Down from Stelvio and onward

So after a slight blogging "detour", I did want to describe our descent from the top of Stelvio Pass. We had been assured that we went up the more difficult side, naturally leaving one to assume that the way down would be easier......

Things went wrong from the beginning. First, there was a fork in the road after only about 5 switchbacks.  A fork in the road at the top of the pass -- who does that!  Somehow we weren't totally sure which way our two fearless leaders went--and of course, that was compounded by the fact that our formerly trustworthy GPS was strongly recommending that we take the right fork, while we (or at least I) thought we had seen our leaders head left.  We headed left.....knowing we had no cell phone service at this point.

The way down was strangely more frightening than those 48 switchbacks on the other side.  The primary reason:  there were tunnels, and these tunnels were narrow and winding!  When I say narrow, let's just say that usually there wasn't room for two cars to meet!  We actually met a car when we were 3/4 of the way through one of the tunnels and that car literally had to back up.  We still aren't sure of tunnel traffic etiquette here -- how does one know who has to back up?  What happens when two tour buses meet in the middle? (and yes, we saw large tour buses on this road)

We did see great scenery, or at least I did!  Gordy couldn't take his eyes off the road.

Thankfully our leaders were waiting for us toward the bottom of the pass and we successfully navigated our way into Switzerland and to the Cube.