The hills were alive to the sound of increasingly muddy melodic Madge.
Friday dawned sunny and after a couple of cups of tea, stretching my legs, while watching a farmer and his wife herd a handful of cows from one pasture to another and observing a pair of horses in a paddock,
I was on my way south following a slower, non motorway, route through beautiful Austrian scenery with increasingly heavy traffic in both directions.
At Zugspitzplatz I stopped to wonder at the view of Blindsee with it’s no doubt chilly yet aluring water, and did the touristy thing buying a post card and a couple of fresh bread rolls for the journey.
I continued following signs for Innsbruck as far as Weisenmuehle where mercifully Waze directed me away from heavy traffic and road closures towards Schlaki where I entered Switzerland for a few miles seemlesly crossing the border back into Austria at Martina and going up the first of several passes along squiggly roads that might easily have been originally planned by Jackson Pollock.
A few miles down the road I passed into Italy, my 9th border crossing of the week ! In this Northern part of Italy all the signs are in two langauges so for my convenience I’ll stick with the more exotic Italian names.
Once inside Italy I marvelled at the enormity of Lago di Resia a view of which seemed to go on forever to my right. At Spondinga the road turned more easterly towards Merano with the traffic being calmed by dinky Fendt turbocharged tractors taking apples hither and thither.
At first site the orchards the apples grown in appear like vineyards except the huge fruit mostly red but some green was a dead give away the plants not more than seven or eight feet high and with branches not more than a foot to 18 inches long were heavily pruned trees densley packed in neat rows next to one another with occasional gaps wide enough to fit the aforementioned Fendts and their long trailers for loading the produce.
At Silandro I stopped at a Spar for supplies to keep me going for the rest of the days travels, a chicken schnitzel roll and frickdela roll and a piece of apple strudel. At Merano I headed south on a dual carriage way towards the southern most point of this adventure Terlano which I had last passed through 41 years earlier when I was a European Business studies student at Trent Poly in Nottingham.
The main attraction of the course was that I would be spending a year in Germany, a semester at Paderborn Univesity and the remainder on a work placement. The university asked if I’d like to spend my placement time at VW headquarters in Wolfsburg and I jumped at the chance.
A couple of days before a bank holiday a fellow placement student, David, from California called me to ask if I would care to join him and a third placement student from Michigan who I now only remember by his nickname, Roadhammer, on a 2000 km road trip. How could I refuse ?
David was given the keys to a departmental 5 cylinder Passat with instructions not to bring it back with less than another 2,000 kms on the clock, if he failed the department would have to return the car to a more general pool outside his departments control.
David, who’s nickname from home was Davos, intended to visit the town by the same name in Switzeland and other than that he was open to suggestions for places to visit. On the way to Davos we ended up in Bolzano one lunch time, having spent nights in Munich and Innsbruck, when we decided to make our way to Davos, it was my turn to choose the route and drive it. Looking at the map I noticed a windy road going from Terlano up to Verano from whence we made to Davos via the Stelvio pass.
I promised mysef that I would revist that route many times and the opportunity which arose while on my way to an eventual Zurich MX-5 Owners Club meeting was too good to miss.
Many things had changed in the intervening 41 years, the freshly resurfaced road was now wide enough for two vehicles for almost its entire length and there was a solid white line up the middle of most of that length, but that mattered not it was still priceless fun driving up all the switch backs in such pleasant green scenery with virtually no traffic.
41 years ago I had been chased by a fully laden Simca 1000 which I left for dust on the straights but caught me on the corners, I was not keen on damaging a company car with less than 6000 kms on it. Towards the top I let the Simca by and the driver tooted his horn and gave me a cheery wave. Or at least I think he did !
From Vorano I followed the road to Merano from whence I had to double back as far as Sluderno before diverging to take the road to Valico where I crossed back into Switzerland.
From there spacious alpine scenery came to the for with vast geen valleys dotted with farmsteads and holiday chalets bordered by huge mountains and a few snow capped peaks in the distance.
Between Fuldera and Biosfera Val Müstair there is a right left kink in the road around which an unnamed hamlet is built as I turned right I spotted a tiny auto repair shop with a single fuel pump outside topped by a Mazda sign, I couldn’t resist the photo op as I am sure one or two must have done before me.
Onwards and upwards there was a stillness in the air which I can only liken to that on Christmas Eve, quite magic disturbed only by the purring of Madges stainless steel exhaust . The road was virtualy empty which made the many hairpins up the all the more fun.
By the time I got to the top of the Stelvio pass daylight was fading and a light rain began to fall. Fortunately the gents that requires 1 CHF accepted my €1.
Going down the pass I kept the roof down despite the rain and enjoyed the cool fresh air. Even in the fading light the views were breathtaking. By the time I got to the Turmhotel Victoria in Davos it was pitch black. The receptionist who had seen me pull up and park thought I was completely bonkers driving around with the roof down but I reminded her we only live once.
] to my local MP [Club Rules No Politics or Religion] so can’t say why.
]
] are like you 6’ plus as is Clarkson [marmite] who seemed to be highly impressed with the MX-5 NB…[can’t remember the episode when him, May and the Hamster practically drove them into the ground]
