2016 Road Trip

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 11:14 pm

Our annual road trip this year was intended to take us back to the Alps and Dolomites.
We had another idea ... let's go through the alphabet - in order.

A to H today: in Germany.

A small village. We could just have easily picked ...

We wanted to go to the Ring. Touristenfahrten on the weekend? Forget it. The place was heaving, and an accident on the track made the queues even longer. We moved on to

These were mostly tiny places, with two of them towns. The last one is where we stopped for the night. It's the home of the German Shoe Museum. We don't know if that means it's the museum of German shoes or (add another interpretation of your own choosing).

Anyway, here's the car a mile from the hotel and museum:-

Post by **simonc** » Sun Jun 05, 2016 4:50 am

Always a pleasure to follow your trips, Sailor.

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Sun Jun 05, 2016 4:22 pm

most definitely

woOtSalami · Post by **woOtSalami** » Sun Jun 05, 2016 5:00 pm

feel free to drop by my house when you are near stuttgart

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:08 pm

woOtSalami wrote:feel free to drop by my house when you are near stuttgart

Drat. Missed it ....

The shoe museum was interesting and included a pair for people who didn't know if they were coming or going:-

"I" was a place with locks and a power station on the Rhein:-

W chanced across a low-key car meet on the French border en route. Heads turned towards the Prelude as we pulled up. This was one of the exhibits:-

Onwards to "J", a German town in a loop of the Swiss border near Schaffhausen. Cheaper to stay there than Switzerland, too!

By this morning, we'd visited one of Germany's highest waterfalls (Triberg). Here's a section:-

And we'd also visited one of the most powerful (except that it's Swiss, really): the Rheinfall.

"K" (Swiss) was

where people have summerhouses on Lake Constance ...

And we're now in Austria, having collected "L".

Post by **simonc** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 1:39 am

Majestic stuff. Keep 'em coming please.

Post by **Drax** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 10:26 am

love love love these road trips

im extremely jealous!

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:04 pm

"M" was a village on the Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse:

We then took a detour on the cul-de-sac called the Kaunertal Gletscher Panorama Strasse. This climbs to 2750m up to a ski station. The valley road costs 23 euros, but is well worth it.

"N" was a town en route into Italy. I was too busy muttering at a really slow Lancia and forgot to take a photo. I did manage to get a screen dump off the dashcam, though.

We're in Glurns for the night. It's a tiny walled mediaeval town in Italy.

Post by **simonc** » Wed Jun 08, 2016 7:46 am

Lovely shots Sailor. Reminds me of a couple of pan-Euro road trips I did myself.

Looking forward to more tomorrow...

YouTube · Post by **Sailor** » Wed Jun 08, 2016 10:53 pm

Glurns was pleasant with some sweet little traders' arches:-

Then it was off to the Stelvio. This is nothing but a series of bends that you can't see round. There's no rhythm, but there are a lots of bikers, cyclists and other vehicles. Plus a collection of tat shops at the top. Not the most fun of roads, to tell it true.
View going down the Bormio side:

The classic view from the top:

Above the summit, at about 2800m:

"O" is a skiing village above Bormio:

Now for the Gavia Pass. It's been added to the Giro d'Italia since I last drove it decades ago, so I expected it to have been improved. Hmm.
Some of single-lane sections have 400m drops with not much in the way of barriers:

This didn't bother us unduly ... because most of the ascent looked like this:

... and the top looked like this:

We're still in Italy, in Livigno. To get here, we crossed the Foscagno pass. The car hit the 160,000 mile mark at about 2250m.