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Monday, September 13, 2010

Big Sis in a Small World
Mountain Passes & Lugano, Switzerland / Italian Riviera


My trip from Wengen to Lugano was interesting. I could have taken a fairly tame mountain pass, but keen to push my car to the limit, I decided to take one which I had heard provided amazing views (and I think was featured on Top Gear)...


I climbed from 1,000ft to 7,500 in a very short space of time, which would have been enjoyable, had it not been rainy and cloudy, and the engine warning light hadn’t appeared on my car. When I got to the top, I breathed a sigh of relief.


Until I saw the route down...


There were places where the road (if you can call it that) had only enough room for one car, and there were no crash barriers. Admittedly, I gained a lot of experience of such driving conditions during my epic adventures in the US, but over there, the only life I ever came across was of the wild variety. In Switzerland things are very different. There were all sorts of people taking the same route, so the likelihood of having to reverse back up the mountain pass was quite high.

I survived the first bit, and paused to admire the view...


... at which point I drove straight into cloud. With visibility less than two metres, and the knowledge that there was a sheer drop on one side of me, and cars on the other (and behind), this mountain pass experience gets ten out of ten for scariness. And yes, I did regret not taking the tamer route.

Anyway, back down on earth, I headed to Lake Lugano for some sun, rest and recuperation....


It was a beautiful place, but alas the sunbathing I'd planned to do was a little difficult with the near continuous downpour.


So I consoled myself by shopping, and planning a road-trip diversion to find some sun.

After using my meteorological skills to analyse the weather, I realised that if I continued on my original route, I would have a permanent rain cloud over me for the next week. So a diversion was required so that I could get behind the east moving front. And what better way to find some warmth and sunshine than with a seven hour diversion to Varazze in Italy...


As I went through the Italian border, there were two long queues for Italian citizens, but no queue for the 'foreign passports'. As I entered, there was no one on guard, so I felt obliged to stop my car and get out and find someone. The guy looked at me, I waved my passport around, he didn’t look at it, but asked another guy who said 'let her through'. They're obviously trying to keep the Italians out and replace them with foreigners.

The next day, I enjoyed a happy morning of sunshine...


... until the thunder and lightning started at lunchtime. I clearly need to read my met books again.

1 comments:

Phil's Mum said...

They need the rain to produce those beautiful flowers.  You can't have it both ways!