We started this morning off with a breakfast in a lovely, light room with glimpses of the fantastic views out into the valley below Stelvio.  We’re not sure if we arrived a little late (it was only just past 9am) or they had just ran out, but there were no croissants and no bread, until someone brought some buns out.  However, we fed on what we could and I uploaded the blog (WiFi was only available in public areas) whilst Lois went and finished packing.

After checking out, we re-packed the car, much to the amusement and astonishment of some people that were waiting for a bus, right by the hotel… yes… you heard me… bus… a bus that goes up the Stelvio Pass!  After we’d tactically put everything in its place, we set off down the road once more.

The route started off with more amazing alpine pass style roads and then opened out to more sweeping roads, again, with jaw dropping back drops.  With Lois occasionally clenching the nearest grab handle to let me know she’d rather me drop off a few km’s per hour, we made good and smooth progress.  We passed through the Swiss border without a problem and took advantage of the ~40p per litre cheaper fuel prices by topping up straight away.  In Italy the prices varied from 1 EUR 90 to 2 EUR 5 per litre and in Switzerland, even in the mountains, the price was around 1 EUR 40 equivalent in Swiss Francs.  It’s just a shame the MR2’s fuel tank only holds around 8-9 gallons!

We ventured on through great surroundings in Switzerland, carefully winding our way past cyclists and other motorists, where the road conditions permitted.  There was some sort of road race event on, so there were lots of support vehicles and cyclists on the roads, but the motorists drove well around them on the whole.

When we dropped into one small town, we flashed past a group of classic cars and so quickly pulled over to have a quick look.  They included about 30 concourse condition cars with Austin Healeys, Mercedes, a Lancia and even a few MG B’s.

We left the town, but then soon stopped again when we realised there was a stunning river flowing by the side of the road.  We were taking photos and taking in the scenery for a good 15-20 minutes before we set off again.

As we carried on back up and down more mountains, we came upon a beautiful spot sided by two lakes, which we decided would be a good place for lunch!  Out came the, by now perfectly executed, lunch stop kit, including plates, food and drinks.  We spent a leisurely half hour eating lunch and watching the fish play in the fresh water lake and again, taking in the views and Lois dabbling her feet in the icy cold water, before setting off once more.

Shortly after we left the lunch spot, we descended down a great series of bends, but got caught up behind a small van and a motorbike that seemed to have a bad misfire.  We were still making progress at 30-40mph, but I realised that a cyclist was approaching in my rear view mirror.  Several bends later and he was upon us… on his bicycle!  A few more turns and he overtook us, going around us on a hairpin bend, before filing in between us and the motorbike.  We carried on in this humorous procession for the next 5 minutes, with the cyclist easily reaching 50mph in places!  Eventually the road levelled out and horse power won out, but it was quite impressive to witness.

The roads and views carried on and, besides a brief 15 minute stint on the motorway, we were nearing our destination of Quarten, beside Lake Walensee.  We were on the lookout for somewhere to buy some supplies for the evening, and thought we’d found somewhere when we pulled off into a Co-op, but it turned out to just be a Co-op Express with a big home and garden centre around the back.  A fruitless task, except for the fact that there was £500k+ worth of Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing sat in the car park – simply beautiful!  I wonder how many other people realised how special it was?  Further down the road however, we did manage to find a Lidl and an Aldi right next to each other, so stocked up on what we needed for tea – some lovely bread, more cheese, a meat selection for me and some nice chocolate pots for desert.

We got to our hotel, checked in, got all of our stuff into the room and then made our way back down to the lake to have a swim.  We spent a truly relaxing 2-3 hours in and out of the water with a spectacular back drop, with Lois even braving a jump off the end of the jetty.  Once back at the hotel, we set up out on the balcony and enjoyed another gorgeous evening of food, wine and views!

Tomorrow, we head to Mürren, a car-less village in the Lauterbrunnen valley, which should keep our jaws clearly on the ground once more.

Anyway, over to the photos as usual!

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I was just going to write, “WOW!” for today’s blog, and add the photos, but Tom assures me that you’ll want a little bit more detail that that!

We enjoyed another lovely breakfast in the sunshine in Milan this morning, before we packed up yet again and set off on probably our longest drive yet – not in distance, but in time.  We’d hoped to pick up some food for lunch and dinner from a local supermarket, but the friendly hotel receptionist told us that everywhere would be shut, as today was Ferragosto. Luckily, at the bottom of Lake Como, we came across quite a large, open shop, where we managed to pick up some delicious delicacies J

The road then wound round the edge of lake, in and out of tunnels.  The views were beautiful and the water looked so inviting, but we knew we had exciting roads ahead, so ploughed on.  North of the lake, the road turned east along a long valley, with mountains rising on either side.  Although the hills were beautiful, the road itself was dull, with 30 – 45 mph limits all the way along its straight route (we suspect this was because of the supercars and motorcycles heading to and from the passes) and boring, modern towns lining it.  However, at the end, we suddenly began to climb through more long tunnels, and eventually emerged high up in the Alps with beautiful sites all around.  We stopped for some lunch in what was probably a ski resort during the winter.  I can’t think of many picnic spots with better views!

