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Mike Baker and Lutz Burchard wrote about their tour in AOC Bulletins 525 and 526.
The Tour of Switzerland 2010 – Mike Baker
A select bunch comprising of 13 Alvis cars took part in this tour. John & Nadine Fox had the idea to run this event after a five year interval, instead of the usual ten, I guess on the basis that some us are getting long in the tooth etc.
Jan & I followed a route, planned by our travelling partners Christine & Lutz Burchard, meeting them in Belgium and staying in a village called Crupet . On Thursday we motored to a delightful old hotel in Horbach in Germany, owned by a charming lady, who, on our departure quoted an English poem to us which she had heard as a child. I guess she realised my army German was not up to it. We continued, via a most wonderful drive along many miles of the Mosel, with the obligatory stop at Berncastle for a photoshoot. That night we stopped in Baden Baden in order to take the famous drive through the Schwarzwald and take in the scenery. Wrong! It rained most of the day and mist hid many of the views, but never the less the drive was great, of course in proper motor cars.
We reached our destination, Abtwil, on the eastern side of Switzerland near Lake Boden See. Considering we were arriving from many points of the compass most arrived around 6pm, just in time for drinks.
Ralph Schwarz had volunteered to organise our time (three days) in his area and boy did he keep us on the go. Museums, cheese factories, car restoration, summit of Santis mountain (2502m) which was shrouded in mist and fresh snow (late June). We also called in to see how Appenzeller, a local Swiss aperitif is made and drunk, not bad. We visited the museum of the Swiss truck maker Sauer- amazing to see how diversified they were.
On Tuesday we left Abtwil for Hilterfinger (one or two had problems with the pronunciation). It is situated on the shores of Lake Thuner See. En route we stopped for a lunch, organised by long time Alvis owner Dieter Schaetti. He had also laid on the sunshine, a commodity lacking since arriving in the host country. Apart from our trusty band one or two of his friends arrived in period motor cars, many also bodied by Graber. It looked like Sunday at the Villa D’Este, our cameras got plenty of use. Dieter and his wife Madeleine were perfect hosts and we had a wonderful time.
This was a two night stop so it gave the ladies a chance to do some dhobying in the lake and the guys to pump grease and whatever. We were joined for dinner by Franz Hatebur, who is the owner of a local garage and services many of the Alvis cars in Switzerland. He offered the facilities to those who wanted to delve even deeper into the infernals of their cars.
Most of us took the opportunity to explore the lake some going to Thun and others to Interlaken. From the boat the views were truly magnificent, you could even see the Jungfrau, totally covered in snow. We had been joined at this hotel by Pat & Guy Seymour making a lightening visit to see us before charging back to the UK to be at Wimbledon for the weekend. I thought we were crazy.
Thursday, hoods down and off to Neuchatel , yes the hotel was on yet another lake. But on the way we all had to stop in Fleurier to buy watches at the House of Chopard. Actually I don’t think they sold too many but fascinating none the less to see how their top class products are put together.
On Friday morning we drove back to Fleurier in time for lunch, hosted by Karl Scheufele the proprietor of Chopard, this set the tone for the next three days, the food being provided by the Palace Hotel Gstaad.
The route from Fleurier to our destination, the Palace Hotel, was some 130 km, I understand it had been set using google or similar. I doubt if anyone actually covered 130km. Lets say it was challenging and at all times interesting. It reminded Jan of some previous events where you come upon a cross road and cars are arriving and departing in all directions.
With one or two exceptions the Alvis contingent took part in the all the required events, even seeing how much sand could be deposited in a bucket in a given time. Oh yes you had to use a small JCB. Sadly on this occasion we did not produce the overall winner, however John Fox was our best placed entrant at number six, but we did have a total of three cars in the top 20, so well done.
Suffice to say, staying at the Palace Hotel is a great experience, it would be boring for me to go through the various events and all the food, however Saturday lunch was interesting. First walk to the station, take a train for some 20 minutes, another walk to a cable car, at the top you are in an open air restaurant with the view so wonderful you can’t begin to describe them. Food of course supplied by the Palace. The rest of our stay was marvellous including of course the final dinner, just for the Alvis contingent, joined by our friends Yvonne and Daniel Fischlin.
