Road Trip!! Through the Swiss Alps and Lombardy to Genova

Day 1: Zurich Airport, Kloten, Switzerland to Genova, Italy
Driving Time: 4 hours, 36 minutes
Distance: 439 km

When we found out that Brian got a day and a half off for Ascension Day (what the hell is that anyway?) we decided to take a road trip. So, on Wednesday afternoon, we picked up a Nissan Almera Tino, the only automatic car that Budget has at its Zurich airport location. Lucky for us, it's about twice as expensive to rent a car in Switzerland than in any of the surrounding countries ;).

Using Via Michelin, a great travel planning website, we plotted our route in advance. We set off into the afternoon of a sunny Zurich day and in no time, we were in the Swiss country side. The lake below is the Waldstättersee, and the waters looked amazingly green-blue after we emerged from the black of one of the many tunnels on our voyage.

As we continued to drive south, we were quickly approaching a forboding wall of mountains that looked virtually impenetrable. Even "cool as a cuke" Brian looked a little concerned.

Fortunately for us, the Swiss outdo even gophers in their zeal for tunneling and digging, and we soon reached the impressive St. Gottard Tunnel. Completed in 1980, the St. Gottard tunnel is the longest underground tunnel in the world. It also includes a host of safety features to ensure the safety of motorists, including an evacuation tunnel running alongside the complete length of the traffic lanes, which is connected to a series of pressurised, smoke-proof emergency chambers, which can each accommodate 70 people. The Swiss are pretty intense. When we had been in the tunnel for about 30 seconds, our radio stopped playing and cut into a soothing woman's voice, welcoming us to the St. Gottard tunnel in four languages. We were in the tunnel for quite awhile. Oddly, given how much it must have cost to construct, there is no fee or toll for using the tunnel.

We had a bit more Swiss alpine scenery on the other side of the tunnel, including lots of beautiful mountain waterfalls, fed by the spring snowmelt.

Soon after the tunnel, we crossed into the Italian side. The international border crossing consisted of a bored looking Italian guy waving us through without even glancing at us, our license plate, or the contents of our car. There is higher security on the border between Oregon and California!

The rest of the drive between the Italian border and the coastal town of Genova was smooth and uneventful. We arrived in Genova around 8:00pm.