An Aston in the Alps

[mikey k]

So we got back from our Euro jaunt at the weekend but have only just recovered enough to give you lot some pictures
We had some great weather I even got roadster sun burn in the Alps
Car behaved perfectly and showed just how good a sport pack car is!
I discovered a new medical condition “Aston Neck” it seems a lot more wide spread on the continent There are two strains;
Pedestrian – I lost count of the number of neck snaps as we drove past many accompanied by shouts or waves of hands with some classic phrases
A fair few proposal of marriage and a few more obscene ones!
A few offers of swaps but my offer to the guy on the Nufenen Pass fell on deaf ears
Automotive – unfortunately this strain is more of a problem, it seems oncoming car drivers instantly lose all control and swerve towards you! Far to many near misses!

Here is the route items with stars are the best bits !
Click on the pics for larger versions or this link for more!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25369163@N08/sets/721...


DAY 1 Monday 23/05/11 - Drive to Dover 268 miles
Nothing spectacular here

DAY 2 Tuesday 24/05/11 – Mile munching Calais to Nitry (312 miles)
Riems Circuit




PHer recommended route all off the M ways to Beursaudiere Hotel Nitry*

DAY 3 Wednesday 25/05/11 – So it Begins! (362 miles)
D106 out of Grenoble - Le Moucherotte
D531 Villard-de-Lans to Pont-en-Royans - Gorges de la Bourne (BRONZE)
D526 Mens to La Mure - Col de La Croix Haute (GOLD)
Grand Hotel Uriage

DAY 4 Thursday 26/05/11 – Gorged on Gorges (277 miles)
D211 Le Bourg d'Oisans - l'Alpe d'Huez (bothways & stop at top!)
N85 Corps to Gap - small section of Route Napoleon
Lake Serre Poncon*






D64/D2205 Jausiers to St Sauveur sur Tinée - Col de la Bonette (highest “paved” pass N-S)* (more pics of this later )




D30/D28 St. Sauveur sur Tinée to Beuil to Touët-sur-Var - Gorges Superiores du Cians (SILVER)*
Lake Castillion
2 nights at Hotel Du Grand Canyon du Verdon
See if you can spot the hotel in this picture



This is the view from the bedroom balcony!




DAY 5 Friday 27/05/11 – Trip round Verdon Gorges (103 miles)
Loop round Verdon Gorges




Our friends car threading through the rocks!



Lake St.Croix



Route des Cretes*
Superb route with a nice little restaurant half way round. One way though!



Moved on sharpish when this thing started eying up the car!



DAY 6 Saturday 28/05/11 – Verdon Gorges & Monte Carlo Rally (364 miles)
More Route Napoleon
Col de Bleine
D17 Roquesteron to Gillette - (GOLD)
This just got tighter and tighter!



Though the scenery got better and better



And so did the roads!



Then we hit the coast at St Agnes just down from the F1 guys practising, kept well clear of that area



D2565 Valdeblore to St. Martin-Vésubie - Col Saint Martin (BRONZE)
D25652 St. Martin-Vésubie to Roquebilliere - Gorges de Vésubie (SILVER)
D70/D2566 Roquebilliere to Sospel - Col de Turini & Gorges de Piaon (Monte Carlo Rally)
D2204 Sospel to L'Escarène - Col de Braus
D21/D52/D22 L'Escarène to Monti – just a traverse
D2205/ D64 St Sauveur sur Tinée to Jausiers - Col de la Bonette (highest “paved” pass S-N)*
Here’s those other photos, this time going the other way!




Then we ran out of road



and the LSB decided to investigate






D902/D900 Barcelonnette to Château-Queryas - Col de Vars
Hotel La Ferme de l'Izoard*

DAY 7 Sunday 29/05/11 - Dam Tunnels! (298 miles)
D902 Château-Queryas to Briançon - Col d'Izoard*
One of my favs and like driving on the moon





N91/D202 Briançon to Modane - Col du Lautaret & Col du Galibier* (BRONZE)
Then another fav!