A couple of cars left after brunch on Sunday, and the rest on Monday morning via different routes. It was a memorable trip in so many ways, the weather started out awful but the last week the sun shone every day. For those of us in open cars it was glorious. The scenery was amazing and even the cows looked pretty. The company was great as always, and we have to thank all those to helped to make it the trip it was, but most of all Nadine & John Fox.
Lutz Burchard
Swiss Tour 2010 Avis Owner Club – Graber Section
John Fox the Graber Model Secretary, had with wife Nadine initiated the 2010 Swiss tour a good 1 year ago. Interested parties signed up quickly but in the end that there were only 3 Graber bodied Alvis willing to come along. These being, Mark & Claire Hargreaves with their TC 21/100 Graber, the “nearly twin Graber” of John & Nadine Fox and that of Lutz & Christine Burchard.
The rest of the party totalling 14 Alvis came with a mix of pre-war cars including a Silver Eagle and a Speed 20 but mostly 3L cars from TC to TFs, a mixed crowd of ALVIS enthusiasts from UK and two Haagenars representing the Dutch section.
The start point for the trip was St.Gallen with most of the UK-equipes travelling together via France / Mulhouse, Jan-Maarten v.d.Bos choose a way via Germany and we choose the most difficult way as we had agreed with Mike Baker, the AOC President to show him and his lovely wife some scenic routes via the Ardennes where he wanted to see the historic fighting places between the Germans and the Brits.
Whilst the weather at altitude was against the tour, the Swiss scenery provided a great photographic backdrop.
Unfortunately there was little to see since the Spitfires have long gone and the Messerschmitt have been shot down and also the Focke-Wulfs could not be seen any more… so we continued along the river Mosel and Rhine and ending up via the Black Forest into Switzerland. Punctually everybody dropped into the hotel in St. Gallen on Saturday 19th June where a welcome dinner have been arranged and the welcome speech and an introduction to the tours of the next few days was made by Ralph Schwarz and his brother. Extensive road maps and route cards had been worked out by the 2 brothers and this was a good beginning.
Sunday was the day of leisure, visiting the centre and famous church/convent of St. Gallen and a museum of beer-bottles of the local brewery. The Weather was bad, raining cats and dogs and though the beer-bottles were empty we, luckily we got a free (filled) sample and went further to visit Saurer Lorry Museum. The weather caused the rest of the program to be cancelled but we continued our small trip to a restaurant on the lake shore near ARBON to test and taste the famous St. Galler bratwurst.
By the Monday the weather had improved “somewhat” from 8 degree to 12 degrees and we drove some 20 km to the village of STEIN to visit the Appenzeller Folklore Museum and thereafter, a short walk away, we have been invited to visit the famous Ferrari garage of Mr. Leier. Interesting as these bolides were but….. which car can compete with an ALVIS? We went up to the pass of Schwaegalp ( 1352 meter ) and took the cable car up to the tip of the Saentis ( 2502 m ). Once down again we drove into Appenzell where a guided tour was arranged in the famous Appenzeller Alpenbitter distillery, where a sort of bitter-herbed brandy is brewed.
Tuesday started well, we left the hotel in St.Gallen with very fine weather and drove the 70 km to BUBIKON where well known Swiss member, Dieter Schaetti, had invited and arranged a get together with the Swiss Graber Club. We saw some fantastic Graber bodied cars no not all were Alvis based though these were the highlight. An aperitif was served in the factory hall of Dieter Schaetti, followed by a light lunch – the mood was further lightened when the sun came out and the typical Schwyzer musicians delighted us with their Horns & Swiss Vuvuzelas. After a few glasses of Swiss wine, we left to drive via the Furkapass to Hilterfingen ( your President , who struggles with the Swiss language always called it : Hitlerfingern ). We enjoyed a nice welcome-dinner arranged by Alvis specialist Franz Hatebur , who introduced his company, which serves most of the Graber cars in Switzerland. Jan Maarten, whose TC21 door locks had developed some faults used this opportunity to work in the garage to clear the problems.
