Arriving at Wassen

Leaving Como we almost immediately and almost unknowingly crossed the border into Switzerland. There was no formalities, we were expecting to show passports at the very least, but the checkpoint staff were busy chatting and just waved us through.

Now, this was not good because you need a car sticker to drive in Switzerland and our gas bag border controllers were too busy yacking to check our car. Steve had read that cars without a sticker would be waved aside at the border and directed, then and there, to a sticker buying location.  None of this happened and we entered Switzerland sticker-less.  Not to worry - all we did was a border U-turn, drive momentarily back into Italy and then back into Switzerland, this time interrupting the gas bags to point to our invisible car sticker.

Success - they pulled us over and directed us to a nearby office.  Sticker in place we continued on as law abiding visitors J.

The roads in Switzerland are smooth, easy to navigate and have loads of tunnels (our longest yet - 12km!).  We travelled about 220kms that day and as we drove the mountains got larger, steeper and more and more beautiful.

Wassen is just off a main road and it was like stepping into another world.  I took these photos from the car park seconds after we arrived...

And the kids found this before we even got into our room...

As well as a trampoline for the kids, the hotel also had a granite table tennis table, surrounded by lovely garden beds...

The Swiss green grass and hanging baskets rival those in England and I was in plant heaven. Our hotel is on the bottom left...