Europe14 - Day 1.5 and 5 countries

Off the Browning family is again for another European adventure!  A little more than three weeks to wreak havoc on the on the Continent on this trip, with many escapades to be had.  The anchor point of this Europe outing is a week in  Tuscan villa with 3 other neighborhood families to celebrate some special birthdays, including Sara's 40th birthday.  So, two years older and wiser than last time, we are all off to Europe!

The kick off of the trip started the same way it did on our Europe trip two years ago: the family packed in a rental car driving to Seattle.  About four hours later, with a lunch stop and some gnarly traffic at the Tacoma Dome, we arrived at the SeaTac airport.  We dropped off the rental car and made our way through Iceland Air check in and security, both of which were surprisingly short.

Arriving at the gate, we were greeted by one of traveling companions, our neighbors, the Harmonds.  The time before the flight went quickly as everyone spend some time catching up and chatting about the fun to be had in Europe.  All aboard... and the flight was off.

The first flight was from Seatlle to Iceland.  Flying Iceland Air to Europe is one of the best ways to get there.  The flight from Seattle is a little over 6 hours, which is a nice way to break up a transcontinental flight to shorter and more kid-friendly lengths.  They also give the kids under a certain age free dinners, and they have large, individual viewing screens (with USB chargers!) with lots of on-demand movies.  If you book early enough, they also have some great rates on some flights.  Ok, enough of the Iceland Air advertisement :).

The flight to Iceland was mostly uneventful.  None of us really slept, except for Katy getting about an hour of sleep towards the end of the flight.  The flight left Seattle at 4pm, and arrived at Iceland at 6am, so this flight was the time to get sleep.  I had a lovely couple from The Netherlands sitting next to me, with a 9 month old baby.  The baby did pretty good, but had a few crying times as she got very tired and had a hard time going to sleep. The kids played games and Sara read her book, and I watched a movie and read a few articles I clipped for the flight.

Flight landed in Iceland and a quick pass through customs lead us to the main concourse.  We hurriedly said goodbye to the Harmonds (will be meeting back up with them in a week) and got on the next flight to Munich. Country Count = 1.

The flight to Munich went pretty quickly.  Exhaustion finally caught up to me and Katy, and I think that Noah even slept a little on the flight.  A short 3.5 hours later and we landed in Munich.  Getting our bags was quick and painless.  A short time at the Hertz counter secured our car for the next 3 weeks: a Hyundai mini SUV.  Plenty of room in the back for our one carry-on sized bag per person plus backpacks.  I spent a few minutes getting the "cockpit" setup with Jane (the name we affectionately call our GPS), my rearview mirror phone holder (bondi) and the cigarette lighter USB chargers for front and rear devices.  Reminds me that I need to give some ideas to the Intel crew working on automotive products :).  Finally, all was ready and we headed out on the Autobahn (2pm CET).  Country Count = 2.

So, the autobahn is fun, even in a MiniSUV.  It is enjoyable driving in Europe, as it is an active sport, not a lazy lumber down the highway like many US road trips.  Always a BMW on your tail driving 160 MPH.  The little Hyundai even got up to 100 MPH for about 20 miles (ok... it was down hill).

A couple of hours later the Alps were filling our view as we crossed the Austrian border.  As we zipped across the border, we did happen to notice a sign that said something about tolls, but wasn't quite sure what it mean.  A quick query on Google and we found out that we were supposed to buy a tariff card and display it on our car when driving on Austria interstates.  Oops.  So we get off at the next exit and hunt through a small town for a gas station. After about 10 minutes of terrorizing the people in this small town with my American driving skills, we found a gas station which sold the tariff cards and we were off again.  Country count = 3.

About 15 miles down the road, Jane told us to get off the interstate and make our way across a short transition road to another interstate about a mile away.  As we crossed a river on this transition road, we ran into a small booth which looked like a toll booth.  I approached and a uniformed cop walked up to the car, smiled and ask to see my license.  I gave it to him and he said "oh, Oregon" and gave it a quick closer inspection.  Smiling he ask if I knew who "John Browning" was.  Not quite understanding him, I stated I wasn't sure. He said "John Browning" and pointed to his pistol and made a gun firing down.  Oops, somewhat embarrassed, I said "of course!".  He smiled, handed back my license, and said, "Have a nice day in Switzerland!".  We all cracked up as we drove away.  We had no idea we were at the border after being in Austria for 15 minutes.  We spent more time looking for the tariff card that we did driving in Austria.  Country Count = 4.

We drove through Switzerland for about 30 minutes.  It was a beautiful drive as we were now getting into the heart of the Alps.  The Rhine river was keeping us company on the right of the highway.  As we reached one particularly beautiful area, our cel phones gave a quick chrip with a welcome message to Lichtenstein!  Country Count = 5!

A short while later, Jane directed us to leave the interstate and make our way across the Rhine on a small road and entering the cute town of Vaduz, the capital  of Liechtenstein.   Watching over the town was an impressive castle on the hillside, the home of the reigning prince of Liechtenstein.

We made our way through the town, carefully driving on the narrow streets filled with people coming and going through town (it was about 7pm on Sunday).  A short while we arrived at our hotel, the Meierhof Hotel. The Meierhof is a cute little hotel on the hillside above Vaduz.  From the parking lot, it offered and amazing view of the Alps across the Rhine valley.  We were greased by a very friendly woman at the reception, who checked us in and offered us some tips for the evening.  It turns out that Switzerland was playing Ecuador that evening, and they had setup a big tent in the town center where everyone was going to watch the game.  Score!

After putting out stuff in our awesome little family room (two separate bedrooms, one for the parents, one for the kids), we made our way to the center of town just about 30m into the Swiss vs Ecuador game.  We found a great restaurant, Cafe Engel, right across from the big screen and proceeded to have some awesome Swiss food (Schnitzel, Spaztle, etc), drinking the local brew, and watching the game.  And what a finish to the game.  The late score for the Swiss to win the game elecrtifed the town.  There was 30 minutes of cheer and celebrating in the tent, followed by several cars of teenagers driving through the main strip waving swiss flags.  Tummies full and with a smile on our faces, we made our way back to the hotel to end our day.

And what a day, well day and half it was!  9 hours of flying.  3 hours of driving.  5 countries, and soccer with a few hundred of the locals.  We are off to a good start!