Swiss Trip
July 2009
This year we decided that we would like to participate in the Swiss
meeting and then trundle off on our own afterwards to blat around the mountain passes and do a bit of sightseeing (see below).
Distance travelled: 1,967 miles (2-13 July)
Countries visited: France, Switzerland,
Italy & Germany
Stopovers: Joinville, Menzberg, St Moritz, Davos, Chiavenna, Grindelwald,
Schaffhaussen, Condiment (nr Mulhouse), Nancy and Reims.
Weather: Mixed, when it was sunny it was hot,
but too many showers, some extremely heavy and prolonged and plenty of low cloud.
Passes driven: Fluelapass (twice ),
Albulapass, Julierpass, Ofenpass, Passo dello Stelvio, Passo di Foscagno, Passo d'Eira,
Passo del Bernina, Passo del Maloja, Splugenpass, Pass del San Bernardino, St Gotthardpass, Furkapass and Grimselpass
Other good drives: Vosges mountains,
especially Col du Ballon, which passes over Ballon d'Alsace, and the Routes de Cretes,
which passes the Grand ballon. Incidentally, Le Tour de France cycled along the Route de Cretes soon after our return.
Other significant places visited: Rheinfall,
Schlumf Museum, Circuit de Reims.
I think, in total, there were some sixty 7s present in St Moritz including contingents from Italy, Germany and UK. On the
Sunday morning of the trip when we all left St Moritz, we were allowed a convoy through the town and this certainly got the
crowds gathering to watch.
Having driven the passes I can totally understand why people get excited about them, we will definitely go back. We were
fortunate, because the weather was not so good when we drove the Stelvio from the East, we had a pretty much uninterrupted
climb of the 47 hairpins, no more than a handful of bikes, cyclists and motorhomes. As far as touring is concerned I reckon
that blatting around Switzerland/italy is the track equivalent of going to The 'Ring.
One big disappointment was that the weather was not clear enough to justify the trip to Jungfraujoch (Europe's highest
railway station at 11,333ft/3,454m), the main reason for staying over in Grindelwald. Another smaller disappointment was
getting water into the camera lens just before starting the Stelvio (fortunately it subsequently dried out quickly later in
the day) so photos of the initial ascent remain on our mobiles.
Fortunately the 7 behaved impeccably and didn't miss a beat, only had to top up with 1/2 litre of oil all trip, the only
minor blemish was losing the fog light lens (my fault, overfilled with petrol and didn't realise that this would have the
effect of 'dissolving' the plastic lens as since advised by SVC). All that is left is 2 little circles of red plastic around
the lens screws.
It is certainly worth getting a Sat-Nav as this enabled Maggie to enjoy the trip more, excellent navigator though she is,
it was nice for her to not have to worry about keeping her nose in a map. Another plus point is that on the passes it helps
to forewarn of the severity of the next turn.
You'll notice from the photos at Reims that the buildings are gradually being renovated, not so much in structure, but the
fascias are being repainted by a group dedicated to restoring the pits, control tower and tribunes to their former glory.
Anyway, we had a fantastic trip, despite the sometimes poor weather conditions and furthermore this was done without the
'safety net' of a windscreen and doors . Helmets were donned just the twice when the rain was really, really too heavy, but
otherwise goggles, zandanas/baseball caps were more than sufficient with the Brooklands and occasional half-doors.
During the trip we also stayed at Grindelwald, visited the Rheinfall in Schaffhausen, the Vosges Mountains en route back to Zeebrugge and
clocked up our 50,000th mile in the Se7en since we purchased it 10 years ago.
