From our first visit here in 1985, and through a couple of others since, this has always been one of our favourite countries – and one of the countries in the world that we admire most.

This visit we had a few specific goals – drive  some of Switzerland’s great mountain passes, explore regions we had missed before ( in the south and south east ), revisit a couple of our favourite places, and finally, visit some old friends we had last seen a few years back at an Overlander camp in Buenos Aires.

First, the road trip. From the very beginning of our retirement travels ( back in 2019 when we created the OneEndlessRoad website ), our primary goal was simply to drive some of the worlds great roads. In the years since we’ve been working our way through many of them ( the full Pan Am, the “full lap” of Australia, to name but a few, and of course, countless legendary national road trips within these long national and international routes – Chile’s Carretera Austral, Argentina’s Route 40, Australia’s Gibb River Rd and Cape York Track being among the more memorable). Switzerland, while not offering any such lengthy road trips of note, does offer some world-renowned high mountain passes (one of which was even featured in a classic James Bond movie). While sadly not doing it in an iconic Aston Martin DB5, we still managed to drive the famous Furka Pass ( featured in Goldfinger ), and nearby Grimsel Pass,  the even more stunning “Paso de Stelvio” ( Stelvio Pass )  connecting Switzerland with Italy , and the Fluela Pass ( connecting  Davos to the Stelvio Pass road ). These, in addition to the impressive back roads we took across Crans Montana  and the Appenzell region made for an incredibly memorable driving week in Switzerland – it’s just that kind of postcard-like country in which every direction you look, you see something of stunning beauty. Equally impressive was to see the range of truly exotic and iconic European sports cars traversing these routes, along with a couple of old British classic cars as well. Seems we were not the only car ( or, in our case, ‘van’ ) buffs on the road in Switzerland that week.

In between all these particular mountain pass roads, time was made time for revisits to Interlaken and Lucerne, two of Switzerlands prettier attractions which fell conveniently within our path across the south of the country. Both offered exceptionally clear and sunny days making for memorable return visits. 

Great road trips and scenic cities are always highlights when you are on the road but so too is the opportunity to catch up with old friends. We had kept in contact with Peter and Nicole over the past 3 years since last meeting them at a campground in Buenos Aires as we wrapped up the PanAm. We enjoyed a few wonderful days together there and went out for dinner in the city on a couple of occasions. They’ve spent many years traveling South America in their 4 x 4 VW and we have enjoyed following their overlanding adventures since we left them. Fortunately,  this summer found them back in Switzerland for a few months R&R so it provided a great opportunity to stop by and see them in the picturesque community of Gonten where they live. It’s a stunningly beautiful place and close by is the city of Appenzell where we joined them to watch one of Switzerland’s seasonal “cow descent“ ( or Alpabfahrt ). A visit to the nearby Laderach chocolate plant gave us the opportunity to get involved in making some chocolate and to learn about just exactly what goes into making this legendary Swiss product. Sharing the time with them and their good friends  Bruno and Regula ( just back from an overland trip to Georgia themselves ) and enjoying a traditional Raclette dinner with them was a real highlight of the trip so far – I don’t think we have had such an intense culinary and sensory experience in some time ! Thank you, Peter and Nicole !

From Switzerland, the plan is to tour through Italy’s legendary Dolomites for a few days before heading to Slovenia through eastern Austria. Lots to see. I’ll close this week with a few shots of our last “drive” in Switzerland – from Gonten, south east to Davos and on through the Fluela Pass to Zernez and then to the Stelvio Pass on the Swiss / Italian border ( exhilarating, to say the least !).

Till next week…..

In Case You Wondered:

Q: How do you determine where to stay each night ?

A: We have been asked this one a lot. I have periodically been adding pics of camping/parking places ( to show what’s typical ) but it seems people are especially curious about this. While campgrounds are certainly available if one needs to use them, we are fully self-contained and hence generally avoid them. There is just no need, and in Europe they can sometimes be congested as well. They can also be expensive, especially in high season, and the popular ones require booking in advance – and we always avoid that !

In cities it’s  very common to use 24hr parking stations ( these allow you to get right downtown, but you are “parking” and not “camping” in the strict sense of the word ). The term “camping”  is probably used somewhat generously in some cases. In these situations, one does not put chairs or awnings out – but we are still very thankful and appreciative of the flexibility to stay so close to downtown areas ( we are very respectful and certainly “don’t bite the hand that feeds us” ! ). So far anyway it just seems much easier to do this in Europe.  Park4Night ( an app ) is the “bible” of European van/RV travellers in this regard. The  iOverlander app is good all over the world though not quite so strong in Europe. Both these apps show both free and payable locations where one can park/camp overnight. The options are numerous – we’ve never worried about finding a place, ever.

  Personally when deciding where to stay ( though some would prioritize differently ) we focus on security first, convenience of location second, flat( or “flat’ish” at least !) third, with reasonable quietness next. Any other benefits are a complete bonus. We don’t hesitate to drive right downtown and have done so everywhere we have been, the advantage of having a rig that, while spacious, is still quite easy to manoeuvre.