Switzerland

Long day today. Started out at 0800ish after a hearty breakfast of chocolate croissant and coffee. Attempted to refuel at an automated pump near the hotel and failed miserably. No matter. Hit the motorway and headed east from Metz straight into rather thick fog. Visibility down to 100m or so. Perhaps this isn't going to be a straightward journey after all! Luckily it burnt off as we drove east, refueling successfully soon after the fog cleared.

The quiet drive soon ended as soon as we hit the German border. After the quiet of the French motorways we were faced with the onslaught of Germans and Swiss driving past at mach 4. Welcome to the autobahn. Even TomTom gave up showing the maximum speed on the A5. Once at Basel and through the traffic jam at the Swiss border (about 50 cars).

Negotiated our way through Basel (wifey commenting that the town's a bit like a Swiss version of Birmingham and spaghetti junction - I'm sure it's very nice). Once away from the towns we could appreciate the joy of the Swiss landscape until we get near to Zurich and then it all goes horribly wrong. We take the wrong turn and end up going north around Zurich - turned around and headed south looking for the ring road around the south. This, it appears, isn't complete as I and the camper in-front nearly career through the bollards into the tunnel we obviously both want but can't have, and forced onto a road neither of us know. Some frantic mapping reading by the wife and swearing at TomTom "turn right", "no", "turn right in 300 meters", "NO! Where the hell are we?", "turn around when possible","Just f**k off!". Now we're on a quiet Swiss back road and no idea where we are. It's time to do what I hate doing - trust TomTom. We punch in our new destination, Gotthard, and stare at the little screen, slavishly doing it's bidding. All credit to TomTom, after some very scenic driving, it got us back onto the motorway and somewhere on a map.

Some may wonder why I don't just trust the technology. TomTom is a fantastic device and I wouldn't go anywhere without it. However, I refuse to abdicate all responsibility to it. I want to know where I am and where I'm going - if I get lost I want to know I did it all on my own.

The drive through the rest of Switzerland was truly stunning, perhaps we will return for our last week to appreciate the mountains fully. Perhaps I'll even get to climb one ... well, perhaps, one of the smaller ones. Finally made the St Gotthard Tunnel, expecting long queues, only to find we flew through, much to wifey's relief - she's not a fan of tunnels. The thought of 17km under ground with Italian drivers and having read about the very tragic accident a few years ago, even I was relieved to get to the other side. Swapped driving with wifey at the Gotthard services headed into Italy. The drive initially being very easy but soon descended into wholesale carnage as we hit the border. After 7 hours in a car the final drive to Milan started taking its toll on both of us. Tempers started to fray, thankfully we found our hotel before TomTom was used as a blunt weapon.

Ended the day with a Snack noodle and Spicy Tomato Pasta - well it was Italy, dont-cha-know, and endorsed by Ainsley Harriett. Posh pot noodle by anyone else's definition.

Packing madness

Well, it's Good Friday and only one day to go. We've nearly packed everything, and by the size of our cases, I think we really have packed everything!

All our routes and stop-overs are planned. Start Sunday morning on the Eurotunnel arriving Calais at 12.00. First night stop at Metz about 5ish. Next day the big push through France, Switzerland and into Italy. Planning our route through Switzerland proved interesting with a choice of going directly south through the St Gotthard tunnel and face rather large queues (it is Easter weekend after all), or travel further east past Zurich (and around what looks like a nice bypass through the Uetliberg Tunnel on the N4/N20) and then down through the St Bernardino tunnel). Finally decided on the route via Zurich. Hopefully arriving Monday evening in Milan after approx 7-8 hours driving. Tuesday should be a fairly leisurely drive south-east to Bologna then south towards Rome and Sutri.

If you're interested in route planning there are a number of interesting sites that can assist:

1. maps.google.co.uk. Very flexible system, allowing you to change your route by dragging the route around on the interactive map. The only downside are the maps aren't accurate. The bypass around Zurich does not exist yet (even though the copyright says 2009) and Google places our hotel in Milan in the wrong place even though it has the correct address. The printed route is very impressive, allowing you to add in maps of junctions and screenshots of streetview where available.
2. www.routes.tomtom.com. A beta system which would be very good if you could alter the route once planned. All the mapping is their own which makes for some very accurate routes.
3. www.viamichelin.co.uk. Another good system allowing some route alterations, but the printed routes are a little confusing to say the least. The wife hated it. However, the list includes an estimate of tolls and fuel costs.
4. www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp. A system based around Google Maps but with less flexibility. However UK routes look very comprehensive.
5. www.multimap.co.uk. This is another good planner with mapping from Microsoft Virtual Earth. You can add multple 'via's to alter your route, but I wasn't keen on the routes printed out.

Out of all the planners I found Google the most flexible. Your mileage may vary (... sorry couldn't help it!).