Day 5 Wednesday- Davos to Thusis
Ah morning in Davos. How splendid. The night before, the front desk had assured me they were going to get "1 mm of snow overnight", and since the temps were going to be 40F at 10am, I had no concerns.. I looked out the window and exclaimed WTF is that!? It was more like 6 inches of snow fell, and we were in a winter wonderland. Which is great, if you are Santa Claus. Or a wooly mammoth.. But not when you are running summer tires on a RWD car.
The plan for the day had been to do the Furka, Grimsel, Susten loop passes, but we decided there was no way since they likely also had gotten snow, and I wasn't keen to rush out of Davos until the temps came up a bit. So we slept in. Which was a poor choice, as we would find out later. Davos was beautiful in the snow, and the roads were like my buttocks after a shower: wet but clean. Still, I was happy when we were finally out of there, even though the air temps were ~40F. So since we had a late start, and clearly NOT doing the passes (so we thought), we tried to decide how to make best use of the remainder of the day. Looking at the map, we decided that we would at least drive to the base of the passes, to Andermatt.
The route we chose was via the Oberalppass. The pass turned out to be a pleasant surprise as it was beautiful and the road condition was good, even though the views were somewhat obscured by overcast skies.
However, as we ascended the pass and broke through the fog at the top, we stumbled into absolutely STUNNING scenery. Crystal blue skies, white mountains (from the prior nights snow fall), beautifully clear road, punctuated by a scarlet red Alp Express train. I don’t know if they had pumped drugs into our coffee that morning, or if there was LSD in the snow, but the intensity of the scene/moment was stunning. “Stunning” as in we stopped on the side of the road, got out, and just had our minds blown. Vivid. Clear. Saturated colors. No picture we took captured this incredible moment. It was breathtaking.
Along this pass we also got a chance to witness road construction, Alpen style: There was a helicopter ferrying materials from one mountain, across the chasm, to our mountain road; back and forth. Pretty cool to see a chopper hovering 30 feet over your car :P
Descending into Andermatt (beautiful town, I will definitely return here) we saw Furka pass in the distance, under crystal clear skies, with a fair amount of cars using it. The temps were ~40F in Andermatt, so we decided we must at least drive this one pass, which was on my to-do list. Our leisurely morning made this decision quite difficult as we had wasted a lot of time, and we had to make it back to Thusis that night due to dinner reservations at 7:30pm at Schauenstein Schloss. Anyway, we went up Furka. This is, by FAR, the hairiest pass of the three to drive. Many areas are single car width, there are trucks using it (I have NO idea how they do it) and there are shear drops with few barriers.
Even with the chilly temperatures on the summer tires, we had no problems. Some areas here had melt crossing the road, but with clear skies the sun kept the road surface warm enough. Beautiful drive.
Furka in the distance
Furka ascent
Otherwise known as James Bond Strasse, from Goldfinger
Those tiny little posts are supposed to keep you from going off.. Or impale you so that you die before you hit the valley floor below.
Summer tire weather, baby !
We came down the back of Furka in good time, and saw that Grimsel had similar conditions. So blinded by lust, we ascended Grimsel too. What spectacular vistas: Furka descent looking at Grimsel, and Grimsel ascent looking at Furka. Incredible, incredible sights.
Here’s lookin at you, Grimsel.
Backside of Furka, how cheeky!
Grimsel looking back at Furka
Grimsel was much more pleasant with a wider road. Once we hit the peak, and drove past Grimselsee, we went straight into a cloud/dense fog, much like on our drive to Davos. But without the threat of snow, and without nighttime conditions.
I did drive slowly/carefully as I assumed the dense fog would prevent road surface temps from being as high as the other passes, and the snow along the side of the road had not melted as much. Finally, we made it onto the Susten pass portion of the route, with time running short. This was to be the second most unnerving drive of the trip. The beginning part of the Susten leg was fine, with quaint towns and cows scattered about. This is the spot where we were able to take the obligatory M3 plus cow picture.
It was fine until we started to climb. Once again, we went into a cloud/super dense fog. No real traffic was here, but temps dropped like a rock, and I became nervous as we continued to climb.. not knowing how much higher we needed to go was the worst part of the drive. We ended up with a min temp of 27-28F. The roads were dry thankfully, but I did detect faint snowflakes in the air, all while we were still climbing (meaning it was potentially going to get worse). With the dense cloud cover, I no longer had confidence in the road surface temps, and I was wetting myself with every turn. I don't think the roadside drops were that bad, or barriers too small (certainly it was a billion times better than Furka) but I suppose I couldn't see the drops in the cloud. We finally made it through this pass, but I can't say much about it since we were lucky if we could see the upcoming turn, let alone any vistas.
Once again, the guard rails inspired a sense of confidence in me. I think they are that small so that they can be easily replaced if some clown on summer tires goes off the edge ;P
We made it through the pass and raced back to Thusis, barely making it in time. We stayed at Hotel Weiss Kreuz, and although we had outdoor parking, it was in good company (Porsche 911 next to us). I give the hotel massive credit, as they ironed my shirt for me while we got ready for dinner. The girl apologized for doing an imperfect job at the ironing, even tho it looked perfect to me. Dinner was at
Schauenstein Schloss). What an experience. If you are into fine dining, this is a must do. Even if you aren't into fine dining, you need to do this. The 3 Michelin star quality of the food coupled with the ambiance of eating in an old castle result in an absolutely unforgettable experience, easily one of the highlights of the entire trip. That is not an exaggeration. The restaurant also arranged for a black A8L limo to pick us up from our hotel, and deliver us back at the end of the night, at their expense. Simply awesome evening. Just this dinner has so many stories associated with it: the intrigue, the mysterious undertones (with the neighboring tables: is the boss seriously trying to seduce his employee? And why isn’t the other couple at the other table, from New York of all places, more friendly towards another couple from the US. And what is going on with this other couple that might have just gotten married?) Ah the stories..
Yes.. that is an iPad I am eating off of .. a tad gimmicky, but nice to see them making an effort to incorporate technology into the dining experience. There were other examples and methods that they were using to incorporate apps and technology, and some of them worked quite well.
