Taking a Drive to Brussels Belgium
Saturday, October 19, 1991
Off we go - driving to Brussels, Belgium. We cross the border and exchange French Francs for Belgian Francs. This time it’s 1,000 Belgian Francs equal to about $30USD. The language is French but almost everyone speaks English also.
In wanting to satisfy our camping desire, we pack the car for a Saturday night stay at a campground at Mons, Belgium. Yes, I said Fall was here -cold, rainy. We drive thru several rain storms on the way. We arrive at Mons. The rain briefly stops and we set up our tent.
The campground is really nice, adjacent to a beautiful park with statues, ponds, ducks, and flowers. We stroll thru the beautiful garden and out of all the walking paths, we are led down one to find 3 beautiful white duck feathers on the ground. Someone is really watching out for us. Now David’s Pirate hat will be complete.
The rain would come and go as we cooked in between the raindrops and are holding our umbrellas while adding on another layer of clothes for warmth. We have found no camp fire facilities at any European campgrounds - this lending to only one positive note - your clothes don’t smell smokey.
Darkness came early and we retired to the warmth of our feather comforter. The rain continued all night. We were awakened by loud music from a building in the park about 1/2 mile away (student party). It actually vibrated the ground we slept on but was somewhat enjoyable.
A Tour of Northern Italy
Tuesday, October 15, 1991
We grabbed a couple of croissants and departed at 7am for Northern Italy - a detour on our drive home. The drive from Lausanne thru Southern Switzerland took us around Lake Geneva and into the beautiful snow covered Swiss Alps.
We crossed into Italy via the St. Bernard tunnel, 4 kilometers long, politely being waved thru customs, not even checking our passports. Now we are really into some gorgeous country - Northern Italy and the Italian Alps. The road is small and curvy and the towns are old and quaint, houses with rock roofs, chateaus (castles) every way you turn your head, old churches with murals painted on the front walls.
Oh, so many pictures we’re taking. The trees are beginning to turn as Fall is approaching. We leave Italy and back into France via Mont Blanc tunnel - 11 kilometers long (about 6 1/2 miles).
Again, we’re waived thru customs and my plants are on their way home! The mountains are so awesome. Mt. Blanc is 16,000+ ft. tall, snow covering a large part of it, and a glacier on the French side. We had to stop just to admire the beauty and, of course, more pictures. We continue our drive toward Paris, arriving home about 6:30pm. A stop at the office for, oh so much mail - just like Christmas again!
Editor’s Note:
Sorry I have been shy on the photos lately, I actually just forgot until I read her post saying how many photos she had taken, and yes, she took a lot of pictures of their drive home. Here are a few starting with David in the booth.
I will try to remember to include more photos in the upcoming posts and I might go back to some of the previous days posts when they were at the show and update the photos there too.
Geneva Switzerland for Telecom ‘91
Sunday, October 6, 1991
It’s early up for the continued trip toward Geneva (still raining). We were so glad we had stopped for the night because now we are in Eastern France and driving thru some of the most spectacular scenery. We cross thru the mountains on one of the tallest bridges I have ever seen.
It just surrounds the mountain. David says its as tall as the Royal Gorge but this one is not a suspension one. It is on concrete pillars. Then we enter tunnels upon tunnels thru the mountains until we reach the city of Geneva (a beautiful city).
We find the nearest train station to obtain a map of the city and exchange money. It’s another country now - the money is Swiss Francs. (1 Franc equals about 75 cents U.S.). The language is French and German with a little English.
We map out our route to the Evangelical Church and off we go. As usually happens, some streets are one way; some are only for pedestrians; and we’re going in circles, but we know we are close. So we park and walk. We were close and glad of it in the pouring rain and cool temperature. Although associated with our Church in Paris the service was more on the Lutheran side but very enjoyable.
After coffee and snacks at the Church, it’s back in the rain and drive to the city of Lausanne to our hotel. We arrive at the Hotel De La Paix - overlooking Lake Geneva and beautiful gardens. We unload and drive back to Geneva to the Palexpo Center (the location of the Telecom ‘91 show). What a madhouse!
We finally find a parking spot, luckily find a cart and unload computers, brochures, etc. We find InterVoice’s booth. It hasn’t been cleaned. We do our best and put in a cleaning order for tonight. David’s computer plug doesn’t fit the Swiss plugs, so it’s a quick rewiring technique David is used to by now.
Back to the hotel to a very enjoyable dinner.
Tuesday, October 1, 1991
Tuesday, October 1st
Attended “Bloom” with about 300 other people. A very informative program.
Wednesday, October 2nd
I met Ellen (a British lady whom I met while preparing food at the Church) and 2 other ladies at Galleries La Fayette for coffee in St. Germain.
Friday, October 4th
We’ve just learned we must have an International insurance sticker on our car to drive between the countries, so David rushes downtown arriving one minute before closing time and gets the necessary sticker from our insurance company for our trip to Geneva tomorrow.
Saturday, October 5th
It’s off to Geneva, Switzerland, our car full with suitcases, brochures, computer, monitor, ice chest, etc. Where is my motorhome?? After about 5 hours of driving in pouring rain we stopped at Bellignat, France for the night.