Visp and Steimen - day 12

We had a rather leisurely start this morning. I have had a bit of a sore throat and cough, so trying not to overdo it. It also was raining lightly this morning so that made it easier to stay in bed for a while. So we left the motorcamp at around 10am, and then got a bit distracted at the Lidl supermarket in Brigg (I loved Lidl when I was in Croatia, so wanted to visit another one). We were then heading to Rowena’s place (an old friend of Jody’s who has lived in Switzerland for 27 years). We left Brigg around 12, and googlemaps said we would arrive at Rowena’s in 2.5 hours. And then the journey began….

It started off quite well, the roads were a bit narrow but not in great condition. The view was amazing again with such lovely little buildings all around and lots of little villages. As we went along, there was more and more snow, and the roads got narrower though the view got better. We seemed to be heading for some really high snowy mountains, but there didn’t seem to be a pass. At one stage we were heading for a tunnel, and found a round red sign that looked like it was a stop sign. We sort of thought that maybe we shouldn’t go through the tunnel, so I got out and asked the car behind us, and they didn’t have any idea either. So I beckoned the 3rd car through, and they went down a narrow path beside the tunnel, the other car followed, and I went to as well. But then a car came from the other way, so we waited for them, and then went on the narrow path. It was a couple of kms long, and it was very fortuitous that no cars came towards us, as there really wasn’t any room. It looked like a slip had fallen over the tunnel which is why we wouldn’t have got through it. When we got back on the road, it looked like there was a petrol station. We drove past that, through the town and then headed again for the mountains. The snow was encroaching on the road, and there was only just enough room for us to get through. I started thinking that this road really wasn’t a goer, and then we came across another red stop sign – looked like the road was closed. So we found somewhere to do a youie houie (missed a good photo opportunity there!) and went back through the time. There was a sign pointing us back to Brigg, but that seemed a long way to backtrack. So I thought we could go back to the gas station, and see if there was another option. Lo and behold but it wasn’t a gas station at all – it was a car train! The next train was at 1.05, and it was 1.00. So we quickly bought a ticket, drove over to the guard who showed us where to drive and we were on. He then handed us an A4 sheet of paper with about 10 different languages – basically saying that as we were pretty high, we couldn’t drive into the covered part of the train and we would have to wait at the other end for them to help us off. The train journey was around 15 minutes, and all the cars ahead of us just drove forward to get off. The cars behind us had to wait for the guard to open up some side gates, and maneuver us forward and back to get us off. The pass we went under was called the Furkapass (not what we were calling it!), and apparently it is only open for 5 months of the year. I have just seen picture of it, and driving under seems a preferable option.

So the road after the tunnel was still a bit snowy and not well repaired, but then we started seeing some signs that looked like a motorway – yeehaa! The motorway still wasn’t amazing, and we went down a huge hill with hairpin bends (pleased that Nico has a manual gear), and finally got to the bottom of that and got on a road that I could even set cruise control on. We stopped at a gas station off the motorway and had lunch – ie Jody heated up our meat patties and cut up some stuff to go with them while I lay on my bed for a while. And then it was off on our final leg to Rowena’s in Steimen.

What a lovely place this is. Rowena is a kiwi, but married Paul who is Swiss, and they have lived in this house for 27 years. We had a lovely dinner – bruschetta, rosti, and fleisch kase (translates as meat cheese). Rowena and Paul had a good time laughing at the routes that we have taken so far. Apparently the St Bernhard pass that we did on the first day was one that not many people would take by choice, and today’s effort was even better. Paul has been great at helping us with our route for the next few days – maps out all over the table. Interesting for me trying to login to my google drive on their wifi as it only gives me German and French as language choices. But very lovely hosts with a washing machine, and we get to sleep in beds where we don’t need to use ladders to climb into them – a bonus! Nico is currently parked in their driveway, but is on a bit of a lean so when Jody went in there with her socks on she slipped from one end to the other.

So tomorrow we intend to go into Lucerne either by boat or train depending on what the weather is like.Read more