I, along with several other UK members, partners and friends, took a tour of Europe last month. Leaving Scotland and then England behind, it took in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland before heading home again. A 3500 mile trip. Unfortunately, some of the passes we'd looked forward to driving were closed due to heavy snow falls in May and avalanche risks, but we still manages to take in a few.
We had one or two mishaps along the way. I hit a rock on the road following Col down a pass, lucky not to damage the rim, I'd put a finger sized hole in my new nearside front tyre and, after discovering my space saver wouldn't inflate, RussL ran the punctured tyre and rim to a local tyre shop where he managed to get a used tyre fitted which got me back mobile. I then had to return the next day to purchase another new one to match the existing one already on the car. Gary Laird's 170 got rear ended on a slip road which although driveable, meant he couldn't drop the roof anymore. Russ55AMG's wing mirror got clipped by an MX5 coming the other way, though wasn't damaged. RussL's 170 esp played up on some of the more aggressively driven passes and had to be reset several times, and Mabel's power steering pump packed in on the way to Chamonix necessitating her being recovered on a breakdown truck to the nearest Merc dealer 60 kilometres away where she awaits repair.
Our troubles aside, it was an great trip and the company, weather, and scenery couldn't have been better.
I've finally managed to sort through the photos I'd taken on the trip, though not yet started on the 350+ gb of GoPro footage.
Here are pics from a couple of stops on the 11th. The Klaussen Pass pics show how quickly the cloud can roll in and the visibility drop to zero.
We had one or two mishaps along the way. I hit a rock on the road following Col down a pass, lucky not to damage the rim, I'd put a finger sized hole in my new nearside front tyre and, after discovering my space saver wouldn't inflate, RussL ran the punctured tyre and rim to a local tyre shop where he managed to get a used tyre fitted which got me back mobile. I then had to return the next day to purchase another new one to match the existing one already on the car. Gary Laird's 170 got rear ended on a slip road which although driveable, meant he couldn't drop the roof anymore. Russ55AMG's wing mirror got clipped by an MX5 coming the other way, though wasn't damaged. RussL's 170 esp played up on some of the more aggressively driven passes and had to be reset several times, and Mabel's power steering pump packed in on the way to Chamonix necessitating her being recovered on a breakdown truck to the nearest Merc dealer 60 kilometres away where she awaits repair.
Our troubles aside, it was an great trip and the company, weather, and scenery couldn't have been better.
I've finally managed to sort through the photos I'd taken on the trip, though not yet started on the 350+ gb of GoPro footage.
Here are pics from a couple of stops on the 11th. The Klaussen Pass pics show how quickly the cloud can roll in and the visibility drop to zero.
