Day 15 Thurs 11/5/17
Another nice morning when we open the shutters so weset off around 9.20am with the roof down at a brisk but sunny 10C. Our principle of no motorways took us onto some interesting roads including a stop for cows to cross theroad and fabulous views to the snowy mountains ahead.
We drove through Reichenbach ( where Sherlock had his untimely Fall ) and then, very excitingly, onto train transit at the Lotschberg Tunnel.
We reached the end of the road at the station around 10.10, paid 27 CHF at the ticket booth, drove onto the open train over 9 empty car transporting carriages, waited 10 minutes until our departure time and then we were off into the heart of the mountain. As we boarded the train we were told to put up the roof and we found out why when we opened a window to take some photographs and found there was a serious headwind. Total distance on the train, in total darkness, was 17km!
Back on the road we took down the top again and continued towards Simplon. We stayed on the old Simplon road as long as possible and had it virtually to ourselves as we hair-pinned up the mountain. From about 1800 metres we came across snow beside the road and at the top of the Simplon Pass at 2005 metres we had sleet and 2C of temperature.
Needless to say the top went up at that point (around 12 noon). As we started our descent we rapidly reached the Swiss boarder and then a few kms later the Italian border. It was obvious we were in Italy as we had to start dodging potholes on the road. The rain continued as we worked our way down to the plain meaning that our picnic lunch as eaten in the car on the shores of Lago Orta.
Further on in Piedmont we drove into extensive flooded fields, not realising Piedmont was such a large rice producer.
Anyway the rain had stopped so we took down the hood again around 2.45pm and cruised through the paddy fields, crossing into Lombardy and eventually reaching the Hotel Diamanté in Alessandria as the temperature reached 18C, the hottest temperature since Hampshire a week ago and we only had to drive to northern Italy to find it! At about this time we got a message from James and Liz saying that they were in Mull and it was 20C!
Interlaken to Alessandria 196 miles. Total 1703 miles ( plus 17km for the train )