http://homepage.mac.com/skyeweb/Eurotri ... bum16.html
Stelvio or bust
Stelvio or bust
Skye and I had a great time on our Europe Tour. We covered just under 4,000 miles visting France (Including Paris & Disneyland), Switzerland, Liechtenstien, Italy (including the Dolomites), Austria, Germany (including Nurburg Ring), Luxembourg and Belgium. Visted loads of passes in these countries and saw all the highest mountains in each, including quite a few cable car visits to the summits. Will try and post up a report soon but in the meantime here are some photos of Stelvio and a link to many more photos of our holiday.
http://homepage.mac.com/skyeweb/Eurotri ... bum16.html
http://homepage.mac.com/skyeweb/Eurotri ... bum16.html
Thanks for feedback from everyone. I love looking at pictures of places that folk visit and ever since I first saw a photo of Stelvio I always wanted to go there. Just wish I had done it when I had my Elise. However my wee Punto was still good fun. On the way up Stelvio I was gradualy catching up on a bike motorcycle group who were passing cars steadily. When I caught up with them they started pulling over to let me by. The tyres on the Punto and the tarmac on Stelvio didn't mix very well and it maybe squelling noises all the time. They had heard the noises and moved out of the way. It was a group of German Hells Angels type bikers and one of them came over to us at the top of Stelvio and said with a laugh " You drive that car crazier than the bloody italians that made it". I took it as a complement. They let me go in front of them on the way down but I didn't last long before I had to stop to let my brakes cool down. It must be awesome doing it in an Elise.
The Swiss passes were often more scenic but Swiss drivers are so bloody slow and don't even know what the word "overtake" means. Polish Lorries also seems to avoid the Swiss motorway tolls by taken the roads over the passes and they don't ever move over to let the queues of traffic behind by. So between the lorries and Swiss drivers it made for some well planned overtaking. The passes in the Italian Dolomites were also nice, as were many passes in Austria, especially the Grossglockner Alpine road between Lienz and Zell am See.
Most of my photos were taken using a small Minolta Dimage X50 which I carried in my pocket during the whole holiday. Compact and very fast start up with internal zoom lens. Good battery life as well.
http://konicaminolta.com/products/consu ... index.html
Cost me £150 from http://www.7dayshop.com and spare batteries from http://www.batterieseurope.com/
Planned the whole trip using a load of guidebooks and maps plus internet searches. If anybody fancies taking a trip over then you are welcome to borrow maps and books. B&Bs worked out around 40 Euros a night and camping was around 15-20 Euros a night. Fuel costs around 15% less than UK. We avoided toll roads (which were actually very busy during the time we were in France) and took the more scenic and direct "N" roads and only paid for a 10 day motorway pass in Austria at 7 odd Euros. We used Speedferries from Dover to Boulogne which cost us £44 for a return journey. Ferry over was an hour late and the one back was bang on time.
Iain
The Swiss passes were often more scenic but Swiss drivers are so bloody slow and don't even know what the word "overtake" means. Polish Lorries also seems to avoid the Swiss motorway tolls by taken the roads over the passes and they don't ever move over to let the queues of traffic behind by. So between the lorries and Swiss drivers it made for some well planned overtaking. The passes in the Italian Dolomites were also nice, as were many passes in Austria, especially the Grossglockner Alpine road between Lienz and Zell am See.
Most of my photos were taken using a small Minolta Dimage X50 which I carried in my pocket during the whole holiday. Compact and very fast start up with internal zoom lens. Good battery life as well.
http://konicaminolta.com/products/consu ... index.html
Cost me £150 from http://www.7dayshop.com and spare batteries from http://www.batterieseurope.com/
Planned the whole trip using a load of guidebooks and maps plus internet searches. If anybody fancies taking a trip over then you are welcome to borrow maps and books. B&Bs worked out around 40 Euros a night and camping was around 15-20 Euros a night. Fuel costs around 15% less than UK. We avoided toll roads (which were actually very busy during the time we were in France) and took the more scenic and direct "N" roads and only paid for a 10 day motorway pass in Austria at 7 odd Euros. We used Speedferries from Dover to Boulogne which cost us £44 for a return journey. Ferry over was an hour late and the one back was bang on time.
Iain