Links marked with a * require a password.

Long before this trip...

Our little band of intrepid explorers consisted of Keith (Opel Speedster), Robin (Honda S2000), Soren (Porsche Boxster-S), Joerg (Lotus Elise), and myself of course. My trip started with running the filthy dirty 964 through a carwash.

Day 0 - Sunday

Nürburg to Eguisheim

Keith showed off how much luggage you could fit in a Speedster. (Clue: much more if you also use the passenger seat.)

The waiting time was spent by cleaning the inside of the windows.

Outside we couldn't resist posing for a group shot.

To be able to communicate with each other while driving I'd arranged for a group buy of some PMRs and headsets...over! Keith started fiddling with his right away, and within seconds Robin, Soren and Keith had started digging through the manual.

Leaving a wet Nordschleife behind us we went onto the A1 towards Trier. Both Keith and I had a bit of a sideways moment on the onramp. We made good time and enjoyed the sunny weather.

Keith and Soren were ahead of me when we crossed into France...

... with Robin bringing up the rear.

Some random pics:

When we stopped for a quick break Soren showed off his stork-abilities. Keith took the concept of break a little too literally.

The following picture shows what would become a daily ritual (or twice-daily for Robin): taking possesion of a petrol station.

The further we went, the better the weather. Soren, Keith and Robin took advantage of the rising temperatures to drop their respective roofs.

After some detouring thanks to some roadwork near our destination we arrived safely at our hotel: Auberge des Comtes in Eguisheim.

Day 1 - Monday

Eguisheim, Schüpfheim, Glaubüelenpass, Sarnen, Glaubenbergpass, Malters, Kriens, Klausenpass, Linthal, Braunwald

We crossed the border at Bad Säckingen. With a convoy of four sportscars (even though the majority of those was grey) this took a little longer than expected. It was also a good exercise in self-control. Particularly of the muscles you use when you're laughing: as it turned out the friendly customs officer asked all of us the same question (though slightly differently worded): "Are you going to do illegal street racing?"

We compared notes (and travel documents and stamps) in the carpark on the Swiss side of the border.

Not entirely coincidentally we happened to be passing by Freddy Kumschick, the official Swiss importer of Lotus and Caterham.

Passing through the adjacent village Keith suddenly pulled off to try to find a replacement for his broken sunglasses. Everybody was enjoying the fresh air through their hairs and the sun on their faces with lowered roofs. Except for me of course.

When the boys got tired of that they turned their attention to checking the tread depth of their tyres with a handy little tool Robin had brought with him.

Robin was showing off his S2000's party trick: opening or closing the roof within 10 seconds. Quite useful, those traffic lights. Soren's Boxster didn't need a traffic light: he could open or close the roof while on the move.

Despite filling up earlier that day fuel levels were starting to run a little low. Time to use all the available pumps at a nearby petrol station again.

The fact that we were getting closer to the mountains was hard to miss. This is the top of the Klausenpass.

Not only did the backdrop change, we also encountered different wildlife.

The downside of these animals is that they drop cowpats indiscriminately, including in the middle of the road. This didn't bother Keith very much, as he was in front. It bothered me a bit more. It bothered Robin even more, as some of the crap had landed on his opened roof, meaning that it's on the inside of the roof when closed... We renamed this valley "cow-valley".

Joerg had already arrived at the Braunwaldbahn to meet up with us: from here on in it was a five car convoy.

The Braunwaldbahn took us up to our hotel in the carfree village of Braunwald. We stayed in the aptly though slightly unoriginally named Hotel Alpenblick.

Day 2 - Tuesday

Braunwald, Passo del San Gottardo (via val Tremolo), Gotthardpass, Airolo, Nufenenpass, Grimselpass, Sustenpass, Andermatt

This turned out to be a brilliant day from a pass-driving point of view. I've listed the major passes we took, but I probably missed a few. Lots and lots of bends. The PMRs proved invaluable to keep the convoy together. Clear, clear, clear, ONCOMING, ONCOMING... Thanks to the changing weather conditions Keith was getting ample practice at opening and closing his roof.

The scenery was well worth admiring.

The cars also attracted a bit of attention, particularly of several girls who had their picture taken posing in of the row of cars.

Some of the roads were clearly not intended for handling the modern high volume of motorised traffic. They were loads of fun to drive though. Enough so that we drove some of them twice.

Of course I couldn't resist posing the 964. While I was doing that, the local Polizei drove past. They must have been disappointed/surprised that the four sportscars coming the other way were driving nice and slow.

No doubt there were several more direct routes to take us from Braunwald to Andermatt, but this one was certainly the most fun. In Andermatt we stayed in the Activ Kronen Hotel, which is on the Gotthardstrasse. My room came equipped with a nice view and the sounds of a brook trickling down the mountain.

Day 3 - Wednesday

Andermatt, Furkapass, Brig, Simplonpass, Ascona, A13 to San Bernardino, Splügenpass, Chiavenna

Still, at about 9.30 we were on the road again, on the way to the Furkapass.

