HOME SWEET HOME

after a stormy night the wind and waves calmed down quickly on sunday the 17-1-2016, 

so we could cross the sea with the greek ferry of 16:00 and were home just before 22:00 !

varen varen en NIET varen

all the ferry trips went smoothly, just a bit of a hassle in piraeus because they could not print our tickets a second time! but that was also arranged. so we arrived this morning in chios at 05:30.

and dear elefteria was waiting for us at our appartment 3margarites in kampos.

and now in the evening we heared that our last ferry tomorrow morning will not be here, because this weekend a terrible storm will be blowing...

now we have to sit and wait.. maybe a greek ferry will be able to go to turkey on sunday evening,

we think that is our best chance, because the next following ferry from turkey will be able to bring us back on tuesday !

italia

we arrived in verona and it was dry weather by 10degrees; so after our real italian diner with polenta,

we walked through the very empty centre and looked at some sites (san zeo castle, amfitheater and city walls and gates).

we awoke the next morning with clear blue skies and the weather stayed wonderful the whole day.

we took the autostrada to be able to arrive eatly in trieste, where we checked-in in our appartment at 14h. then we went to have a look where our ferry will come, what trieste looks like and eat some lasagna.

after some shopping we went back to our place for the last packing, sleeping and an early rise because our minoan ferry will leave at 4:30!

so until friday when we hope to be on chios after some ferry journeys, we will not be able to use internet...

mountains and hills, snow and rain

after a hot night in a spacious room, we had breakfast with a lot of americans (what are they doing in liechtenstein ??) and we set off for the crossing of the alps destination italy.

triesen liechtenstein

the day started and ended with a drizzly rain, but high on the alps, snow started falling at 1000m and was covering the roads near the san bernardino, where we drove half an hour through and in snow.

at that moment the road was already closed for lorries but in the aftenoon we heared it was closed off totally. the roads towards the tunnel come upto 1500m here, so the cars were told to take the gothard which stays lower.

but we passed everything easily and went for our first coffee stop to lugano;

today we saw many lakes: lac lugano, como and garda. 

after lugano we stayed on country roads and entered verona just as the day turned dark.

italy today! lets see if we can find a nice pizza and/or lasagna here.

suisse

the weather was cloudy today, with some drizzle, pouring rain and dry weather at the end of the day.

it was a pity we went to so much trouble to get our passports, because nobody ever asked us to show them at a border-crossing!

we had a coffee stop in basel where only the antalya restaurant was open to serve us a coffee for 10€ (yes! schwitzerland is very expensive).

we drove around in the village of frauenfeld, to let coskun revive his memories and went from there to sankt gallen via country roads. after a lunch with rösti overthere, we went on to liechtenstein in the rhein valley, with schwitzerland on one side of the rhein and liechtenstein on the other.

liechtenstein

route du vin d alsace

where-ever we go around wintzfelden, we see signs of the route du vin d'alsace and vine-yards on every hill and many whine factories in every village.

today is a bit grey but no rain happily!
first we go to colmar and have a look at the centre, a village impression of the city of strasbourg; strasbourg has its petit france and colmar petit venise, the quarter around the river with fachwerk hauser; both cities pretty to look at.

colmar - petit venise

afterwards we went to turckheim to have a tarte flambee and
have a look around and see why this also pretty village had this name (nobody knew!); and looking at other nice villages on our way, like eguisheim and soultzmatt, we returned to our hotel, for the last night in wintzfelden.

soultzmatt - les pompiers

wintzfelden - church

Boulangier

strasbourg

we stay here in (I think one of the best rooms) room number one, just above the hotel entrance, still decorated with Christmas lights! later we understood that we were upgraded again! our room was one of their suite-rooms.

 

after a surprising good breakfast (you are never sure in france what it will be!) with a lot of fresh fruit, good coffee and a big variety of home made marmelades and a lot of cheese, we drunk our last coffee and set of to explore the alsace.

rain on the liberty statue of Colmar

today seeing the sky, we immediately changed our plans and descided to go to strasbourg, because the sun seemed to be shining in the north ...
later we heared it had been a good descision because it had been raining most of the day near our hotel !

we walked through the centre of strasbourg and admired all the nice buildings, parks and not yet cleaned Christmas decorations.

ZINNKOEPLE grapes on the slopes of the hills above soultzmatt

at the end of the day we drove again through pouring rain towards our hotel, where we happen to be the only customers today and enjoyed our private swimmingpool and sauna together with toffie!

later we had a nice diner accompanied by an alsacian pinot gris wine (coskun liked the duck of today better then the local choucroute of yesterday!)

a very rainy day

today we traveled through luxembourg and the alsace in continuously falling rain.     

at the end of the day, just as the sun brook through (but disappeared quickly afterwards), we arrived at hotel l arbre vert in wintzfelden where we will stay 3 nights.

just before wintzfelden in soultzmatt we saw a lot of wine factories (also offering free tastings ..) and our hotel has a working pool and sauna, so even when the weather remains disappointing, we will be having a wonderfull time, I think !

retour

   after joyfull christmas and old/new year days, we started with our return trip today 6-1-2016.

  the weather is not very cold but a bit grey with a drizzly rain; 

  around 14:30 we arrived at our destination of today : the auberge restaurant lamy in troisvierges in luxemburg.