Trip Report

Here the first impressions from our fall excursion to canton Schwyz in Central Switzerland as well as a short trip report as promised (sorry for the French speaking Excalibur buffs)

September 06: tomorrow we'll be on the road - Volker has invited for apero and he will guide us on a raid through his home area canton Schwyz. I am (probably not the only one) buffing my Excalibur for some 3 hours to a glossy shine and sparkle.

September 07 - 7 a.m. on Lake Constance - it's pouring cats (I expect the worse) but however we hit the road to upper Lake Zurich (what fore the polishing and buffing??)

Surprise with every mile we bury under our wheels, the sky brightens up. There must be someone somewhere ordaining a big candle for this event. The saying "when angels travel, the sky smiles" can hardly be applied to me J. Arriving the last - still in the "grey rainy day mood" - we just had the time to say hello to everybody before we started on twisted winding country road with picturesque scenery, bound for Einsiedeln. In the meanwhile the sky turned to a deep blue.

Sattelegg: behind each serpentine unexpected vistas wait to be revealed ...

We approach Sihlsee. A pity that I cannot simultaneously drive the Excalibur and sit in a boat for taking pictures of the Excalibur caravan crossing Sihlsee on that long bridge - THAT would have resulted in hot pictures!

About the guided excursion in the monastery I cannot provide any information as I did not participate (what a shame) but rather had a coffee gossiping with Alex.

We continued with driving experience = ongoing fun - Trachslau, Alpthal, Brunni - place names I never have heard of! Dead end of the road!, a short walk to the teleferic station. The cable railway shall bring us closer to our lunch.

We wait - the cabin silently enters the station, comes to a halt, the door opens quietly but - amazingly there's no "official cap bearing" engineer present, the cab is empty. Fully automated operation also here, "miles from anywhere"!

After an enjoyable lunch and a fully automated (again!) decline trip I finally was motivated to take the first lot of pictures at the parking lot. There was not much time left for this task, as Volker had to urge us for departure, in order to adhere somehow to the time schedule.

Between lunch and the 4 o'clock coffee, organizer Volker has selected Etzel, a challenging mountain pass - twisted, crooked, narrow roads - promising (and keeping the promise) pure driving fun. Roads to be enjoyed, not just built to provide for transport from "A" to "B".

After this "masterpiece" of Excalibur driving nothing could hold us off the pastry buffet at the Panorama Hotel in Feusisberg. With coffee, cakes and "6-Mio-calories-tarts" we were chatting, gossiping and shop talking (about Excalibur - what did you expect?) and came close to the end, before the various groups segregated in "heartrending farewell scenes" and individually hit the homebound roads.

I herewith take the opportunity to express my thanks to Volker, the organizer, who revealed for me - as one who thought he'd know every single road in Switzerland - a new swathe of land which is perfectly suitable for exciting excursion.

The following pictures can only provide a vague impression about this exciting excursion - to really have an idea about, you just have to participate - hope to see you on the occasion of the forthcoming events; Otto