E70/A43 Modane to Susa via col de Frejus tunnel
N6 Susa to Lanslevillard - Col du Mont Cenis
Seems the swiss are heading for a drought this summer



D902 Val d‘Isère to Lanslebourg - Col de Iseran*




Hamster RS6 Dam
You might recognise this from Top Gear



S26/N90 Bourg St. Maurice to Aosta - Little St Bernards pass
A5 Aosta Valley & Tunnels
B21/SS27 Aosta to Martigny - Gt St Bernard pass (Italian job pass)
The only pass to get the better of us



Hotel Mont Fort – Nendaz*

DAY 8 Monday 30/05/11 – Pass it on! (324 miles)
Le Grande Dixence Dam*
The name says it all! See if you can find the hotel with the same name!






E62 Brig to Arona - Simplon Pass
Major route through the Alps not to be overlooked





Golden Eye Dam
The little white “box” is a double axle box trailer!



E43 Messoco to Hinterrhein - St.Bernadino Pass (GOLD)*
This is just spectacular! Especially with a local in a VX220 chasing us







B19 Disentis to Andermatt - Oberalp Pass*
We did this one a few years ago but it was 15 deep in snow. I had no idea there was a lake there!



B2 Andermatt to Airolo - St Gotthards Pass (up) & Tremola (down)
Whilst at the top of Gotthards we got waves etc from a DBS, 599GTO, 360 spyder and California. We then headed down the oldest pass in the Alps






B2 Airolo to Ulrichen - Nufenen Pass*
This though was the highlight of the day!






Then this beauty turned up apparently ~£500k of 250 Lusso



Hotel Castle – Blitzingen*

DAY 9 Tuesday 31/05/11 – Pass the Glacier (226 miles)
B6 Gletsch to Interkirchen - Grimsel Pass (SILVER) with Grimsel see dam & Handegg - Gelmer venicular - steepest railway in Europe





This place sites on a rock out crop between two large dams, the reservoirs and the valley spooky looking place!



Scary rope bridge to an even scarier railway (with LSB for scale) !





B11 Interkirchen to Wassen - Susten Pass (BRONZE) & Steingletscher glacier





Then zoom out from the climber! Massive ice cube!



B17 Altdorf to Glarus - Klausen pass (Home of William Tell & Rhodannenberg Lake)
B & B Carina*

DAY 10 Wednesday 01/06/11 – Pass the Lake (158 miles)
Aare Gorge Walk



Weirdest train station I’ve ever got off at!



Then the weather got bad



Reichenbach Falls via venicular - Sherlock Holmes Died here but it was too foggy to bother !
Brunigpass Pragel Pass
B10 Escholzmatt to Thun - Glaubenbüelen pass & around Lake Thun
Murren with views of the Eiger (Staubbach & Trummelbach Falls & Schilthorn
The oldies should recognise this






Here’s a clue!




I asked for an Aston discount and she just smiled at me even when I dug the ECU out

Gstaad to Aigle - Les Diablarets pass
Hotel du Pillon - Les Bovets
The sun set from the room!



DAY 11 Thursday 02/06/11 - Passing Out (337 miles)
N902 Abondance to Taninges - Pas de Morgins
N5 Geneva to Champagnole - Col de la Faucille
D61 Cernay to Uffholtz - Route des Crêtes (BRONZE)
D417 Munster to Xonrupt - Col de la Schlucht (GOLD)
Hotel le Collet

DAY 12 Friday 03/06/11 Vosges to Bruge (343 miles)
On the way up avoiding French Toll roads
Hotel in Brugge

DAY 13 Saturday 04/06/11 - Go home (57 + 222 miles)

I think I won the dirtiest Aston competition



She got her own back, found the battery flat as a pancake this morning

Edited by mikey k on Thursday 9th June 21:17

[mikey k]

George H said:

That looks like quite a road trip!

Is that the cable car place from On Her Majesty's Secret Service?

