Ski Zermatt, drive around Mediterranean, Jan/Feb-07						File =	Eur-07
Introduction
After a very poor ski season in Oz in August 2006, we had to make up by skiing Zermatt in
Switzerland again in Jan-07. As usual, we were not disappointed, the snow and weather were
terrific and skiing superb. Since the flights are so long, about 24 hours to Zurich, we decided to
also do a rental car tour of the Mediterranean area of Europe, taking in Northern Italy, France, Spain
then France again and back to Switzerland. We decided to tour in the Southern parts of Europe as it
was mid winter, to avoid snow on the roads as far as possible. We expected snow in the alpine
areas and passes, so we ordered snow chains with the hire car.
Map of our
travels -->
Start=Zurich
End=Zurich
Travel time=14 days
km travelled=5,500
Car=VW Golf Plus
diesel with auto
SatNav=Nuvi 310
highly recommended.
Skiing in Zermatt.		There was a snow cover of about 2m on the upper slopes and about 1m on
the lower slopes. All lifts were operating most of the time, barring brief periods of strong winds on the
Kleine Matterhorn slopes. Other areas were shielded with max. winds about 10 to 15 kph. The skiing
is as hard or as easy as you wish to make it and the lack of crowds on the slopes and uphill rides
is difficult for an Ozzie to comprehend. There was snow on the village streets the whole week.
Parj, ski training in our Hotel			Yollie in front of our Hotel, Parnass				Look at the crowds !!
Yollie on Kleine Matterhorn			View from Gondola, Riffelberg			Yollie at Stockhorn, hard skiing
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	The Car & car hire.		Since we wanted a car for only 2 weeks, the excellent deals by
Peugeot and Renault "lease a car" were not available as their minimum hire period is 17 days.
EuropCar offered a reasonable deal with a VW Golf Plus, with auto and diesel engine. The total hire
cost worked out at $1176 or $84/day total, including 24 hr roadside assist. The car was powerful
enough for the expressways (160kph ++), & economical on fuel over the 5,500 odd km we travelled.
VW Golf Plus, diesel auto.			Parj, its NOT a 4WD beach car!!			The Sat Nav screen on dash.
Satellite Navigation		We had acquired a Garmin Nuvi 310 Sat Nav device about 4 weeks before
we left for Europe. The gadget cost $940 complete with Australian maps, plus another $550 for the
extra chip for the whole of Europe. Our Australian experience was most encouraging. You simply
feed in a destination address and the display map shows directions and the sound instructions tell
you turning points about 500m & 100m from turn, then reminds you about 10m from the corner. It was
accurate to about 5m to 10m, in most situations. If you disregarded an instruction, it re-calculated a
new route from the location you ignored it, squawking "recalculating", "recalculating". The Australian
functions for seeking out accommodation, fuel, food appeared very limited in the Noosa area.
In Europe, the Sat Nav proved absolutely invaluable. Once within about 10km of a town or village
you put on the hotel seek, select one, and it leads you there with no problems. If a particular hotel
was full or no good, select the next nearest and it guides you there, fantastic.
On some occasions, when leaving or arriving at larger towns, it always wanted to direct you to the
most direct routes, not necessarily the easiest route. You have to use your judgement in whether to
follow route sign on the roads or the Sat Nav. In these situations, you gain experience with time.
All in all, the Sat Nav was a great help, particularly with an alert passenger. I'm sure they will improve
over time as more and more accommodations, fuel and food suppliers hook into the system.
The other advantage is using them when walking or using public transport in strange cities. Just put
in you hotel address as your "home" location, and it guides you back. Also, the North Pointer on the
display is a useful guide. This is not interfered with by car electrics as were magnetic compasses.
The only nuisance was having to remove the Sat Nav from the car, every time we left it parked for
any length of time. These are the current "hot" item for thieves, never leave it in the car overnight.
Also, it pays to make a suitable mounting plate of glass or plastic, to which the suction cup can be
attached. This makes it easy to move it from car to car, remove from car and use away from the car.
Hotels and Motels in Europe.			The hotels in the centres of most of the larger cities in Europe
seldom have secure car parking facilities. This makes it extremely dangerous if you have to leave
your car out in the street, some distance from your hotel. We tried to avoid these as far as possible
as losing your car causes extreme problems while on a short tour. Your choices are to head for the
extremities of the cities or pay the exorbitant prices for 4 star accommodation, if and when it had
secure parking. Generally, we budgeted an average of $200 per nite for accommodation for 2 people.
The accommodations away from the larger cities were more like Ozzie motels, with secure parking,
reasonable food and booze. Expect to get caught out on occasion at Eur 300 or about $AUD 500
when it gets late and nothing else suitable is available, eg:- 9pm at nite and raining.
It pays to do some homework for hotels in the major cities or towns, before you leave home. Use
say Hotelclub.com or similar to sus out prices and facilities. A mobile laptop working off wireless or
satellite would be even better. In Spain they treated English speaking tourists as fair game!! Similar
to Mexico. I had one Spanish receptionist ask for Eur 85 for one nites accommodation. When I pulled
out an Internet printout for that hotel showing Eur 51, she merely shrugged and accepted this !!
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	Travelling, Switzerland to Italy, the Riviera Coast
We headed south from Zurich, heading for the Gotthard tunnel. SatNav wanted to hive us off onto
other roads getting out of Zurich but we decided to follow the road signs. Most of the high mountain
passes in Switzerland were closed over winter so we used the Gotthard tunnel route which is open
all year round. We had hoped to make Genova on the Italian Riviera but formalities in renting the
car and snow and rain slowed us down. We finally found a hotel near MILAN which had secure
carparking. Took us till 9pm to find a suitable hotel, none in Como or Logano. Scenery was fantastic.
