I'm sure you all know by now, the anniversary details have been announced. We are coming over with six UK cars and one Dutch one will join us. Dieter/Rosi and Herbie will join us for the weekend too

After the event, on the Monday lunchtime we head off for a tour of southern Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and (maybe Slovenia), if anybody else is coming for the weekend please let us know so we can meet up and maybe run together.

We leave on May 20th and return to the UK on June 4th ,we plan on re-visiting some of the highest Alpine Passes from our last visit in 2008. Any suggestions (yeah I know the Stelvio, Grand St. Bernard, San Bernadino, Susten, Julier, Umbrail, Grimsel and Grossglockner will be done), any others you can recommend.

I'm interested in taking the cars on trains for a short journey too, one of the group is quite keen on this. I have the Oberwald-Realp and the Andermatt - Sedrun in mind ?

Funicular railways too, how about the Allmendhubelbahn at Murren ?

How about the Col de Turini (the Monte carlo rally stage) ?

Adrian, you forgot the Gaviapass.

If your tour will lead you in the nuremberg area, or you if will include our wonderful town in your route-planning, feel free o contact me!

Certainly could do Jurgen, we could take the E9 as I would like to visit Nuremberg and Regensburg on our way south. We would be there Monday 24th in the afternoon. We may stay locally too depending on how long we stay in the area, what do you think ?

I have a note about the Gavia pass, it's not one that I know but it has been recommended before.

Hi Adrian,

Jürgen is right: The Gavia is great Go for it.
Have to take a look, maybe i'll manage to see you on your way.

Sven

Hi
Oberwald-Realp ... I know, what you mean. In the meantime the Railway Company has changed the name.
The old name of this train was "Furka Oberalp Railway". The new name is called "Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway".
But it's the same company ...
You can take the Auto-Train from Andermatt (St.Gotthard) to Oberwald (Realp) if you want.
From Oberwald drive the valley all the way down until "Sierre". Turn left and take the road over the "Simplon Pass" to Italy.
The swiss-side is a very fast road! (it's a kind of "Highspeed-Pass") Italy's side's not, but with a very nice scenery!

Hope, I'll see you in switzerland! But I have to check my diary first...
When are you in switzerland exactly?

Regards
Andy

Hi Andy, nice to hear from you again.

Hmm ! an MG railway (Matterhorn-Gotthard) it has to be visited. I would appreciate any details of this (and any others, it appears quite popular with some of our group). Is this the same as the steam railway during the EEOTY 2008 ? I know that was narrow guage and I think we can take our cars on the one you have suggested, so I guess (hope) it's a different one.

I have not made too many plans yet, it's been rather busy with the 2010 calendar the way it is, but, we will leave Saalburg at lunchtime on Monday 24/5 when the event finishes, we will follow a non-motorway route south via Neuschwanstein. We will call in to either Nurnberg or Regensburg to meet Jurgen (if this is OK with him). From there, we will be in Switzerland, we plan on visiting the Stelvio Pass at the weekend so we can meet up with Francesco and his group MG-TF Passion from Italy. There is nothing to stop us going in and of of CH/I/A as the passes will lead us to, so we are very flexible about this. We are touring, we have no schedule and we do not return to the UK until 4/6, so if you have some plans and ideas, that will be great.

We are looking for lovely roads and scenery, you know the area far better than me so I'm open to any good advice and routes.

Hi again

Yes, it's a different one.
But ... in the good old days it was the same company!
Today, the "Furka Oberalp Dampfbahn" (= Furka Oberalp Steamtrain) is private owned.

Hope the following links are helpful for you.

Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn: (english)
http://www.mgbahn.ch/homepage/index.php

Furka Oberalp Dampfbahn: (english)
http://www.furka-bergstrecke.ch/eng/index.php

If you want to visit the Steamtrain, there's no problem to do so, because you can drive by car (MG!)
from "Oberwald" to "Gletsch". Or from "Realp" over the "Furka Pass" to "Gletsch". There, you will see the steamtrain.
The Steamtrain rides between "Gletsch" and "Realp". In both directions.
If you want, you can make a ride with the steamtrain. You can take also a roundtrip with the Steamtrain. (Aprox. 5,5h!)
I'm not sure, but I think, the roundtrip costs about 70 SFr/Person. Not cheap, but a nice experience!

Regarding narrow gauge:
Both, the old steamtrain, and the "new" Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn are "narrow gauged" trains.
There are lots of narrow gauged trains in switzerland.
Another nice one is the RhB. (I think it's the biggest narrow gauge company in switzerland) They have also
very nice tracks! Especially the one over the "Bernina Pass" between Italy and Switzerland. (very spectacular)
http://www.rhb.ch/index.php?id=891?&L=4

Regards
Andy

Hi Andy, unless I am wrong, was the Furka train (and the steamboat) the ones we used in 2008 at the EEOTY in Zug ?

The MGB looks interesting though, I think we will include that.

Adrian

steam...train, and yes it's the same we did at EEOTY 2008. Started at Realp
Recall from pictures
(Keith picture galery)
http://picasaweb.google.de/kwil35/EEoTY ... 0223034146

Thanks Dieter, I thought so.

Thanks Dieter, because ... I wasn't there!

Cheers
Andy

Adrian: if you like to stay in our area for one or two days, we can organize a small programm for you and your friends. Probably a guided brewerytour in the old town with integrates beertasting? Let me know, if it sounds interesting to you.

Thanks Jurgen, that sounds interesting I will let you know.

Feel free to contact me!

Jurgen, as the Romantische Strasse is 60 years old this year, there are celebrations starting in May. I want our route from Saalburg to Fussen to follow as much of this as possible. We plan on staying the first night (Monday) near to Wurzburg, Tuesday night near to Rothenburg, Wednesday night near to Augsburg and Friday and Saturday near to Schongau as we will use this as our base for touring the area. It's nice to be able to unpack the cases now and then.

From there, the overnights will be :

Saturday Zell am See (for the Grossglockner), Sunday & Monday Bolzano, Tuesday Davos, Wednesday & Thursday Andermatt, Friday Bad Ripoldsau and then home.

Any advice on hotels routes etc is always welcome.

Adrian, do you prefer hotels or probably something like bed & breakfast.
In Augsburg i´d recommend the B&B Hotel. I stayed there during the Moto Technica in January. New, clean, prices are ok. Close to Fussen we stayed last year in October on a kind of farm in a small village close to Schwangau. If you are interested i can have a look for the address.

Yes please Jurgen, all help is appreciated, we have to look at the costs too as the Pound is useless against the Euro. We would like to stay close to Fussen for the two nights. Six cars, 12 people, six double rooms.

Thanks to Greece, that it´s not so bad, as i noticed, when buying my new toolbox on ebay UK. I´ll have a look for the adress.

It could be a bit tricky to find not so expensive rooms for 12 persons in the same location, because it´s holidaytime in Bavaria.

This is where we stayed last year in October.
And this could be interesting, or this, this is more expensive but probably better with available rooms. I hope the links will work. There are lot more hotels in the Fussenarea. If you want to check it out personally, you should have a look at the sites of [url=http:www.schwangau.de]Schwangau[/url] or probably Fussen. They do also have there homepages in english. I for myself can´t really understand why.