Wednesday was our free day, we all toured around the lake, and some tried the nearby alpine passes. We went to Thun, 10 km away from the hotel and which has a typical old Swiss town centre. Up we went to the castle which housed the historic museum and then came back to the hotel to check our motor cars. Jan-Maarten came happily back from his repairs, being sure now, that Caroline and diamonds could be locked up safely again. That evening there was a well-set menu had been prepared to thank brothers Ralph and Walter Schwarz for their excellent service!
The next morning, Thursday 24th June, we left early with an invitation to visit the famous CHOPARD factory in Fleurier near lake Neuchatel. Our route had been chosen through secondary roads, passing Schwarzenburg / Fribourg/ the famous La Gruyere via Bulle to the Lake Neuchatel and along the lake to Fleurier, a total of about 120 miles clean Swiss countryside. Around midday we arrived in the village, for a small lunch and gathered together at 1.30 p.m. ( Chopard time ) when the guided tour punctually started. Chopard is well known for their quality watches, which are a bit expensive – but nice, and they have specialized a lot of producing the famous Mille Miglia watches, hotly sought after auto-sporting drivers. Our guides informed us that we could see “ nearly “ all departments, only the department for self-developed watches ( the very very expensive ones ) are not open for visitors – or was it the fact that one guide suspected an Indian Spy was amongst our group having asked me in German if Alvis are also driven in India, to which I nodded in the direction of Mr. Baker!!! Anyhow, we could see how they assembled and tested the watches in different stages and finally we could admire the private watch museum of the owner, Mr. Scheufele. Having enjoyed refreshments we went off in the direction of Neuchatel where we had been booked in the Hotel Beaulac on the lake-side. Initially, no parking spaces could be booked as the hotel garage was already pre-booked by other guests, but some inventive Alvis owners found the way to open the underground garage and parked their cars on the first come first served basis.
The next day was the official beginning of the 40th weekend of the Rallye des Veterans a Gstaad, which started this year in Fleurier and was sponsored by CHOPARD, so off we went again back to Fleurier. In the garden of guest house of CHOPARD a high-quality lunch with Swiss wines had been served, unfortunately everybody had to leave early to collect and study the road book as the official starting time began at 1.30 p.m.
The first car away was a Rolls Royce 1922 with the last an MGB from 1974 – a total of 80 cars including 14 Alvis from our group! The departure and the following 30 minutes went smoothly with us but in the next big town , Yverdon, the road book went crazy and we got lost. A Porsche driver before us had the same problem and stopped, informing us that they are living in this area and that the road book is nuts and they would go straight to Gstaad and… if we want to follow, we are welcome. We choose this alternative and after a nice but very sporty trip we arrived at GSTAAD PALACE HOTEL, the final destination. Surprise, surprise, we had been one of the first arrivals and naturally we had been very proud and – what is very important for our ladies – enough time to check in and prepare for the big dinner! Eventually, everyone arrived, some shouting and discussing the famous road book with the last arriving just before the aperitif.
The Rallye des Veterans continued early on the Saturday morning with a driving test in car park of the hotel, since there were roadworks on the main streets of Gstaad. This also meant that the tour round Gstaad was cancelled and anyhow, we had enough driving the past few days and decided to take it easy and went into Gstaad. There we met with all participants on the railway station to enter reserved wagons bringing us up to Mount Rellerli. On the final station we entered big ski-lifts which brought us up to the station, where a Swiss farmer’s lunch had been prepared for us : lots of pork knuckles, bratwurst, cooked ham and cheese watered by good beers and wines. We needed the afternoon for a snooze and to be ready for the Gala Dinner which was stylish but not formal black tie.
Sunday 27th June was the final day and the end of the Rallye, we all met for brunch on the terrace of the hotel where the award ceremony would be held later on. Mr. Scheufele gave a speech, thanking the organizer and giving the results of the rallye. Lots of Jaguars and Porsche had been leading, but our model secretary and his wife took the 6th ranking with their Graber TD 21, chapeau! Also well placed were David Little fifteenth and Mike Malyon eighteenth, with the rest of our group spread out in the middle to the end of the rankings. I am still wondering, why having arrived nearly first into Gstaad we only were ranked in 63rd place and our Dutch friends who arrived 2 hours later got 61st! Something must have gone wrong!
This was the official end of our tour, many thanks to the Foxes for all their efforts and maybe in 5 years we do it again ???
Alvis Archive 