This evening we are in Geneva, Switzerland. It is a beautiful city on a lake, but the buildings look much the same as any of the other European cities we have been through.We started the day with a thoroughly enjoyable drive on the Mediterranean coast of France. To leave the town of Beauieu sur Mer, where we spent the night, Stephanie and I had to drive up steep mountain roads that were often barely wide enough for two vehicles to squeeze past and with hairpin curves that forced you to slow to 20 or 30 km/h. Eventually we got out onto the open highway where we spent most of our driving hours cruising at 140km/h. The VolksWagon Golf Plus, that we were driving, barely noticed the speed. It is a very comfortable and gutsy car. I like it!!!
I must stop for a moment to gripe a bit. While we have been through incredibly beautiful terrain day after day, all the major roads, in Italy and France, seem to be toll roads. Today I paid a total of at least 5 tolls and $60 Cdn. To avoid toll roads would’ve added a further 6 hours to our day. Everything is “EXPENSIVE” out here! A coke at a decent sit down restaurant costs in the neighbourhood of $7 or $8 Cdn. That’s for one glass with no refills. Buying a can at a gas station costs at least $2 Cdn. I sense that the waiters, at the restaurants think I’ve been really cheap if Steph and I have only spent $40 Cdn to eat.
Other things I’ve noticed out here in Europe is that almost everybody speaks a little bit of English. That’s great for me since I’ve basically exhausted all my French after saying “bonjour” and “merci”. Everyone seems to eat off the backs of their forks, so it must be a dead giveaway that I am not from around here. Also wine seems to be the drink of choice with every meal. I feel almost like a hillbilly asking for a coke with my meal. I like very little of what I can understand on the menus. I think Stephanie and I are both starting to crave McDonalds.
R.W.
I must stop for a moment to gripe a bit. While we have been through incredibly beautiful terrain day after day, all the major roads, in Italy and France, seem to be toll roads. Today I paid a total of at least 5 tolls and $60 Cdn. To avoid toll roads would’ve added a further 6 hours to our day. Everything is “EXPENSIVE” out here! A coke at a decent sit down restaurant costs in the neighbourhood of $7 or $8 Cdn. That’s for one glass with no refills. Buying a can at a gas station costs at least $2 Cdn. I sense that the waiters, at the restaurants think I’ve been really cheap if Steph and I have only spent $40 Cdn to eat.
Other things I’ve noticed out here in Europe is that almost everybody speaks a little bit of English. That’s great for me since I’ve basically exhausted all my French after saying “bonjour” and “merci”. Everyone seems to eat off the backs of their forks, so it must be a dead giveaway that I am not from around here. Also wine seems to be the drink of choice with every meal. I feel almost like a hillbilly asking for a coke with my meal. I like very little of what I can understand on the menus. I think Stephanie and I are both starting to crave McDonalds.
R.W.
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