On Friday, September 23, it was time to leave the spectacular LeFay resort in Italy, and drive to Switzerland for the next leg of our adventure. We stayed at two different locations in Switzerland, first in the small ski village of Andermatt, and a few days later, at the Hotel Villa Honegg, high on a hill above Lake Lucerne.
On the way to Switzerland, we stopped in the small town of Treviglio (just east of Milan), to visit a Golden Retriever breeder friend of Mrs. Whip’s. While they visited and had lunch together, I found a laundromat and did some laundry. We couldn’t possibly bring enough clothes along to last us a couple of weeks of vacation. Next, it was north to Switzerland, where the scenery got dramatic and beautiful fast!
I was probably looking forward to the Switzerland portion of the trip as much as anything, because it meant driving several of those legendary Alpine mountain passes. My biggest concern was whether or not the weather would be conducive to driving and particularly shooting photographs, as the forecast seemed to call for day after day of rain and maybe even some snow. I sure hoped not!
The final miles to the resort give a driver two options – either a crazy long tunnel (nearly 20 miles), or an extremely steep and twisty mountain pass (Gotthard Pass). I knew Mrs. Whip wouldn’t be crazy about taking the twisty, scenic route, but that’s the way the GPS in the car routed us, so what could I do? 🙂 It was super steep, and the views just kept getting better and better. Although she was eager to finally get to our destination, I talked her into letting me stop just a couple of times for photos.
The hotel, much like the Lefay, was spectacular. Wow. The most elegant and luxurious we’ve ever stayed in, and the suite they gave us was unbelievable. Huge, with a fireplace and lots of other great amenities. Super posh. Nice view from our balcony as well!
The lobby was huge and fancy, with a cigar bar, jewelry store, gift store, someone playing piano, and so nice. The gym was definitely the classiest I’d ever seen.
All the Porsches lined up out in front was really cool, too.
The pools were incredible too. Not pool, pools. Like seven of them. All different temperatures, indoor, outdoor, lap pool, you name it.
Next to one of the restaurants, they had a Tower of Cheese, with Swiss cheeses of every kind.
The town of Andermatt was really charming as well. We had a really nice dinner with the group at an Italian restaurant there, which was fun. Lots of pasta!
I didn’t sleep well at all that night. Not because the room wasn’t comfortable, it was awesome. Nope, like many other nights on this trip, I was so excited about what was coming up the next day that I just couldn’t wait to get to it. One of the days I was most excited about on the whole trip – the chance to drive several of the spectacular mountain passes nearby! My big concern was the weather. Not so much about the driving part, but more about the photography part. Rain and possibly even snow were in the forecast, so I dreaded waking up to just drab gray clouds and poor visibility.
When I got up early the next day, I looked outside and it was still dry. I looked at the weather app in my phone, and it said rain would be coming around 10 AM. So, I decided to hurry and get on the road to try to beat the weather as much as I could.
I decided to head to Susten Pass first. Just a couple of miles from the hotel, I descended into an awesome bit of road, which was super twisty as it dropped into a rocky canyon. It was beautiful, and although it was still kind of dark out, I had to stop and fly the drone to snap some photos of it.
Apparently this is called the Operalpstrasse. I was sure loving Switzerland so far, and there was so much more to come!
From there it was only 20 minutes or so to the Susten Pass. I kept my eyes on the skies as I climbed the mountain, and the road got more and more twisty. The views got more and more amazing as I climbed, hoping the clouds would stay high and that the rain would stay away. It was drizzling a bit, and felt like it might even snow, but so far, so good. It was early enough that there was almost no one on the road. I stopped at a bunch of places along the way to shoot photos, amazed at the vistas unfolding before me and Chalky White, the name Mrs Whip had given our hot little rental Porsche.
Although it was drizzling a little, not ideal for drone flight and photos, I just had to try to get some shots capturing the majesty of this place. So, up it went.
I crested the top of the climb, and could see that the other side looked amazing too. Again it was time for some drone shots.
