The Day I Visited Five European Countries in One Day and How You Can, Too

I will never forget July 4th, 2009. My husband Bill and I were living near Stuttgart, Germany and preparing for a 10 day visit from his mother, a lovely lady named Parker. Since Bill had a long weekend coming up for the holiday, we decided we would take Parker on an Independence Day trip. Bill put me in charge of making the travel plans and, as is my custom, I set my sights on finding somewhere for us to go that was near a border and close enough for us to drive there.

Before last Independence Day, Parker had only been to Germany once before, twenty years prior, when Bill was there for his first tour of Germany. Because Bill was pretty young and poor at the time, she didn't get a chance to do much traveling outside of where he was living at the time. Since Bill and I knew we were going to be leaving Germany within the next few months and we weren't sure we would ever get a chance to go back, we decided to allow Parker a chance to see as many countries as possible during her last visit. Little did we know, we were going to end up visiting five countries in a single day.

After studying Google Earth a bit, I finally decided we would go to Oberstaufen, a pleasant, pastoral town in the Allgauer Alps just over the Bavarian state line and about 45 minutes from Lake Konstanz/Bodensee. I found us a room at the MONDI Holiday Hotel in Oberstaufen that was large enough to accommodate the three of us. Though I had never heard of Oberstaufen before choosing to go there, it turns out it's a popular tourist area for Germans. The hotel I chose was actually set up as a resort and had a lot of activities available for those who wanted to hang around the town. There's good golfing, skiing, and hiking available there, but Bill, Parker, and I were not going down there to enjoy sporting activities. We were going there so that Parker might see some places she had never had the chance to see before.

The big day of travel

Germany to Austria

We enjoyed a pleasant night at the MONDI Holiday Hotel and ate a delicious breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. Then we got in the car and started heading south with no particular plan to go anywhere specific. Oberstaufen is just minutes from the Austrian border and our first stop was at an Austrian gas station, where we got some fuel and a vignette sticker for the Austrian autobahn. In many European countries, it's necessary to purchase a sticker for your windshield in order to have permission to drive on high speed motorways. Austria is one such country. The countryside was beautiful, but we were eager to see Liechtenstein, which is a tiny, landlocked principality to the west between Austria and Switzerland.

Austria to Liechtenstein

After purchasing yet another vignette, this time for Switzerland, we arrived in Liechtenstein in the late morning, excited to be there because none of us had ever been there before. Liechtenstein has a population of about 35,000 and has an area of just 61.7 miles. Liechtenstein is heavily influenced by Switzerland, yet it is its own country. In fact, Liechtenstein is the only German speaking country that doesn't share a border with Germany.

We found a place to park and wandered around Vaduz, the capital city. Parker decided to stop by the tourist office, where she could get her passport stamped for two euros or three Swiss francs. After about an hour or two of walking around, we started getting hungry and I had the bright idea for us to enjoy lunch in Switzerland.

Liechtenstein to Switzerland

Bill, Parker, and I marveled at the gorgeous Alpine landscape that is in Switzerland. Every time I visit there, I'm in awe of just how beautiful Switzerland is, with its majestic verdant meadows, waterfalls coming out of the mountains, and cows with bells hung around their necks. We drove south on the Swiss autobahn and eventually stopped for lunch in Chur.

Chur, Switzerland is at the extreme east of the country. It is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden, which has the distinction of being an area where one might hear people speaking in German, Italian, or Romansch. Romansch is a Romance language spoken by a very small minority of people, though it is one of Switzerland's four official language, the others of which are German, Italian, and French.

We found a lovely Italian restaurant in Chur, where we enjoyed a sumptuous but very expensive lunch. Afterwards, we walked off the food by wandering around Chur. My ears perked up when I started hearing people speak Italian. I turned to Bill and said, "Let's go to Italy! It's not too far!"

