Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 14:18:44 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Another long weekend.......
Guten tag,
Another trip across the Atlantic.. I'm in "God's Country" right now --
Switzerland. I wish I had brought my U2 CD -- its very appropriate for here!
This was a "drive where I feel like" kind of a trip. I landed at Zurich airport
early this morning and rented my car and started driving. I had AAA maps of
Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria (prepared for anything) and my
fully-charged camera. By the end of the day, I had used only the Swiss map and
my camera was fully-discharged.
While the plane was landing I noted the cloud levels -- from 4000 to 2000 feet.
So anything above 4000 feet was all sunshine! I had a few places in mind --
Jungfrau, Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, .... Venice... Anyway, I starded driving
south from Zurich thinking I'd do "the Mont Blanc loop" around the
Swiss-French-Italian border. And along the way, a few mountain passes for some
spectacular scenery! Well, things didn't exactly turn out that way..
My route -- for those of you know the country or have a map handy -- was
Zurich-Luzern-Grimselpass-Oberwald-Brig-Chamonix/Mt Blanc-Aoste-Zurich. I got
up to a few km short of Grimselpass (el. 2164 m) when the road was suddenly
closed for improvements. Had to turn around and backtrack to good ole Highway
11 -- a road I'd driven on during my last trip to Switzerland and really one of
the most scenic mountain roads I've ever been on! I followed that (in the
opposite direction as last time) to Sustenpass (el. 2224 m) and then Hwy 2
South to Andermatt. That's a 59km stretch of highway through the clouds and the
mountains, and every hairpin turn has breathtaking views of the Alps! The car
windows were down, there was some German music playing on the radio, and on
practically every turn I was saying "oooh" and "aaah"!
From Andermatt, I tried going to Mont Blanc again -- Hwy 19 West. There's
another pass there - Furkapass (2431 m), but when I got there that was closed
too! Ok.... FINE! Turn around again.... back towards Andermatt and then south
on Hwy 2 and yet another mountain pass - St Gotthard Pass (2108 m) - this one
was open, but coming down this way meant Mont Blanc was not happening on this
trip! Not that I minded too much, this was beautiful too! And along the way was
a stopover for my "usual" lunch (plus a hot dog) at a roadside shop overlooking
the town of Airola. I also bought a few boxes of the good stuff to take back
home, and maybe one to Vancouver next weekend...
By now it was around 4pm, and I had to decide what to do. I was supposed to be
back in Zurich tonight for my flight back home tomorrow morning. So I couldn't
go too far away. I started driving south, thinking I'll go down to the town of
Bellinzona (near Italian border), then back up to Zurich on a different
highway, completing somewhat of a circle.
One of the things I love about my roadtrips is that nothing is 100% decided
until the trip is over. I was driving south, and saw signs for "Milano" ...
170km... 140km.... started getting another idea.......
"not far at all! da Vinci's _The Last Supper_ is in Milan.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... it's not too far. I could make it and back to
Zurich by tonight, especially driving the way Italians do!"
hmmm.....
I drove by Lugano without taking the exit. Continuing South towards Italy.
Seeing the exit signs go by... Morcote... Mendosio... Chiasse.
Then Milano, and under that, "ZOLL" -- dammit, I forgot it was a toll road in
Italy!!! Nah, I'm not paying money for this! I'll go some other time. I took
the exit and turned back north, Zurich-bound. From there it was freeway all the
way back, and took about 3 hours.
Now I'm back in Zurich at an airport hotel and my flight home leaves in 9
hours.
As for Mont Blanc, Matterhorn, and Jungfrau, they'll have to wait for my
return. As for Venice, well.... maybe that's better for a day if I start from
Rome... And The Last Supper can also be had another day...
I think I've caught up to Indian time now -- time to wake up! Crossed two
oceans twice each in 10 days (by tomorrow)..
ciao,
me.
Switzerland:
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