I was so glad to be able to see this place for the first time, and to actually drive these unforgettable roads! And man, was I grateful that the weather was holding off for the time being.
In the photo below, you can kind of see the waterfall cascading over the right side of the tunnel, which I thought was quite cool.
I was trying to wrap my mind around what I was seeing. Just breathtaking. And it sure was fun to drive, too! I turned around to head back over the top and on to the next amazing pass. As I descended, I thought it would be fun to capture some video of the driving down the hill, with nothing but the tiny, spindly guardrail separating my car from the giant cliffs below. I grabbed my GoPro, only to find that I’d foolishly left the batteries behind at the hotel. Ugh!! So irritating. I decided to somewhat carefully hold my iPhone on the dashboard, steering with one hand. Not so smart, for sure, but no one was coming the other direction, so it didn’t seem too bad. 🙂 Best I could do under the circumstances. You can bet I won’t leave the batteries behind again in the future.
I put the phone down and had some fun driving the proper way, all the way back down the mountain. Next I decided to head over to Klaussen Pass, which was another half hour or so away. It got steep, and super narrow in a hurry, and the views, while different than the Susten Pass, were also absolutely brilliant.
Like something from a movie. Doesn’t even seem like it could be real, but it was right there in front of me. The sound of cowbells echoing across the canyon was about the only thing you would hear. Although the skies looked threatening, there was still no rain to speak of, just a little drizzle here and there.
Once again, I was so happy to have the drone along, as I could only capture so much from ground level. And while I’m proud of my photos from the trip, there is no way my cameras of whatever sort could do justice to the incredible sights I was marveling over.
I stopped at the top, where there was a small hotel and restaurant, and grabbed a cup of coffee (it was cold up there!), and then headed back down the mountain to head over to the next pass, which was back on the other side of the Chedi, where we were staying.
The next pass I went to was the Furka Pass, which wasn’t too far from the hotel either. In looking at my map, I saw that if I continued on past the Furka, the road would lead me to the Grimsel Pass. Cool! By now it was late morning, and the weather was still drizzly. However, as I ascended the mountain on Furka Pass, it got more and more foggy, and was really raining. At the top I even had some snow flurries. I sure hoped that the summit wouldn’t get too snowy for good traction before I came back from Grimsel.
I flew the drone a little at the top, despite the rain.
I carefully descended the other side of Furka, and headed toward Grimsel.
Cold and wet, with limited visibility, but still majestic and amazing. The clouds would come and go, and as I flew the drone through them, I’d try to find clear spots where I could get a cool photo. By flying higher, I could capture more area and show all the curves, but that’s where the clouds were, which would block the view. So, I did the best I could, and used the clouds to my advantage to add some drama.
It was a very short drive through the canyon before the amazing sight of Grimsel Pass filled my view. As a driver, this is definitely the stuff dreams are made of. A super-steep series of switchbacks traversing the mountain, engulfed currently by rain clouds. Amazing. I climbed to the top and sent the drone up to try to capture some of this awesome place.
When I lowered the drone and saw it hovering there next to Chalky White, I decided to grab a picture of both of them, since they were both serving me so well!
I went over the top of the mountain, and saw some wild views on the other side, almost like another planet – but with a really cool road running through it.
Wild! And what was up with the color of those lakes? I have no idea.
With concern about possible snow and poor visibility, I turned around and headed back. For the most part, however, the weather and vistas just improved as I went along, which was a welcome development.
What a day of driving and shooting photos! I’ve never had one like it, and can’t imagine better. So grateful. A lifetime highlight, for sure.
Saturday night Mrs. Whip and I had a truly wonderful dinner at the Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant at the Chedi. One of the very best we’ve ever had. On Sunday morning we took advantage of the wonderful pools there and swam a bit before breakfast. It was going to be hard to leave this place! But, leave we must, to head to our next beautiful location in Switzerland.
