Staples 2 Naples – September 2005 – Friday
On Friday morning we woke up to find most people already up, and trying to(!) start their cars. We adventured off to find fuel, and after a few handbrake turns and adventuring the wrong way up a dual carriageway, we found ourselves at the meeting point with a full tank.
Friday was a 600 mile day, taking us from Calais to Sarnen, a town nestling in the Swiss Alps. We (Tom Tom) took a route through Belgium and Luxembourg before coming back into France, then on to Switzerland. The Sierra got down to business:
We crossed out of France and through Belgium without so much as stopping. By around midday were in Luxembourg (the country), heading toward the city.
We then had our first experience with a European police force as they signalled for us to pull off at the next junction for a chat.
They were for some reason not impressed with our car, and apparently had received a phone call reporting me driving on the hard shoulder, something that neither Robin nor I could recall occurring. Eventually, after accusing us repeatedly of being on drugs, they let us get on, allowing us to indulge in a few handbrake turns to get the Sierra back on course. Unperturbed we continued through their poxy country (which incidentally, seems just as pointless as Belgium) and got on our merry way back through France.
The drive was quite dull, but the France autoroutes were nice and clear and allowed for good progress, as shown by this video clip:
By about half past four, we’d reached the Swiss border.
An hour and a half later, we were at the meeting hotel in Sarnen, and we delighted to find ourselves to be the first there! However, there were no prizes for getting there first, and even fewer for failing to book a room at the hotel. While we waited for another friendly team to arrive Robin took the controls, and we set about exploring the beautiful Swiss countryside. I took this video clip out of the sunroof on the way back into Sarnen:
Upon our return we were pleased to find James and (other) Robin, aka “The Bodgers” had arrived. They very kindly agreed to let us have one of their booked rooms, and so the day’s ordeal was over.