Switzerland to Italy

We got back in the car and started driving south again, enjoying the drama of the Alps. By late afternoon, we were crossing the Italian border. As we got on the autostrada and drove through a toll booth, we were confronted with signs giving us the choice to go to Milan or Lake Como. Bill and I had vacationed in Lake Como during the summer of 2008 and we went to Milan by train as a day trip. We both remembered Milan to be very crowded and kind of dirty, while Como is very beautiful. So we headed for Lake Como...

Lake Como really is a gorgeous place, though I guess we had conveniently forgotten about the insane two lane road that circles Lake Como and the way Italians tend to drive. We started touring the lake area, driving the perimeter until we ended up in a rainstorm that suddenly dumped a lot of water into the street. As dinnertime was approaching, we decided we should stop and eat and allow the storm to pass. So we found a parking area in Bergamo, a town and commune in Lombardy, Italy.

We found a very nice restaurant in Bergamo, where we proceded to enjoy a delicious meal. That restaurant has the distinction of being the place that got Bill over his distaste for oysters, as one was brought out for each of us as an amuse before the first course. Of course, by the time dinner was over, it was about 9:00pm... Suddenly, we realized that we needed to get back to Germany and go to bed.

Trying to "escape" Italy...

Bill and I were already somewhat familiar with the area around Bergamo, having spent several days vacationing in the Lake Como area the year before. Nevertheless, Bill elected to use the GPS to help us get back on the autostrada and start heading home. Unfortunately, because of the rainstorm, the main road to get out of the Lake Como area was closed. Every time we tried to access the autostrada, we were either confronted by a blockade or the police.

Finally, the GPS sent us up a very twisty alpine road that would supposedly get us to the Swiss border. The twists and turns were hard on my stomach. I'm sure the scenery would have been very beautiful, had it not been dark outside. All we could see were the outlines of mountains, lakes, and few patches of dirty snow. And then, when we finally reached the Swiss border, it was closed! We had no choice but to head back down the twisty roads of the mountain pass.

Bill stopped for gas at a 24 hour Italian gas station. One thing to know about Italian gas stations is that they aren't manned 24 hours a day. Patrons can buy gas, but they only get the amount of cash they put into the gas pump; credit or debit cards aren't accepted and the gas pump doesn't give any change.

While Bill was putting gas in the car, my stomach was doing somersaults. I got out of the car and went behind the gas station, where I could hear some kind of party going on. I leaned over a railing and threw up my dinner all over someone's flower bed as I heard a bunch of Italians enjoying their revelry.

Reaching Switzerland... at 3:00am

I'm not sure how he did it, but Bill managed to stay awake and get us to St. Moritz, a Swiss resort town in the canton of Graubünden. Ordinarily, I would have really enjoyed seeing St. Moritz, but it was very early in the morning and we were all exhausted. We must have aroused some suspicion as we approached the border since, instead of waving us through, the border guard demanded our passports. After verifying that we were relatively harmless, he waved us through and we were finally making some real progress toward getting back to our hotel room in Germany.

Pulling into Germany, just in time for a nice breakfast...

We watched the sun rise over the Swiss autobahn and cheered when we crossed back into Austria. It was about 8:00am when we pulled into our hotel's parking lot and we were just in time to enjoy another lovely breakfast. After we ate, we staggered back to our room, which had been unused the night before. We caught a few hours of sleep, then decided to stay in Oberstaufen for a nice low key day and see what all the fuss was about there.

A trip I don't regret, but don't want to repeat...

In retrospect, maybe it was kind of crazy to see five countries in one day. I never thought we'd be trapped in Italy, owing to a sudden rain storm. It seems like a strange problem to have, trying to escape Italy for Germany. On the other hand, our five country odyssey was the kind of trip we'll talk about for years to come, so I don't regret that we did it.

On the way back to our home near Stuttgart, I talked Bill into taking a small detour into France, yet another country Parker had never seen. Bill balked at first, because we had boarded our dogs and needed to get back before the boarding facility closed. But I ended up prevailing in my nagging and we did go to France on the way home for a nice lunch in a border town where there were no Americans to speak of.

Luckily Parker is a good sport... Indeed, I think I might have actually scored some brownie points with my mother in law for giving her the chance to see some new places.