After a stay on the German side of Lake Konstanz we decided to try the Swiss side and moved to Kreuzlingen for a night. On the way we stopped at the Rhine falls which are the biggest in Europe, not for height but for width and probably sheer volume of water! They were pretty impressive, once we finally made it there: of course Switzerland still uses their Franc not joining in the whole EU thing so we needed to find a bank once we were over the border but could we find a Swiss bank anywhere? Ha! We finally managed to get some cash out at a Post Office and then found that of course they are pragmatic and will happily take Euros so we needn't have bothered. Never mind, the falls were definitely worth seeing.

Kreuzlingen (Switzerland) is right next to Konstanz (Germany) so we went out in 2 countries for the evening just to get G even more confused than usual. Then we decided to stick with Switzerland for a while and headed to Zurich to meet up with M's brother, Colin.

We arrived to find him heading to the little bar just over the road from the house - perfect timng! These are a particular Swiss thing where as long as only family members work there they are pretty unregulated so this was really just one of Colin's neighbours who had retired and decided to sell some beer in his garden - very civilised! We can't remember the right word for it but maybe Colin could remind us, if he can get on to the message board this time?!

Unfortunately, Ester (Colin's wife) wasn't able to be there so Colin had sent out for the troops in the form of sons - Rolf and Nick - to man the BBQ, Son's WAGs (wives and girlfriends for the uninitiated to Britich gossip columns and in this case Fabbienne and Katrine) to provide salads and fab apple cake and grandson Sam for entertainment! He was then able to be the Patriarch and just supervise the proceedings without doing much! Must run in the Service family!

The next day which was supposed to be a bank holiday but which everyone seemed to have to work at least the morning we met up with Nick and Katrine for a tour of Zurich city. This was interspersed with a lovely lunch of traditional Swiss food - except for G who chose spare ribs of all things but thoroughly enjoyed them nonetheless! - and coffee in a very interesting bar with chandeliers and marble pillars and an elderly gentleman dressed in very short leather shorts! All in all a very attractive, friendly city!

That evening we went for fondue at Emma and Mark's - hashing friends - and had a great tour of their flat from Ettiene aged 6 whose bunk bed is possibley even better than ours in the van, but only just, and his hasn't been to Greece! We had a lovely evening and it was particularly good catching up with people from home, especially at this stage of the trip and makes the return to Blightly a little less daunting.

We hadn't originally planned to spend much longer in Switzerland but decided we ought to do it justice and headed over the Alps to stay at Locarno on Lago di Maggiore. Yes most of its in Italy and this was italian Switzerland but it felt quite different - apart from anything else the campsite toilets were nice! In fact we liked it so much we spent 3 nights there but never made it for a swim in the lake - crystal clear but bloody freezing. If M wouldn't go in there was no way G would be!

We did however take the tourist trip of the area which was funicular then cable car and then chair lift to the top of the mountain behind Locarno and fantastic views of Alps all round. No snow where we were but you could see it on other peaks, more than we had when we'd driven over the Gotthard pass to get there anyway so we took some nice photos for the blog!

Next we're back to the Italian coast for a quick stop before France and the last leg!