This was the last proper civilisation before the epic accent up the Stelvio Pass.  Tom was a bit disappointed when we began behind two, slow camper vans, but it gave us ample opportunity to both gawp at the views and take plenty of photos (it’s taken us about 90 minutes to edit our snaps down to just over 50 tonight!).

We then reached the most famous section of the road, which many of you will have seen photos and film of.  It really is a thrilling drive, not just because of the corners and the drops, but because of the scenery it winds its way through.  We reached the top without realising, and had to turn around to find a parking spot for more happy snapping.

After this main section, the road then climbed a little more gently, before reaching its peak.  It was as we came over the top that we both became completely speechless.  Why the other side of the pass is less famous, I have no idea.  The panoramas from the top are absolutely and completely jaw-dropping.  I think I stood and just giggled with delight for at least a minute before I was capable of taking any shots!  In addition, the road that descends into Trafoi (where our hotel is situated) is equally, if not more, exciting, offering breathtaking views down the valley.  It was amazing watching cyclists attempt the climb up (they must have been unbelievably fit) and watching them come flying down (travelling faster than us at times).  We also had to stop at one point to let a strange, beaver-like creature cross the road (we saw another one later on – once we’ve got proper internet I’ll try and find out what it was).  The road was surprisingly quiet, with just the gentle ring of cow bells sounding when we stopped yet again for more photos.

We eventually pulled up at our hotel at about 7pm.  We’ve been once more very lucky with our choice of accommodation.  It’s high up in the Alps; the service was warm and welcoming and our room has a balcony that looks back up into the mountains.  I can’t wait for breakfast with that view in the morning!  The next couple of days promise similarly wonderful scenery.  I think my jaw is going to ache by the time we leave Switzerland!

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An early start this morning, as we had to make it across town to CERN for our tour of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) complex.  The route we took allowed us to experience the different road network layout that Switzerland has (at times rather confusing with its lack of markings!), but CERN itself was easy to find and well signposted (there is even a tram to get there).  As we had arrived really early, we hunted out some breakfast (definitely not included with this hotel!).  This materialised in the form of some croissant, pain au chocolat and fresh juice from a little shop in a petrol station across the road; the pastries were surprisingly excellent!

Back at the reception at CERN, we were given our official guided tour lanyards and passes and asked to wait in reception until the tour started.  It began with an amusing, but informative, video about CERN’s 50th anniversary (Lois couldn’t believe quite how long it had been going).  We were then introduced to our guide, a very smiley and enthusiastic Spanish scientist.

He took us straight across to one of the other buildings on the site, to show us an example of one of the pipes that runs through the actual collider.  We were then taken to the ATLAS control room, where the ATLAS detector and all of its test results can be analysed (Tom had to work hard to resist pushing the HUGE red button – see photo below!).  After showing us through a presentation of various learning clips relating to CERN experiments, we were taken upstairs, past a life-size diagram of the collider, to watch a 3D film explaining the construction and production of the ATLAS detector (see Tom in full Top Gun regalia below!).  The video was wicked!  Finally, we were taken back downstairs, where the guide described the Higgs Bosun effect (still completely over Lois’s head) and eagerly asked for any more questions!   Before we left, we were given time to explore the excellent exhibitions.

Facts from the day that blew our minds:

• The particles travel round the 27 km collider 11,000 times a second (that’s 99.999% of the speed of light!)
• The ATLAS detector weighs the same as The Eiffel Tower!
• Even the most eminent physicists in the world still don’t understand what gravity is and how it works!
• If the particle detector in ATLAS was a camera, it would be 100 mega pixels and be able to take 600 million pictures per second!
• If your head was the nucleus of an atom, the protons and neutrons would be 50km away!
• It takes around 120 tons of helium to cool down the collider ready for use AND, once cooled, the 27 km of steel shrinks by 80m!

Once the tour had finished, we bagged some goodies from the CERN gift shop and headed back to the hotel (after some minor tinkering with the car).  After a brief rest, we then took the tram back into town and booked ourselves onto a boat tour of the lake of Geneva.  Whilst we waited for the trip to start (in a lovely small green area), I nipped to get some water to make sure we were topped up with fluids.  We also munched on some food that we’d bought from an Aldi close by our hotel.  Shortly after finishing lunch, Lois spotted the boat pulling into the harbour and so we rushed off to get to the front of the queue.  However, the boat captain kindly asked us to wait on the port for 10 minutes while they cleaned up and had a rest (I think Lois was rather excited about the boat trip, bless her! :)).

We boarded the boat once it was ready and then set sail for an amazing tour of the lake, taking in many sights including Monte Blanc, various luxury homes and castles (Lois picked out some potential properties…), and of course, the 140m high water fountain!  Stat time again!

• 1370hp water pump pushing 500 litres of water every second
• 140m high
• 8 tonnes of water in the fountain jet at any one time

The tour took just over an hour and cost 16 CHF, which based on everything else in Switzerland, was very reasonable!  We would thoroughly recommend the Swiss Boat tour.

We then had a final walk around the lovely clear waters of lake Geneva and then jumped back onto the tram back to our hotel, where we spent the night chilling out and catching up with the world.

Milan next!  Pizza, pasta and ice-cream!

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