Sunday morning we took off for the relatively short drive to the Lake Lucerne region. There were two routes we could choose from. One was the flat and straight route on the highway (boring!). The other would be to go back over the Susten Pass, which was fine with me, though Mrs. Whip doesn’t typically love the twisty, scenic roads. I talked her into it by promising to drive slowly, which is always difficult for me, but as we know, “happy wife, happy life.” Thankfully she survived! Views were often very limited, as the cloud cover was much, much lower than on Saturday. It sure made me grateful that I was able to get the photos I did the day before! We did stop for a quick selfie when the view opened up at one point.
It was a beautiful drive once we got to lower elevations, meandering through a bunch of cute Swiss villages with steep mountain backdrops. Before long, we were climbing another big, steep hill, which began to give us incredible views of Lake Lucerne, despite the drizzly skies.
Then, our amazing hotel came into view. The Villa Honegg Hotel. Very small (only 25 rooms or so), very luxurious – apparently the smallest 5-star hotel in Switzerland. Perched high on a hill above the lake. So nice.
The view from the pool (and our room’s balcony directly above) was absolutely priceless. Man, I hoped the sun would come out for a bit during our brief stay there!
We had another nice dinner with the group that night at the hotel. On Monday morning I took a photo from our balcony. There’s no way I could ever get tired of this view. Unbelievable.
Mrs. Whip had a spa treatment later that morning, so I decided to take a steep hike up to the top of the hill behind the hotel. I’d heard there were some amazing views up at the top, and some cool tunnels carved into the rocks, with a steep face below hundreds of feet down to the water. Rain was threatening, but I had to go check it out. It turned out to be worth the climb.
I hurried back down the hill, just as the fog and clouds began to completely engulf the view. Good timing! Mrs Whip and I then took Chalky White on the 20 minute drive to the beautiful nearby lakeside city of Lucerne (or Luzern, as the locals call it).
What a charming city, and a shopper’s paradise. I’ve never seen so many huge wristwatch retailers. Makes sense, with Swiss watches being so legendary for their excellence. As we walked around, of course I brought the camera along.
We looked at a ton of watches in the various shops. I wasn’t in the market at all, but it was fun to see all of the different styles and brands and price ranges. Some were insanely expensive!
Even though that price is in Swiss Francs, current exchange rate with US dollars is about 1:1, so it’s about that many dollars! Not today, thanks.
Somewhere along the way, Mrs. Whip actually took the best photo of the whole trip! While she was in a shop, I stopped to check my email. I looked up and saw her taking a photo of me. I wasn’t sure why. Now I know why. 🙂
I had too many emails and other business needs to take care of that evening, and we’d had a late lunch, so we had to skip the group dinner that night.
Tuesday morning I got up early, hoping for some dramatic skies. I wanted to try to make a time lapse video of the view from our balcony, using my GoPro. It worked out pretty well!
We had one more free day there, so we decided to go back to Luzern for some more walking and shopping. We even did some more laundry! 🙂 Weather was about the same as the day before, cloudy, with a brief shower here and there, even occasional bursts of sunshine.
On the way back to the hotel, I had to get a pic or two of that view with Chalky in the foreground.
So beautiful. The view was nice too. 🙂
Later that afternoon we decided to take a hike up the hill behind the hotel. We found a long path that wasn’t so steep, that we hoped would ultimately lead us to the high point I’d seen the day before with the caves and cliffs. Not quite, but we did see some cows.
Up at the top, the sun popped out, which made the view even that much more glorious!
We descended back to the hotel, and I took a photo of some of our friends in that amazing pool.
Final night at the Villa Honegg included a lovely dinner with the group. Each night of the trip we sat with a slightly different group of folks, all very nice, and very happy because we were all enjoying this amazing experience together. I can’t say enough about our hosts, Mark and Tina of Autobahn Adventures. They are warm, friendly people who care deeply about all of us having a perfect trip, and their knowledge and experience makes things go really smoothly.
I was glad to get the time-lapse video the day before, because the view from our balcony on our final morning was a little different. 🙂
Wednesday we left the Villa Honegg and took a very rainy four hour drive to our next destination – Austria! More about that part of the adventure in Part 3.
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