High speed running in Germany

I've just been fiddling with my sat-nav after using it extensively on my recent trip through Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

I noticed that it has recorded a maximum speed for the trip of 129mph, which I reached (legally and safely) in a brief burst on a completely clear stretch of the A5 between Basel and Frankfurt. The Alfa 159 (2.2 litre four cylinder petrol version) I was driving at the time felt like it had more to give, but I would have required a much longer piece of empty road to max it safely.

But don't go thinking that the Autobahns are a high-speed paradise. Long stretches of the A5 have a 120 km/h limit, have only two lanes in each direction, or are clogged with traffic - that means average journey times probably aren't much better than they would be in the UK.

Road tips 9 - Swiss motorway A2 and Gotthard Tunnel

Came this way today heading north from Italy to the Frankfurt motor show. The A2 is interesting in its own right - a very large percentage of it runs in tunnels or over high Alpine bridges, but the centre-piece is the single-bore, single carriageway Gotthard Tunnel, which runs for over ten miles.

Driving such a long distance in a tunnel can be a bit disorientating. It makes you wonder whether a road tunnel under the Channel would ever have been a practical proposition - from the driving point of view, that is, quite apart from the technical and financial obstacles.

Opinion has apparently turned against completing the originally planned second bore; the Swiss resent their country being used just as a transit route between Germany and points south. This brings pollution but few economic benefits, despite the 'Vignette' flat-rate toll system imposed on visitors.

On Friday, I also did the Arlberg tunnel in Austria on the S16; that's almost as long as the Gotthard (14km as opposed to 16.4km) but less well known.

Why recommend the A2 and the Gotthard Tunnel? Well the engineering is deeply impressive, so they are worth seeing for that reason alone. They also save a lot of time compared with going over the Gotthard pass, although that could be an interesting experience in itself. Haven't been that way recently enough to comment.

Lessons from a life on the road 1 - carry a second pair of driving glasses

Lost my driving glasses in the course of a weekend of mad dashing around cramming two Verdicts at opposite ends of the country into two days. I think I'm legal without them (to the extent that I understand my prescription, I think I'm only slightly short-sighted) so I didn't notice precisely when they went missing, but as I started my drive home from the northwest on Sunday evening, I decided I'd better play safe and get a new pair before going much further.

Stopped overnight at Bradford and then went to the local branch of Specsavers who really excelled themselves by fitting me in without a proper appointment and giving me a full eye exam and two nice pairs of specs for eighty quid in about two and a half hours.

Thinking about it, I'm surprised that more countries don't follow the example of Spain and, I believe, Switzerland, in requiring drivers who need spectacles to carry a second pair.