The Route to Grenoble

A Tauck bus delivers us to the airport in Munich.  Along the way we pass miles of hops fields.  It's no wonder they can produce such quantities of beer.

The pickup of our Peugeot lease car is relatively smooth thanks to the cell phone of our Czech guide, Bara.

We exit and drive all over the countryside in search of lunch only to declare defeat and sink to the level of Burger King at a nearby exit. It's August and all of Europe is closed.

We're made to purchase a 30 Swiss Franc road pass and affix it to the windshield at the boarder.

There is far too much construction slowing our progress. The final insult is when we exit the motorway with 0.7miles of our hotel, we are stuck in gridlock traffic for 45 minutes until CJ decides that getting lost can't be any slower.  The gamble pays off.

If only we had known when we made the reservation at this hotel that it was located next to Bern Stadium and on this particular evening the stadium is hosting a Champion's League match between Bern Young Boys and Serbia. International competitions are very big deals in Europe.

We awake to find that not only are the convention center and stadium adjacent to us, but on the other side a huge equestrian complex and hundreds of horses.

 

Day 2 of driving goes well.  We have passed through Annecy many times on the ski bus.

 It has always been our desire to have lunch in Annecy and spend some time there. Two passes and not a single parking spot later, we sniff out a tiny village and a local's restaurant, Restaurant L'Orangie, for two fine plat du jours.

As one approaches Grenoble, the Alps keep getting bigger and closer until your eventually surrounded by them and their beauty.