Snow & rain leaving Zurich			Entrance to Gotthard tunnel			Yollie posing on Riviera!!
When we got to the Riviera coast, the roads were very narrow, it was raining and very hard to park
and take photos. It was very nerve-wracking driving as all the Italians wanted to cut all the narrow
corners, trying to take out my mudguards. I suppose if you arrive there in a 65ft luxury yacht and park
it in Monte Carlo marina, there's no problem! At least we can say "last time we were in the Riviera"
Riviera coast Italy to France, Nimes, Montpellier and the Millau viaduct
Having spent a night in one of the worst hotels in my experience, but with secure parking, we headed
of towards France, past Toulon, Marseille, Nimes and to the Millau viaduct. Nimes is an old Roman
town with a great Colosseum and magnificent water viaduct. Interesting to compare this to the new
road viaduct at Millau. What the Romans did 2000 years ago is still awe inspiring and magnificent.
Forum at Nimes, France. You			Colosseum, Nimes, France			Pont du Gard near Nimes.
just have to admire engineers			Tried to enter Yollie for the			You just stand in awe and must
past and present, don't you?			2pm bout with the Lions !			admire the Roman engineers.
Parj & Yollie on the fantastic			Shadows of viaduct on gorge			The modern Millau viaduct.
Roman viaduct near Nimes.			below. You can see outline of			Traffic bridge across gorge.
Engineers must be wonderful			Nimes in distance, to where the			Where is the lateral stability??
people, past and present?			viaduct sent the water.
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	Millau viaduct, France, continued
Where is the lateral stability, engineers?					Millau viaduct from inside car, awesome!!
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From Millau France, to Spain, via Albi, Carcassonne, Perpignan, Barcelona.
Driving out from Millau			Typical French country village			Carcassonne, medieval town.
Parj praying in chapel!!			Don't mess around in the village!			Goodbye to Carcassonne town.
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Spain, Barcelona to Gibraltar, via Valencia, Cartagena, Granada, Malaga
It rained heavily most of our time in Spain, therefore we took very few photos there. It was a real
disappointment that Gibraltar was rained out and we missed going up Gibraltar cablecar and seeing
the rock apes. Also, our Spanish language was very deficient. Yollies French and my German were
of no help and it seemed the Spaniards were somewhat hostile to English speakers. We were very
surprised to experience the border between Gibraltar and Spain, being the only place on this trip
our documents were examined. I suppose things will be sorted out there in due course?
San Raphael, France.			Hotels finally getting better.			Yollie on Mediterranean beach
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	Spain continued, in heavy rain. We bypassed Madrid in heavy showers.
Views near Grenada			Hotels/motels improving			Snow and rain near Grenada
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France, Atlantic coast to Bordeaux, Limoges, Poitiers, Tours, Orleans, Troves, Besacon.
After the Atlantic coast, Biarritz etc., we intended to head for the Rhine valley gorges and then back
to Switzerland. Because of heavy rain, we figured the views might be better back in the Swiss Mtns
so we missed the Rhine gorges, which we had visited before in 2002, and headed south.
Yollie on Atlantic coast. This is			Just another chateau in France.			Couldn't find any moat monsters
not the Biarritz casino.			Wonder what the rent is?			anywhere. Nice cottage.
Cher river from our hotel			Heading towards Swiss mtn.			Lake Geneve, after doing a long
Tributary of the Loire.			passes, much slush & ice.			detour around icy mtn passes.
Having decided to miss the Rhine valley gorges, we started heading southerly at Troyes and then
due south at Veson then Besancon. We thought we could take a minor road over a high mtn pass
as a short cut to Geneve. However, the high Swiss mountain passes in midwinter are NOT for the
fainthearted. We had "warily" passed a ski resort near Morez and then saw no more oncoming or
following traffic. We pressed on, the road getting icier and icier and we were still climbing. Luckily,
we had experienced a near disaster in Oct-05, on "black ice" on the road near Mt. Rushmore, USA.
We slid off the road, with our front wheels over a cliff, and the engine/gearbox grounded, stopping
us from continuing over into eternity. A friendly Yank in an RV quickly put a chain on our rear and
towed us back to safety. A good lesson to have experienced, if it be heeded.
Remembering this, we continued on and up, with the ice sounding worse and worse under the tyres.
Not being under time pressure, we finally turned around and detoured about 100km to Geneve, going
via the road of the "Titans" constructed on the cliff side with massive concrete pillars.
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	Switzerland, via Geneve, Interlaken, Grindelwald, Brienz and back to Zurich
The weather started improving from OK to fantastic. We bypassed Geneve as our united nations
membership had expired and motored past lake Geneve to a magnificent hotel beside the lake near
Lausanne. We headed for Interlaken via Bern, using motorways, as the short-cut passes were at an
altitude of 1445 and 1509 metres. The weather had improved so much at Interlaken, we decided to
do the return trip to Grindelwald from there, to re-visit the mighty Eiger and our second favourite ski
field in Switzerland. The road was clear all the way in to Grindelwald village and we took some photos
of the Eiger North face. Many happy memories of skiing here from Kleine Scheidegg, the Lauberhorn
Manlichen and Murren. We stopped at a magnificent hotel with lake views near Brienz, before driving
back to Zurich next day. No problems with rental car return, despite all the efforts of the ITALIAN
drivers to take out our mudguards. The flight home was long, tedious and noisy, as usual.
Lake Geneve, a small marina			Road beside lake, Vevey			Swan lake reality show
Interlaken Hotel/Casino			Grindelwald looking to First.			The mighty Eiger, North face
Eiger North wall again			Lake Interlaken view			Hotel at Brienz, now we're OK !!
Lake at Brienz			Hotel at Brienz, great views.			Back in Zurich museum, END
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