Deadly serious

After such a busy day we didn't have many opportunities to eat and so had planned to get something back at the hotel restaurant. However, it was 10pm and their kitchen was closed. We were advised to try a pizzeria further along and it worked out perfectly. We'd just been to Italy and this part of Switzerland has a lot of Italian speakers so it's no surprise we'd find good pasta and pizza. It's also a little more affordable given the crazy prices in this country. 

We recorded the dash over mountain passes with a GoPro which just ran out on our final approach to the hotel. It should make for an interesting video when we get back home. Google has been a little disappointing with their navigation but our car came with SatNav and I don't think this journey would have been possible without. Not on this scale and speed. Here are the routes of our two passes today. The San Bernardino Pass we drove only once returning after a tunnel, the Splugenpass we drove twice. 

As if Liechtenstein, a gorge and one mountain pass wasn't enough we decided to try for one more today: Italy. We were just a few kilometres from the border and so at a junction turned right and drove south through another series of snaking roads, the Splugenpass. It was only another 20 minutes or so until we found ourselves at the empty border check point. We first ran over the line and then returned, a 10 second visit to Italy. We took a photo at the border sign and continued on our way back to the hotel, satisfied. 

Driving back from the San Bernardino Pass the sun was setting and resetting as it was eclipsed by one mountain but was still lighting others further along. We stopped at almost every opportunity beside the road to keep snapping photos. We became a little obsessed. But you don't get opportunities like this every day. It reminds me of one evening in Namibia when the sun suddenly brought all the mountains alive with a rich, complex texture of light. Like a painting. 

And so we chose the San Bernardino Pass as the easiest to reach, on the way to Italy. In error we take the newer 6km tunnel route and miss the mountains, and instead use the pass for the drive back. There were multiple sets of these winding roads as we slowly passed over the mountain at a much slower pace than the straight tunnel. Commuters wouldn't waste their time here. One twisting road was accompanied by these alien structures that we haven't yet identified, but they made for stunning photo features. 

The gorge was not going to be the end of our high altitude adventure. We got back into the car and decided to drive to one of the famous passes that cross the Alps. On the way we noticed the sun was getting lower in the sky and starting to cast beautiful light and shadows across the scenery. It was sheer luck we found ourselves here at this time although I'd always hoped to get a sunset in the mountains. 

We appreciated the cooler air but unfortunately just above the Gorge some workmen were blasting away at the stone meaning the continual spray of water was mixed with a very fine dust that settled on everything: your face, camera lenses, eyes, throat. The views were unsurprisingly impressive and deep down the hole you could easily see millions of years of sediment as slate and how the ground rose and fell churning eons of Earth in constant motion. I felt like a fleeting speck of dust. The stairs back up were tough on the heart.