Lake Garda had been very nice but was time to move on. I planned on taking Vern over two mountain passes in Switzerland, the 2 highest on the way to Luzern, somewhere I’d visited at the ripe old age of 17.

The journey out of Italy was very easy, passing Milan where I’d worked for Electrocomponents and then Lake Como. I have to say Lake Como looked stunning from the motorway.

As soon as I entered Switzerland a very pretty young lady waved me over at the customs area. She then proceeded to tell me that to drive in Switzerland I needed to fork out the best part of £35 for a sticker as in Switzerland she explained ‘we don’t do road tolls’. Her looks took the pain out of it but on reflection she was asking me for £35 road tax and all I wanted to do was drive across the country once. In fact the sticker was 3/4 through it’s expiry period. What a con. We should implement a sticker system in the UK that anyone with a foreign plate has to affix to their windscreen and it costs them £40 a year. It seems so unjust that Europeans pay no road tolls in the UK yet I have to pay while abroad as well as having to pay my road tax at home.  I think I’ll start a campaign. We’ll be able to raise billions and that’s just from the Polish.

As soon as I was across the boarder I turned onto the side roads and started up the first mountain pass. It was very easy going at first, climbing steadily but very gently, the type of climb I’m praying for when I do my big cycle in India. Then suddenly I came to a few hairpin bends. Within a couple of minutes I had reached the summit, the highest pass in Switzerland and something of a disappointment in terms of the climb. I parked up and walked to view the other side. Oh how stunning it was, shimmering glaciers, a panorama of huge peaks and a winding road down the other side that dropped out of view quickly. Needless to say I did the cache at the top!

I descended following a cyclist, yep there are many mad people cycling up these passes. Not long until it will be my turn, just in another country. He was far faster on a bike than I was in Vern. I passed through a stunning Swiss valley before climbing again for the second highest pass in Switzerland and also the home of one of the reservoir dams Bond, James Bond jumped off. This pass made you feel like you had climbed one of the highest, brilliant.

I spent the next few days in Lucern, one of the towns I visited while Inter-railing at the age of 17 with New Zealand Greg. I managed to slot in some cycling which was great. My caching attempts weren’t up to scratch, I seemed to not find more than I found.

On the Friday I headed out of Switzerland and into Germany, off to visit Sabine, Bernt and their two boys in Heidelberg. Sabine was my exchange partner when I had been part of the canoe club in Cambridge. When I was 12 we had visited Heidelberg, staying with Sabine and her family. She’d then come and seen us in Cambridge. We’ve stayed in contact through my Mum but this was the first time I’d seen them since Mum died.

Sabine had read my blog and had misinterpreted it thinking I was mad about sports and activities. Niklaus, her son, had made his own longboard after reading my blog and was ready to take me out boarding.

We had a lovely family dinner on Friday night before heading into town for a spot of shopping and then a few drinks in a traditional pre theatre bar. Very nice too.

Saturday was market day so we grabbed some fabulous food from the market just around the corner including pain au chocolate and charcuterie, a traditional German breakfast with a French twist.  Sabine then took me and the boys longboarding. I nearly got run over, all my fault, on the way to the bridge, a skateboard park under one of the bridges crossing the towns river.

After that I introduced them to caching, Bernt found the first one. We had a lovely walk up through the forest, the roads are very steep. We found 4 caches in total, enough to get Bernt and the boys hooked. We had a lovely dinner out in the market square and some delicious Italian ice creams.

Sunday morning and it was time for me, Bernt and the boys to cycle up the hill and into the forest. First stop was the amphitheatre built to accommodate a speech from Hitler, he never made it to give the speech. It took some reaching being almost a 300m vertical climb. It was amazing though once we were there. We even found the cache.

We then descended, firstly quite gently but then down a really rocky path. Being the mad man I am, I overtook the others and bombed down the path so fast I couldn’t see the boulders that made it up as my eyeballs were rattling in their sockets. I must be mad. I survived as did the others. We then all went for a fabulous lunch at a monastery that had it’s own apple press as well as a pet farm.

Following lunch Bernt and I headed off to do the final part of the circuit of Heidelberg. Within seconds though Bernt had a puncture. No worries though, I had my gas cylinder pump with me so after fixing the inner-tube, we had the tyre pumped up in under a second, much to the amazement of Bernt. More hills, we were following the half marathon course, not a course for first timers for sure. In the end we covered more than 20km but more importantly, over 530m vertical climb, or 1/3 of what I have to do in India. It seemed very easy, reassuring me that I can make the ride in India.

Monday saw me making the drive homeward, through Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and France. It was an easy drive without a single toll, my sort of driving. I spent the night in Calais, used the following morning to pick up some wine, boarded the EuroTunnel and made my way home. After almost 3000 miles I had my first incident in Vern on the M25 when a huge bit of metal bouncing down the motorway glanced off the side of the van. Bloody typical. We really do have the worst roads I’ve seen in Europe.

My European tour was at an end. 2920 miles, 4 weeks, loads of friends and family, new friends, a great adventure. Now on to training for my India trip, it’s going to be brutal.