[Mr.C]

Getting ready for my three day drive to.......the ALPS - pictures added

I just finished my preparations for the longest and most exciting trip I've ever taken in the Lotus.

Start will be tomorrow morning at around 8:00AM local time.

The car is washed
Fluids - checked
Tire pressure - checked
Brakes - checked / replaced
Detailed map for the route - checked
Clothes - packed (well, at least a few )
Automatic cat feeder - installed (well, they need to eat while we are gone).

The plan for day one is to take back country roads all the way to southern Germany and from there cross over into Austria.
Up the Oetztal over the Timmelsjoch pass and into Italy.
Find some place to sleep somewhere in the area of Merano and get some rest for the next day.

Day two will take us from there over various mountain passes into Switzerland, along the Swiss National Forest thru St.Moritz and somewhere towards Zurich, where we plan to stay the second night.

Day three will be time to drive towards home thru the Black Forest in Germany, over to France, up to Strasbourg, back into Germany and then home.

I haven't had much time to drive my car since I got here, but I'm sure this trip will make up for the lag of driving in the past few month :nanner:

The weather is supposed to be good and sunny, and temperatures should be above freezing at pass levels (2500m, roughtly 8200ft)

Here are some pictures of what to expect:











I think I need to get some sleep now...

I will post some of my own pictures when I get back...

 

[Randy Chase]

*jealous*

Have a great trip!

 

[Slipstreamer]

Very nice!

Reminds me of my trip in 2005 with my late wife from Bonn via Müenchen (at the end of Oktoberfest) to Salzburg. It was raining when we left Müenchen after dinner and by the time we got up in the mountains it was snowing. It seemed like we were the only car on the road and what seemed like a blizzard driving a rented Seat Leon. We passed Innsbruck around 10pm and was at Salzburg around midnight. I remember we passed a very long tunnel that ran about 15 kms. Definitely not the back roads.

One of my very many trips to Germany (that was the year where we saw 7 countries in 10 days--crazy) My wife used to live near Bonn and her sister lived not far from her.

Tony

 

[FIL]

Sweeeet.

 

[ms355]

Good luck, Steve. I am looking forward to seeing your photos after the trip.

 

[...m...]

...looks like it'll be a joy - safe journey!..

 

[mx1]

Sweet. I was at Ramstein for 3 yrs and Zweibrucken for 2. Wish I could get back over. Enjoy it while you can and be sure to hit the Ring!

 

[peck555]

Enjoy, and take a hairpin for me while you're there!:bow:

 

[Gimme]

For the sake of the rest of us, please take a good camera!!!

 

[shay2nak]

wow!

 

[DeanG]

Any road trip in a Lotus is special... some more special than others.

Good luck & have fun.

 

[Mr.C]

I’m back from the trip and all I can say is WOW, what a great experience!

Three days of driving, between 9 and 10 hours a day behind the wheel, a total of 788.9 miles, and less than 60 of those miles were on the Autobahn.

The rest was back country roads and mountain passes.

The car ran great the entire time, and I had no issues except for my front license plate being a little scratched from a driveway (which I couldn’t care less about…)

After a cloudy start the weather turned more and more sunny, and once we entered the mountains we had sunshine the entire time. But it sure is fall already, and temperatures dropped below freezing at night with frost on the car in the mornings.
But we still didn’t drive a single mile with the top on.
Warm cloth and the tiny bit of warm air from the not all that great heater had to be enough :shift:
The trip took us from Germany into Austria where shortly after crossing the boarder we decided to take a detour right away to go up one of the pass roads and back, which cost us a couple of hours.

At around 5:00PM that day we arrived in Soelden (a famous ski town) where we stayed for the first night. Soelden lies in a valley called the Oetztal, and some of you might have heard of the “Oetzi”, a roughly 5300 year old mummy they found there in the ice.

Also interesting was that in that valley I passed a car rental place, and they had two Opel Speedsters in their lot for rent. So if you ever come to visit the area and want to go for a drive – there are ways to do that…

The next day took us over the Timmelsjoch pass over into Italy and to Racines.

Just to give you an idea: this is how that road looks on the map:



From there we headed west towards the town of Merano .

Merano is very interesting because within a few miles you can feel how the climate changes into a very moderate Mediterranean climate . All of a sudden there are apple orchards and wineries everywhere.

From Merano it was further westwards, back into Germany and the plan was to make it into Switzerland for the night.

But the unimaginable happened and a few miles before the Swiss border, I was just going thru a set of hairpins, I looked over to my wife and told her “I’m tired of turns, I’m tired of driving fast. Let’s just go back to the last little town we passed thru and call it a day”

So we stayed that night on the German side before heading into Switzerland the next day.

Once we got into Switzerland we drove over to St.Moritz (the Swiss ski town where the rich and wannabe rich take their winter vacation) and from there we worked our way over the Julierpass and back towards the Lake of Constance.

Got home at around 8:00PM on Monday night. Tired, but also very excited and with tons of great impressions of the beautiful countryside and the amazing roads.

Some interesting cars I saw on the trip (besides about 10.000 Motorcycles):
3 Audi R8
3 Lambos (A Murcielago, as well as a Gallardo and a Diabolo, both decorated with flowers as wedding vehicles)
3 Lotus seven
2 Elises (both MK2’s, a StTi and a GG)
A few nice old Alfa’s, and of course Porsches, which were a dime a dozen.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

Just at the foothills of the Alps


Into Austria


Tunnel


On the detour

 

[Mr.C]

Timmelsjoch

 

[Mr.C]

At 2509 Meters (8231ft)



At the Boarder to Italy


The zigzag wall on the side of the mountain is where the road goes up

 

[Mr.C]

Road ahead






Getting into the valley


The tunnels are barely wide enough for two cars

 

[Mr.C]

Up the Jaufenpass and into Racines

 

[Mr.C]

Italian flag




Alpine inhabitants with interesting hair due




Merano with its orchards and wineries

 

[Mr.C]

castles




Swiss border crossing



river



more castles

 

[Randy Chase]

Great pictures!

 

[Mr.C]

St.Moritz




Julierpass