The advantage of hiking in the more popular areas of the Alps is the abundance of mechanical vehicles for moving people up and down the mountains. We awoke on our first day in Switzerland to an impressive view of the Eiger's infamous North face from our bedroom window, in the knowledge that there is a railway that goes up inside the mountain to arrive very high up at the glacial pass of Jungfraujoch. However, the cost of the return ticket up the Eiger was rath...

It was a very long, knee-jerking descent from the summit of Mottarone (1492m), and we were regretting not doing it the other way round, by hiking up and taking the ski lift and cable car down. The views of Lake Maggiore and distant Alps were awesome from the top, and what a great place to find a luge. It's a pity that it doesn't bring you all the way down, but that didn't stop us from queuing up with the kids and having a go. Great fun! After spending a night ...

We eventually left the rain and dark clouds behind, but not until we had driven right across the Alps through Austria and Switzerland, and found ourselves here in Lombardy amidst the Italian Lakes. After stopping for lunch in a town called Pfunds we then managed to get ourselves lost in a couple of misty valleys that turned out to be dead ends before eventually emerging on a long, winding descent from the mountains into the fourth country of the day. Lake C...

We would probably have had a go at climbing Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, but the weather forecast for the next week is looking very ominous across the Alps and we would have needed at least one overnight stay in one of the mountain huts. We settled instead for the smaller, 1622m peak of Sonnenspitze meaning "sunny peak". I can't think why; particularly as we were soon to find ourselves caught in a thunderstorm on the way down, and what could only be descr...

Umleitung! My heart sinks every time I see a big red cross through a town name and that dreaded word underneath it. Umleitung! And I'm beginning to wonder if there could be anything less romantic than constant debates over which of the three unsigned roads we should take at the next crossroads. Umleitung! Yes, I think I've learnt the word for diversion now, so how about enlightening me on the German for "this way next", or even a town name that is on the map wo...