Karen Wright: Continuing our road trip into Switzerland

The next stop in our itinerary was Lake Garda. Garda is in northern Italy, near Verona, and is a place we have visited a few times before. The first time was almost years ago as a 60th birthday treat for my husband John. Since then we have had a few visits, the last being October 2022 when we were on a coach holiday to the Dolomites.

Our campsite this year was at a small place called Moniga del Garda and it was right by the lake. We spent three nights there and the highlight was a ferry across the water to Sermione, which is a honey pot for tourists, it was very pretty and well worth the visit. We enjoyed our time in Italy, having visited four different areas we were ready to travel to our next spot, Switzerland.

As we drove towards Switzerland we passed Lake Maggiore, another of Italy’s famous lakes along with Lake Como. We only caught a few glimpses of the lake as we drove but it looked very spectacular.

Once into Switzerland we were amongst the mountains and, of course, it was wonderful; the scenery and the fresh clean air felt brilliant after so much hot sun. Although the sun was shining, we could see snow on top of some of the mountains.

The first night I cooked up some potato rosti with fried eggs, nice and simple dish that was perfect after the drive. The second night I stayed true to the Alpine region and we had Raclette. Raclette is both a type of cheese and a cooking gadget, a bit like an electric hot plate with a grill beneath. You cook strips of meat or vegetables in the hotplate and melt raclette cheese in little metal dishes underneath, with the melted cheese then being poured over potatoes. I did think about making fondue but I decided it was one too many unusual things for John, he has suffered pasta and other things he is not partial to for the last few weeks, so I thought I would give him a break with something I knew he’d enjoy.

After two nights we waved goodbye to Switzerland and drove back into France. This time we started in Alsace - a new area to me. We’re now in last week of the tour and are driving slowly northwards making our way towards home.