Switzerland

Just a note to say that we arrived safe and sound in Switzerland. I don't have access to my photos but will give a quick update of our last 2 days.

Firstly, I need to say that I write this now with a sad heart. I have just watched Oracle whip our Kiwi arses to take the Americas Cup. It would have been so cool on so many levels if we had it back in Auckland. Oracle was just too damn fast. As someone just said on Facebook, we were out teched. Somehow they were able to make their boat go faster when they needed to. It almost looked too good to be true, if you know what I mean but I am in no way implying that they cheated in any way...

Anyway, c'est la vie, back to our holiday.

We left Cadaques in Spain at 8am and headed for Lausanne in Switzerland. According to Jane, my GPS, Lausanne was 7 hours and 21 minutes away. 20 minutes in, all was going well until Ben realised that he had forgotten the iPad. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I had to drive back and grab it which put us 1/2 hour behind schedule, which sucked a bit but I got over it.

The drive wasn't too bad. I averaged about 120 kmph, top speed was about 155 kmph. The speed limit was 130 kmph but I was just going the same speed as the traffic. We took the toll roads to expedite the trip - it cost a cool 100 euros in tolls to get us to the front door of our destination! After stopping twice, we made it safely in Lausanne at 5pm having left Spain, and driven completely across France.

We were greeted with open arms by Christine's cousin Anne-Catherine, Anne- Catherine's husband Benjamin, their 3 kids Colin, Darrel and Eliot, Christine's other cousin Olivier and her Aunty Sabine. Sabine cooked us a great meal and we chatted until late - only going to bed at 11.30pm after yet another disappointing race.

The next day, today, we rose late and headed to our first of 2 organised wine tastings. The first was with Anne-Catherine, Benjamin and Sabine at a local vineyard. The wines were amazing and the cheese and cured meats that accompanied the wines were also amazing. They treated us like royalty. Swiss wines are really very good.

The next was later in the afternoon at Olivier's part of Switzerland, about 45 minutes drive away. Smack bang in between two awesome mountain ranges. Spectacular landscapes here, so different to anything I have seen before. Mountains, lakes and vineyards. Stunning. Photos to follow - promise.

It was kind of surreal. We were a little late for the second tasting so we were a bit rushed. Before we realised it, we were bundled into a van with all French speaking men and a Polish driver. We were then hurtling along at 130kmph going somewhere to taste wine. We turned up at a place that looked deserted and entered this ancient lift which took us 2 levels underground into a cellar. There we were once again treated to about 20 wines and a lengthy presentation in French. It was a bit difficult to understand everything, but we got the gist.

We then returned home to Olivier's house (crazy big, 4 levels, 2 years old with about 27 different rooms/ spaces) for a traditional Swiss meal - a raclette. There are 2 traditional Swiss meals, the first is fondue (you may have heard of it) and the second is the raclette - both involve melted cheese. With a raclette, you have a massive semi circle of raclette, the cheese, which you hold in this contraption which sits under a heat lamp. The cut face of the cheese melts, and gets scrapped off onto your plate. Pretty much a mound of melted cheese. This is them eaten with boiled potatoes, cornichons and pickles. De frickin licios. You gotta love a meal in which the star is a pile of freshly melted cheese.

As dinner was being served (everyone is served one after the other as the layer of cheese is melted), Jamie decided to run into the glass door because she thought it was open. All of us either know someone who has done this or have done it themselves. It's never good. She was fine as it turns out, only her nose and her pride were bruised.

Tomorrow, off to Christine's 2nd cousin in another part of Switzerland - this time, only 3 hours away. I wonder what's for dinner?