we arrived in Switzerland after dark and not only was it dark, I was stressed out from the drive and Ned was stressed out just cos I was stressed out, we proceeded to find a park up cos we ain't doing camp sites.... and I must say the gods listened to us this time cos we were guided to a forest were we parked for the night and woke up in the most beautiful environment with the birds a chirping and the most wonderful smell of the pines.
The landscape in Switzerland is amazing and I felt like I was in a movie however Ned quickly pointed out that I needed my morning coffee before I looked like I was in a movie....

This is real....

Nice!

From here we headed to Neuchätel where there is the most beautiful lake and the drive did not let us down we just drove and ended up down this little road beside of all places, a camp site!!!! We went in and had a nose around and took some tourist info and went back to Randon for some lunch were we discovered from the tourist info that we were about 50km from a big festival - once more we had direction! Excited little bunnies we drove to the 'Rock de Oz' festival which is held in an ammpehie theater right in the middle of this tiny town. The whole town is closed down for a week so people can party - love it!
We found a great park up amidst some Roman ruins a short walk from the festivities.... we strolled up and had the great pleasure of watching Alpha Blondie doing their sound check, Ned was in heaven!
So off we went back to our beloved Randon and cooked kebabs on our portable barbecue (I really have brought everything) and tried to figure out our 'in' to the festival and then after 2 bottles of wine it came to me.... I had my MTV business cards with me so we got dressed up to the 9's London stylie and went to the guest list office...
I said who I was, they couldn't find our passes (I mean really!!!) and called for someone to help.... I was as nice as pie but still on I'm Shikha from MTV mode, she asked how to spell my name so I gave her a business card and wallah they issued us with back stage passes!
We went to the bar, got us some drinks (see pic) and can you believe it' it was pouring down with rain Glastonbury style and after the adrenalin of getting in we decided to go home and get some sleep!
We stayed at the Roman ruins for a few days and now we are here in Bern.

From here we are going to check out the home of absinthe in the hills of Motiers well we can't come to Switzerland and not get a bottle or 2 of the Green Fairy in a bottle (that's what they call it here) and from there we are driving through the Swiss alps to Italy and who knows we may just go the scenic route!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Our first perfect park up	Champagne in Champagne	Parked up in the Swiss woods	Neds in heaven
Back stage passes baby!	Randon at the Roman ruin park up

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