6 People 6 Months

Switzerland has been a wonderful surprise! Of course, we were told that it's beautiful, and Josh and I had been here once before briefly, in the winter. But Wow! The scenery is incredible and everything is so tidy, green, lush, spacious and refreshing. Generally, people are polite, though don't often engage unless talked to. They do give us a friendly beep or a wave when we pull over for them if we've held them up (not a scowl or a blast of their horn!) and there is not a single scrap of rubbish in sight. We haven't yet been to the big cities (we have been avoiding those as we're having more trouble with the camper taking off in first gear and reverse, so we're better off sticking to the highways) but have been following the more scenic routes between small towns and the lakes. The lakes are almost bright blue, with the enormous mountains framing the water in the background, covered by meadows and spruce forest, with those tiny little farmhouses or barns...

 We have been so pleased to see many new varieties of flowers and creatures here in the alps. All of us can spend ages looking at the stripes on the back of a beetle or the patterns in a petal. But I'm always the one holding the family up on our treks by taking a myriad of photos of the exquisite things. Maybe some of you might enjoy them too. This one was like a flower version of a berry. It was quite tall and had wonderfully glossy petals. This plant here was the only one I spotted on the whole mountain. Maybe it's a bit more rare. Isn't this one cute! It looks like something out of Dr Seuss. A mountain Lily! This one is funny too. It looks like a carefully woven basket. I think it is the flower itself, although it could be the seed pod. Poppies! Icelandic? Lots of different varieties of daisies. A type of yarrow These have got to be my favourite I think. The follow...

We woke the next morning to scenery of the eastern Italian Alps, or more specifically the Dolomites. They are hugely towering, craggy mountains, - a UNESCO World Heritage site. They are decorated with rocky scree slopes, ash, fur and spruce trees, alpine meadows, beautiful farmhouses and barns in a germanic building style. Our parking spot looked over what was an ancient lake, now a swampy grassland and millions of little frogs! The frogs were all over the tarmac, and grass, jumping around, seemingly not knowing where they belonged. The girls set out to rescue as many as they could, releasing them beyond a wall that looked as though it was supposed to prevent the wildlife from getting on the road, but was a death trap to the little frogs trying to get over to the swamp. I have no idea how they all got there near the road so far from water. The poor little things! After an hour or so of frog rescueing we walked down a walkway to the pathway which lead to what was once an island wh...

Venice That Sunday in Florence was probably the hottest day I’ve ever experienced. The stones on the pathways and the bricks and stones forming the buildings were pulsating with heat. Even the steps in the shade were radiating such warmth that you could almost burn your bum if you sat on them! After our walking tour we had lunch, and then decided to walk up the hill to the Rose garden our guide had recommended. But we hadn’t gone far before we all felt like we were melting and I felt such a drained exhaustion from the heat that I thought I might collapse. I didn’t though, and the agreement that we’d head back to the bikes gave us a second wind to make the journey back to Poupe. And there’s nothing quite like a bit of time ducking into some of the lovely shops who also have air con! Win win! We all had a cold shower and dinner, with a rest on the grass when we got back and then started out on the road towards Venice. Josh spotted a lake on the map halfway there, so we dro...