It was Chris’ wish to visit Monaco as part of our bike trip, and so, having packed away our muddy tents this morning, we headed off along some nice twisty roads around the campsite we stayed at last night. After a few minutes we rejoined the A8 and continued down to Nice, where we stopped for a coffee, We then headed straight for Monaco, intending to go around the streets which comprise the Formula 1 race track. In the event, neither Chris nor I were familiar enough with the layout of the city to successfully do this, other than the famous tunnel part of the track, which we went through a couple of times.
My impression of Monaco remains as it was the last time I went. It’s a crowded but interesting place, a model of organised chaos, and quite simply a place where people go to look at rich people. Beyond that, I can’t say that it did much for me, and Chris had the same opinion. Having spent a good hour or so riding around the traffic chaos and puzzle that is Monte Carlo, we rejoined the A8 and continued into Italy, initially heading east along the coast on the A10 and then northwest/north on the A6, around Turin, and then further north on the A5 into the Alps.
We took the Gran St Bernardo tunnel across the border into Switzerland, stopping off to buy the ‘vignette’ required to drive on the Swiss motorway network, and then continued through Martigny and on up to Vevey, on Lake Geneva, arriving just as the sun set magnificently over the lake. I had suggested a campsite I stayed at back in 1993, when I had last come to Vevey – La Pichette, set right next to the lake. We ended up hanging around for an hour for the owner of the site to turn up. He did eventually, and we were able to set-up, albeit in the dark, and not right next to the lake, as I had remembered it.
Distance: 371 miles
Route: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=http:%2F%2Fwww.johnchivers.com%2Fkml%2F2010-09-10.kml&sll=47.958701,4.693685&sspn=10.685695,19.753418&ie=UTF8&z=7
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