Lude Generation

(Start all over again!)

Days One and Two
Hampshire to Mustair [778 miles]

We'd originally intended to stop overnight somewhere near where France, Belgium and Luxembourg meet, but kept going until Luneville (east of Nancy). Nice chateau.






Not far away, Colmar is a pretty town and well worth spending some time mooching around.






Again, we'd thought of staying there. Again, we moved on.

We crossed Switzerland without a great deal of traffic. Taking the train might have been interesting ...



... but we'd have missed this:-




We ended up near the Italian border in a hotel that had once been a veal slaughterhouse. The place was 650 years old and was still using its original fireplace!

More Alpine scenery please!

Donald wrote:More Alpine scenery please!

OK.Here's the photo of the Fluela Pass I think I posted in the original thread:-




And here's a picture of the next day that I didn't want to have to take:-



And I can't resist adding the Alpine that I really want ...

Alpine looks awesome

looks like an awesome roadtrip, more pics please

Day Three
Mustair to Cremona [995 miles to date]

The Stelvio had been our first real target. With it being closed, we headed south.
Lake Garda was busy in the sun, so we didn't stay long.






We got into Cremona in the evening and found a good hotel on a square right in the centre.



We'd gone there because of the violins. So many Strads, Amatis, Guarneris etc! Pity we weren't allowed to take pictures. Loved many of the buildings, though.

Day Four
Cremona to San Marino [1180 miles to date]

Cremona's in the flatlands. Heading south, we passed iconic places (such as Modena?) and could have stopped, but we preferred the occasional glimpses of interesting stuff in the hills.




The Apennines beckoned. Next stop: The Most Serene Republic of San Marino. This place has no flat stuff whatsoever, and although it reputedly has more cars than people, we found it to be a pretty relaxed place, despite tourists (including us!). This is the view from our hotel window, just below the 11th century citadel:-




The fortified part itself is steep and makes your legs work, but is well worth the visit.

ooooo fan-bloody-tastic lovin that citadel too!!

Day Five
San Marino to Chioggia [1310 miles so far]

One of San Marino's rivals was Urbino, only an hour away by some lovely, twisty country roads. It's also based around a massive fortress.






We'd seen a short tv segment about it and wanted to see the interior. This has some of the most complicated 15th century intarsia you'd ever see. We knew that the Duke's study was full of it, but hadn't realised that many of the doors were made of tiny pieces of wood, too. Every change of colour in this panel is separate piece - and there are scores of panels executed with the same complication and skill. Astonishing!

Day Six - the Day of Passes
Chioggia to Auronzo di Cadore [1501 miles to date]

On the side of the South Lagoon, Chioggia has been described as a 'little Venice with cars'. It was heaving with people out for the sun and we had to stay in the outskirts. The next morning was no better. It was the only place we visited that we didn't explore. In any case, the Po delta and its surrounds left us cold: depressed and depressing when viewed from the main roads at least.

We decided to avenge the closure of the Stelvio. We planned 9 small-road passes - and found them all.

First stop, the San Boldo, the one with sheep featured in Google Images. There were only half as many tunnels as I'd expected, mostly because when you see two entrances on the hill side, they're actually an entrance and an exit from a spiral tunnel.


We weren't rushing. It had turned into our first grey day. And it wasn't just about the roads.





To be honest, Preludes aren't built for these mountains. We rarely used the main roads and so found lots of first gear hairpins. Wringing the guts out of the car isn't the best substitute for a flat torque curve and a decent oil cooler would help. Fun, though.
A little convoy spiced things up for a bit. The driver of the third porker had been a bit of a gentleman's sausage, but the others had behaved well enough, waiting patiently for me to find them room to pass.



Eventually, it dried up a bit. Mrs Sailor drifted off to take some photos while I went up and down this section a couple of times. Well, you have to, don't you?




Our final stop for the day was Auronzo di Cadore, a peaceful place not too far from the Austrian border.