If you don't like hairpins then this is definitely the wrong place for you.

So far we'd been reasonably lucky with traffic, but that was changing today.

Robin's cookies were looking a bit the worse for wear having been stored in the car during the sunny weather of the past few days.

We had a break at the top of the Simplon pass to admire the surroundings.

The weather was a lot wetter than before. Keith had taken to removing and refitting the roof of his Speedster without exiting the car. Quite a feat: many people struggle with that roof without being restrained in the drivers seat.

Joerg was still stopping to do his roof-changes.

Around lunchtime (still wet) we filled the cars up again. The 964 is happy with 95RON, but Robin's S2000 likes 98RON.

In Ascona we stopped off for a late lunch (and to admire the local sportscar scene).

Our preference for minor roads resulted in a larger than average number of roadworks to deal with.

The wet weather didn't dampen our spirits. It also gave Keith and Joerg lots of opportunities to practice their roofing skills.

Soren and Robin just pressed a button to switch between open and closed. My 964 was even better: I didn't have to do anything.

By now I'd lost count of the number of pretty (even in the crappy weather) little Alpine villages and settlements we'd passed through. This was definitely postal services bus territory.

The day ended in a familiar way, with cows crossing the road. This time we kept a bit more distance between the cars...

Apparently this cul de sac is quite famous, even though it consists of only a handful of houses and a few heads of cattle. (You'll have to ask Joerg what it's famous for; I've forgotten. Sorry!)

It did provide us with another opportunity to pose the cars.

The hotel of the day was the Hotel Conradi in Chiavenna. It has a very tight and inconvenient carpark in front of the hotel, but we managed to squeeze our cars in there with a bit of to-ing and fro-ing. Just a short walk away we had excellent Italian food, followed by even better Italian ice cream on the way back.

Day 4 - Thursday

Chiavenna, Maloja, Julier, Davos, Flüela, Livigno, Passo di Foscagno, Passo di Stelvio

Taking advantage of the great roads and a dry spell I took some pics of Soren and Keith. Soren couldn't resist going a bit sideways. Not that that's out of the ordinary. Keith's inside rear wheel was doing significantly more revs than his front wheels...

Usually it's quite easy to find a half-decent place to have lunch. This turned out to be a bit more challenging today. For some reason there was nothing that looked even remotely attractive. Motivated by hunger we stopped off at the one place we could find. It was tiny, but it did serve food. Well, sort of.

I think the only reason we stopped was because Robin had spotted a nice-looking woman.

Next stop was to wait at a traffic light at a tunnel. The lights took forever to change, and Keith took advantage of that to, ah, well, never mind. The tunnel charged something like EUR8.45 or thereabouts.

The drive from Livigno to the Stelvio pass was vey boring: heavy traffic and more or less continuous rain throughout. That was quickly forgotten once we got to the Stelvio. Even in the rain it looked gorgeous, with lots of narrow tunnels, steep drops, hairpins of various radii, going up and up and up until you finally pop out near the top of the mountain (still a reasonably long way to go to the top itself), and you can look around you again. Very impressive.

Some of the others couldn't resist going up and down a side road, but I gave priority to relaxing in the lobby of our hotel, the hotel Perego.

Day 5 - Friday

Passo di Stelvio, Merano, Passo di Rombo (Timmelsjoch), Obergurgl, Ötztal, Innsbruck

The view down the other side of the Stelvio pass (the direction we'd be taking after breakfast) looked magical beneath the rising sun. I've sold several copies and prints of this picture by now. Drop me a line if you'd like to obtain a hi-res copy and sponsor my fuel bill a bit.

The view from the top was spectacular.

According to the little sign we were at an elevation of 2843m.

To give you an idea of the amount of snow, here's a picture of my Porsche keys next to my footprint.

The snow was perfect for making snowballs.

We joined the rest of the gang to catch the tail end of breakfast. Outside the sun had started to melt the snow.

Soren topped off his oil with an extremely expensive bottle of oil (as he hadn't thought to bring his own).

Joerg got to enjoy the pleasures of driving a real Elise: he had to choose between sitting on a rain coat or sit in a wet seat.

We descended the Stelvio gently, as the road was still cold and slippery. Halfway down it was time for another improvised group shot.

At yet another fuel stop Robin just had to sit in the 964 to try it on for size. He certainly made the correct broom-broom sounds.

Lunch was again at a suitably high location. Don't let Keith's shorts give you the wrong impression: it was downright cold up there.

In case you're wondering if Joerg had dropped off the side of a cliff (a distinct possibility in these parts): he had to peel off to head in another direction to deal with something unforeseen. A great pity, but it couldn't be helped.

From there is was basically one long descent until Innsbruck. We stayed at the Parkhotel Leipzigerhof. Dinner was somewhere in the Altstadt, just a short walk away from the hotel.

Day 6 - Saturday

Innsbruck to the Netherlands

The drive home was slightly less than relaxing with quite a few Staus near München.

The others weren't having much luck either: the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse (to give it its full name) was closed... Regardless, it's safe to say that we all had a brilliant trip.