We are back from Geneva!!!

Yes, we are back! And we survived! And they let us out from Swiss!

It was a real trip. We departed from Geneva on Friday at 11. I was nervous and pissed because I thought it's already 12 and that we are very late. But only the clock in the van was still showing the summer time! Sorry, Joyce and Jan Dirk, I was awful.

Next thing was, the phone with Tomtom dropped dead out of battery just when we got out of Geneva. Despite being on the charger all night! Shitty, but we got in a better mood after stopping at a Coop market by the high-way and spent all of the swiss francs we had left on croissants and candies!

It was going OK till the border, the weather forecast - the rain and snow - didn't really come true, we only saw a few snowflakes dancing in front of the window, just to say hi.
We were passing the border in Basel. There are two LKW border passes, one is with the France and the other one, which we took last time, is with Germany. We decided to try with the French, since last time the Germans didn't want to give us a stamp, we thought the French are nicer ...

Swiss didn't make much problems at the customs, they gave us the import money back, but then at the barrier the officer sent us to weight the car. It was a disaster: 4500kg! That is 1 ton more than what I am allowed to drive with my license and what the car can be loaded. The officer called the police and while waiting for them we tried to get a stamp from the French. They didn't want to give it. You should go to the same place where you got in - at the German boarder!

Then the police came, Joyce and Jan Dirk explained that we don't know where all that weight is from. Some machines and some small stuff, it can't be soooooo much. The police was calculating and talking, took a look inside the car. See, it's almost empty!
When they heard we are artists, going back from an exhibition, they let us go, even without a ticket. They said, we saved 700 francs and that we should use it for the art. I can't believe, they really let us go.

Since the French didn't want to give us the stamp, we thought we could try at the other border pass, but the officers at the barrier didn't allow us back to Swiss because we were too heavy. So we were trapped between France and Swiss with an overloaded truck and it was getting late.

Joyce and Jan Dirk tried again with the French customs person. First it was a solid no, but then he heard their discussion in Dutch, which he happened to understand. He could hear that we are not trying to fool him around, and then gave the stamp on that thin piece of paper.

I couldn't believe when they got back with the paper and we drove away. We really got away with it. Amazing. It could be a lot lot worse, Joop was almost organizing a saving squad from Holland.

We bought a car charger for the phone on the way to Mainz where we stayed for the night and had some very heavy food in one of the filled pubs. Next morning we left and I was still afraid that the German police might stop us and send us for being weighted, but luckily that didn't happen. Only some rain.

The last problem was parking in Nijmegen on a Saturday afternoon. Well, not parking, that I know quite good by now, but more finding the parking space :)).

But even that we found and I got very happily home, had a nice loooooong shower and Joop cooked a fabulous Spinach risotto.

Here you can find the whole collection of photos from Geneva.