The Traveling Donahues 2013

October 3, 2013 Thursday Leaving Beaune

Up this morning and packed again. We will be headed to Milan via Geneva. It is seven hours if we go through Lyon and five plus through Geneva with possible back up due to traffic. I think we are choosing the potentially shorter route just because we get to go through Switzerland. To be determined how long it will really take.

We had coffee and local pastry before we left…

….

We made it to Milan and it was really some kind of a drive. It was really beautiful. We drove through the Swiss and Italian Alps. We drove through the town of Mt. Blanc and went through the tunnel which appeared to be about five miles. We should have gotten a clue what we were in for when the toll to go through the tunnel (which ran under the mountain) was 40 Euros. There were some scary moments on the way to the tunnel. One of which we were going to cross a bridge which one side of it was on the ground 4000 ft. below with workers fixing it which brought the bridge crossing to two lane rather than four lanes as we crossed it. Now I will have to admit I did not see it. I saw the bridge between the mountains; I was cognitive we were going to have to go across it; I am terrified of heights; as we approached I slunk down in the seat, kept my eyes on the ceiling of the car and whatever I knew after that was through Bill reporting to me and me hearing him suck air over his teeth. When we had to pay a toll on the other side of the tunnel, Bill could not get his credit card out to pay because his hands were cramping from holding on to the steering wheel too tight.

I made it through the rest of it like an adult, but my childhood habit of being scared of bridges came roaring back on the one we crossed yesterday. Although frightening for me, it was a beautiful drive. It is not one I would want to take again, but I am very happy we did it once.

Along the way, the scenes were out of the movies and definitely out of our daily experiences including a family driving their cattle home for the evening, down a road next to the autostrada

We made it to Milan about 5:30 but it took us an hour to get through town to our hotel. Apparently, right have you pay the last toll on the Autostrada as you drive into Milan, it is a free for all. No lanes, the bigger you are as a vehicle the more rights you have. We were between three huge semis trying to inch along to get past the trucks so we could see the road and find our way to town. Once we got there, only the Italians could have put stoplights in the middle of a “round about”. What were they thinking!!!???

Made it to the hotel and had dinner in the bar --- only made sense for the evening. A few glasses of wine later, we mellowed out enough to head upstairs for some well needed sleep.

Ciao!!!

Susan and Bill