Date: 2005-02-28
To: Trip to Chamonix France
Miles today: 0.0

I¢m back from my month long trip to Europe. I had an awesome time with my mom who works in Germany. My brother Thomas was also there for the first week of my trip, and anyone who knows Thomas knows that there is never a dull moment with him. He drove me a little crazy, but it¢s worth it to spend some time with him. I arrived in Frankfort Germany at 8 am. From there we went directly to Chamonix France. It was an interesting drive to say the least. The trip actually went through the beautiful country of Switzerland which was a bonus I was not expecting. I was nice driving through the valleys looking up at the snow covered peaks. I was definitely something that you don¢t see everyday in the southeast. We arrived above the snow line on a windy twisty road after dark where the crazy Europeans drive as fast as they can. We eventually stopped to put chains on the tires so we wouldn¢t slide of the road that seamed to go up and up forever. We soon found out that the brand new chains that my mother purchased did not fit her car. Actually they fit her car but they did not fit the tiers that she had put on at a German shop. The tiers they put on her car were too big. So we spent about 45 minutes trying to put these chains on with the help of a nice Frenchman. Eventually we got them on. As soon as we took off they started beating the hell out of the car, so at the first pull of we stopped again to re-evaluate our situation. We had driven all day and halfway up a mountain, and I really didn¢t want to turn around. So we decided to live on the edge and try to go on without chains. Mom thought it was best that I drive after being up for about 22 hours on my flight. Reluctantly I started up the dark mountain covered in snow. It was very dark and all the sane people knew that it wasn¢t smart to be going up or down the mountain at night. The road went on for what seamed like forever and the few people that were out driving in the snow and ice flew right by us. I guess they are a little more comfortable driving on the ice looking down 10,000 ft mountains. As we crossed the boarder into France the sign read plainly that you are not allowed to cross without snow tiers or chains. The car was pretty silent after that! Luckily it was night and there were no boarder guards posted on the remote road. I considered turning around, but it was only about 15 more miles, and we had been driving all day to get there. So we drove for about 10 miles in complete silence. There were no lights or anything around for miles and miles. I was just thinking ¢I hope someone finds our bodies when we slide of the road.¢ I didn¢t say a word, I just kept my hand on the wheel and drove on. We arrived in town around 11 pm with great celebration. So we decided to find our hotel. Mom had forgotten the map to the hotel, so all we had to work with was a name. Finding a hotel late at night in a county where you don¢t speak the language is not the easiest thing, but we ran across an Englishman who had an idea where it was, and it turned out we weren¢t even in the right town. We were still 5 or 10 miles away. Eventually we arrived in the right town and with a bit more time of driving around while Thomas, mom, and I all bitched at each other we found it. Straight to bed for me!We actually stayed right outside of Chamonix in Les Praz. The whole area was amazing. It was neat standing in the streets of the small villages with the mountains in the background jetting out from behind the traditional homes. The main mountain there was Mont-Blanc, the highest peak in France. Although we didn¢t ski on that mountain we had an amazing time with one day of skiing and a day of exploring the town and the area.