Mama Mia we are in Italy!

I come to you this morning (Sunday) as we prepare to head to Rome. Yesterday was a packed day, full of driving once again. It felt a bit strange for me to start my day in Shanghai, China come through Munich, Germany and into Zurich Switzerland. Then on a train to Interlaken to meet back up with Nikki and the kids only to get into the car and drive down to Florence, Italy. Talk about planes, trains and automobiles!!!

Nikki will fill everyone in with the details of the week in Interlaken when she gets on the next time. It was a great week with many adventures including seeing some beautiful waterfalls in the mountains and swimming with the kids and friends.

The drive from Interlaken into Italy was again one of the most beautiful and breath taking trips of our lives. We started out, after a bit of shopping, and climbed and climbed and climbed. I thought to myself that our GPS could not be serious as I looked at it and the pictured looked more like a series of snakes than roads. But it was true. At the highest point we stopped and were in both the clouds and the snow. It was around 7500 ft high. I thought a few times that I was going to lose Nikki as the cliffs off the side of the road were a bit nerve racking. I can not image what it would be like in the winter to drive.

As they say, what goes up must come down and as beautiful as it was on one side was just a wonderful on the other. There were many natural waterfalls, rock formations and little alpine villages. Then came the Stau!!! I am not sure I spelled it right, but we ended up in a traffic jam coming out of the mountains as we passed through a 10 mile tunnel which was controlled for traffic by creating this queue. I thought I would be smart and find an "alternate" route with the GPS and it worked, or at least it showed me an alternate route. Only to find out that the road was closed and we had to cirlce back to the end of the queue. It reminded me of taking a roller coaster and wanting to go again, just not as much fun!

We ended up at our hotel outside of Florence around 11:00pm and fell into bed. Not the most luxurious, but a place to rest our heads. This is where I write you from this morning. We plan now a bit of a drive to Rome where we will stay for 2 nights. It will be great to see this part of Italy before heading to the beach on the Italian Riviera. Talk to you the next time we get the chance.

Tim, Nikki and the kids.