It is "Blofelds Lair"

[mikey k]

Shmee said:

Wow, that is simply stunning.

Dare I ask what total mileage you covered? (Yes adding it all up is too hard work!)

3840 miles @ 15.1 mpg average in 12 days - we had a few minor detours
Next time I think we will blast down the motorways to get there quicker and maybe stop in a hotel for 2 nights to make it a bit more relaxed and keep the "interesting" mileage below 300 miles/day
Just toying with a Pyrenees trip Got a Scotland jaunt booked for September

Darren - could be - better ask him when you see him The V8VR is perfect for this as you say, the sports pack made quite a difference I'd bet a Vantage S would be even better with the quicker steering rack.

Hi John! - The route was the product of ALOT of planning though we did cut a few bits out as we ran out of time. The only luck was the weather! LSB took a great little 12MB point & shot camera and took ~2500 pictures (we just deleted the majority which were sky, trees, road signs & armco shots etc ) The other car had a good DSLR, those are looking stunning but are still "in process"

Neil - the S had a bit of trouble with lack of torque and performance drop off at altitude. I remember having the same issues with my old one in the Alps. He also managed to kill a set of tyres in a week which was a problem replacing

Edited by mikey k on Friday 10th June 09:54

[mikey k]

Not google found it to unreliable
Autoroute the conversion via ITN Conv to preferred format

[mikey k]

Ping me your email and I'll send the autoroute file over

[mikey k]

Zod - the hotel has great views but it was a bit "fawlty towers"
krisdelta - hairpins are second gear but you don't have to take that route. Route Napoleon is nice and plenty of overtakes. The routes marked with * are nice and alot less narrow

[mikey k]

Lancs Dave said:

Think I recognise some of them roads Mikey

I bloody hope so as you inspired some of them

[mikey k]

RainerM said:

Hallo Mike,

What a beautiful trip, even more impressive to us as we know so many roads you did :-))and you were passing quite near to us ;-)
We'll do a trip to the Monte-rally-routes in three weeks.Based around Monaco , so start will be there.

If you would be kind enough to send us your files for your trip, too, as an "inspiration".Many thanks for sharing your impressions with us. A drink on you tonight for sure ;-)

ATB from Eastern Switzerland

Rainer and Dot

Thank you - just ping me your email over

[mikey k]

Good example!
I know that area very well!

[mikey k]

That's the "old" St Gotthards pass, often called Tremola it is cobbled
The new one goes the other side of the valley through tunnels

[mikey k]

Janosh said:

Hmm - cobbled road doesn't sound like it'll be fun for the bikes on our trip..

In your opinion is it better to do the Andermatt loop clockwise or Anti-clockwise?? Or does it make no difference!

Or our last option is not not do the whole loop - but instead to either just the top half or bottom half in both directions?

We're currently planning to do one side of the loop on-route to Davos (Nufenen & St Gotthard) and the other side of the loop (Susten) on the way back

No real difference do it all both ways

[mikey k]

good work Pie nice to see you over here

[mikey k]

Yep that was pretty special tooo mmannny memories!

[mikey k]

Lancs Dave said:

Great stuff Mikey.

Unfortunately I'm retired from all this now. Good while it lasted tho

May have mistaken you for another Dave from Lancashire
Time to write the travel guide then

Edited by mikey k on Saturday 18th June 19:49

[mikey k]

The Pits said:

The roadster element adds a lot especially when the scenery is the alps. So all in all your trip was a fantastic use for your car. I doubt there's a better trip for it in the world.

Thanks Pits
I had a similar experience to you with the souh side of the Stelvio - nirvana!
We would never move a way from a roadster for exactly the reason you mention.
You see so much more and feel part of the landscape as you move along, you get the smells (wild garlic, meadows & cow pats!) and the noises (cow bells, tunnels water falls)
It's going to be tough to beat it but I have some ideas already
Just planning my autumn Jock Hoon at the moment as a come down

[mikey k]

You are welcome
Another mini adventure is booked for September
An epic is planned for this time next year