Is this Christmas or Glastonbury ?
When I awoke in Davos on Saturday there was still a feeling of Christmas in the air that I could not quite put my finger on until I opened the hotel window to see if Madge was still safe and sound. My eyes could not quite believe what I was seeing.
I went down for breakfast at 8am and was somewhat astonished to see a good number of other guests had beaten me to it. I had a welcome sausage bacon and egg on a couple of pieces of particularly scrumptious bread which was more grey in colour than brown.
Afterwards I removed the light snowfall from Madge and was relived to find the roads were almost bone dry without any evidence of the dreaded gritting having taken place.
The hotel receptionist kindly took care of the one card I wanted to send home and also did a 1:1 swap of €50 for 50 CHF, no idea who got the better deal but I doubt the hotel made a loss on the exchange, I was just greatful not to have to go running around all over the place trying to find somewhere to change money on a Saturday morning.
On leaving I set Waze to take me to Davos avoiding tolls and highways which took me along a snow peppered scenic notherly roads and as to be expected in Switzerland they were not particularly straight, by Klosters most of the snow had dissappeared from the trees and going through the Gotchnatunnel felt like I must have driven accross half of Switzerland.
41 years earlier my American friend David, who I mentioned earlier, had great difficulty getting the border guard to stamp his passport with a Lichtenstein stamp, but eventually the guard relented as a queue of traffic was starting to build up behind us. On this occasion the border, boarder guard and his Lichtenstein Stamp had all been replaced by a simple sign denoting I had entered Fürstentum Liechtenstein.
The remaining drive to Vaduz was not particularly unusual being mostly urbanised with smart but otherwise unremakable housing and shopping precincts. All most every vehicle I saw for sale on numerous garage forecourts appeared to be black.
Waze took me into the centre of Vaduz where the appeared to be a particularly elegant shopping area then down a couple of side streets to a stream that bordered a housing development.
Persistent rain meant it was time to get put the roof up and take a no tolls, no highways route to Landgasthof Hasenstrich for Switzerlands biggest MX-5 gathering organised by MX5 Club Zurisee.
On the way out of Vaduz a diversion took me along a single track road that turned into a gravel track through a maze crop which I navigated gingerly in case of unseen pot holes. Once past a red cabbage patch I was back on tarmac.
With the roof up I can actually hear what is being played on my new Road Angel hifi unit with old Montana sourced speakers. That afternoon the mix from the USB stick included the completely unknown ‘You are now leaving now leaving West Sussex’ a beautiful piano piece recorded in the 1990’s by my friend Eldred Stevenson on his four track cassette recorder. to the not quite so familar A huge ever growing pulsating brain that rules from the centre of the Ultraworld (loving you) by The Orb, to the well known Is there life on Mars by David Bowie.
I was listening to a mix of house music by a Bristol DJ called Rama at the beginning of the century from a CD given to me at a Mana Party held over and below the We Drive taxi rank on Lawrence Hill in Bristol as I followed a sign up a short drive into a field of long grass. With everyone taking shelter from the intense and cold rain I carried on until I began to feel the traction from the rear wheels getting a bit light. I looked around and saw miles of red tape white tape but obvious direction to head towards.
Notwishing to get bogged down I carefully reversed out of the field and was eventually directed to another entrance where there was hard ground parking next to a stripped back for hillclimbing fast NBFL belonging to Juergen Baumgartner who kindly lent me a chair so I could change my sandles for a pair of more suitable walking boots.
With my raincoat on and a rain cape on top of that I had a wonder around a site strongly reminiscent of a wet Glastonbury at Worthy Farm .
Sensibly most of the attendees found themselves a spot out of the rain under the various gazebos dotted around. From there attention soon turned to a 4WD Audi that was doing sterling work pulling MX-5s out of the quagmire that they found themselves in.
You can find more photos from the event posted earlier on this link :- MX-5 Club Zurich's biggest MX-5 meeting in Switzerland 28 09 24 - #4 by Art_Tidesco
With the announcement that the promised speed dating was cancelled and that the after party was still on I decided to go and find the hotel Ruti am Bahnhof a 10 min drive down the hill.
After a shower I went back up the hill, but with rain still falling I did not hold out much hope for the event taking place, and when I got there unsurprisingly every one had gone home.
Back in Ruti I visited the Foodoo Asia Take Away, that is also a restaurant, and had a tasty roast duck and noodles followed by a couple of scoops of mango ice cream. Back at the hotel I was asleep before I could even think about picking up the TV remote. TBC