TOURING IN EUROPE 1975
THURSDAY 14/08/1975
INNSBRUCK - ZERNEZ
After a night in the car, I had a couple of jobs to do on the car. The exhaust had developed a hole and had to be bandaged, and to help with the cooling on the mountain passes, I removed the thermostat. After that over the Brenner into Italy, then the Passo Giovo, back into Austria at the Timmelsjoch where we stopped for a cup of coffee. Down to the Inn Valley. From there we headed over the Reschen Pass back into Italy. We were going to do the Eastern side of the Stelvio Pass which is the 2nd highest road pass in Europe, but when Steve heard that there were 48 hairpin bends, he asked if there was an easier way. There was, which was via Switzerland and the Umbrail Pass. The border guard there was interested to see if we’d made it on the way back down. We had, but it was most disconcerting to be overtaken on the way up by a Fiat 500 with 4 people in it. My car didn’t have the power at that altitude. Then over the OffenPass and onto Zernez and a campsite beside the River Inn.
The top of the Passio Giovo (Jauffen Pass)
The Europa Bridge on the Brenner Pass. At 190 Metres (620 ft) High it was the tallest bridge in Europe until that distinction was taken from it 1974
Timmelsjoch. As usual the first job was to top up the radiator.
The Umbrail Pass. At the Middle left, you can see the road going up to the Stelvio. The border official thought we were mad.
The last pass of the day the Offenpass. From there it was down into the Inn Valley.
The campsite at Zernez. The river Inn was just behind the tent.
Steve cooling off in the Inn. The water was freezing, but it was what we needed after 6 mountain passes.
The highest point of the journey, the Stelvio Pass 2,757 m (9,045 ft) . It was 44 years before I drove higher than that, over the Col De L’Iseran 2,764 metres (9,068 ft)