Across the Alps in One Day

Rain in Ehrwald, Austria, with the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, in view

This month is a mad month. 15 FRIGGIN TENDERS in 1 month! It’s like not even 2 days per tender (not counting weekends, OK?) So, it’s gonna be picture posts for the time being until work returns to sane levels.

Here’s a continuation of my previous post. As I was saying, we decided to leave Munich after only 1 day, because the brilliant weather forecast website that I relied upon when planning our trip, said that weather in Munich will suck, from Day 1 (which it didn’t). And not only that, it’ll suck for the entire German-speaking area which we planned to visit (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), for the next few days (well, it was still beautifully sunny in Munich when we left). Anyway, I got our rented car, and drove across …the Alps (what else?), in one day, to Italy.

No, it’s not too far away. Europe’s not that big, or is it? Hell, I’ll even take the less travelled route, not the main boring autobahns (expressways) that goes west towards Lake Constance, and cut south through the western edge of Austria. No, I’ll drive south from Munich itself, to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, cross the Bavarian Alps, then cut straight across Austria using the shortest and most direct route, into the Romansh-speaking part of Switzerland (I’ve seen the French, German and Italian parts of Switzerland in 1994, but never the Romansh part, …always wanted to see how this part looks like, not to mention the allure of St Moritz, even if just in passing, hehe). And there we were, in quiet country, with rain and cloudy weather, even in friggin Italy, and arrived in Lugano, Switzerland (where we had planned to spend the night), 5 minutes before midnight. Lugano is inside Switzerland. We effectively crossed 4 borders that day, Germany to Austria, Austria to Switzerland, Switzerland to Italy, and Italy back to Switzerland, in 1 day. (Imagine the face of Anu, who had to tend to the 2 kids while yours truly do the driving. …Well, how would I know that the roads in the Lakes Area in Italy would be so narrow, and that it’d rain non-stop??)

And here are the pictures, till another freer time.


Gloomy weather in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany


Justin, Papa & our trusty rented Opel Zafira, at Garmisch-Partenkirchen


Rainy in Ehrwald, North Tyrol, Austria


In Switzerland, right after the Austrian-Swiss Border – the hills in view are in Austria


The Village of Ramosch, Grisons, Switzerland




The road less travelled, between Ramosch and Scuol, Grisons, Switzerland


Bridge to Tarasp, Grisons, Switzerland


The Grand Hotel des Bains, St Moritz, Grisons (or Graubünden, or Grigioni, or Grischun). In Switzerland, everything has 4 names. There’re 4 official languages, and so 4 versions of many of the place names. The canton that St Moritz is in, is called Grisons in French, Graubünden in German, Grigioni in Italian, and Grischun in Romansh

And that’s all folks, for the day. …As it then became too dark to take anymore photos. It became completely dark after the Maloja Pass. So from there on, and the entire part of Italy from Chiavenna, to Menaggio (beside the famous Lake Como), and then into Lugano, was driven in the dark, in drizzling rain, almost the entire way.


OK, here’s a photo of Lugano from the next day – with the weather still cloudy, and greyish – and the weather forecast said that Italy / Southern Switzerland would be sunny!?! No, I don’t trust European weather forecasts anymore.

Thinking back, it seems like quite a good idea now, that we've decided not to go anywhere this summer, ...especially with the spate of terrorist attacks in Europe, and the plane accident in Dubai. Scary.