Roadtrip

Streets of Nuremberg

7 years ago

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Yesterday morning at 4am, The Significant Other, Big Boy and myself took to the roads to head down to Italy. Using only my Olympus PEN-F and the 17mm F/1.2 prime lens, I gave myself the assignment to document our 850 kilometers / 530 miles voyage.

On the Bridge | 1/125 sec – f/1.2 – ISO 1600

From Nuremberg we drove down southwest towards Lake Constance, where we crossed into Austria for a couple of kilometers, then through the eastern parts of Switzerland towards Chur. Big Boy thoroughly enjoyed himself driving my new company car (it turned out he drove us the whole 10 hour trip), while his mother snoozed in the back and I snapped happily away with my PEN-F

Up the pass | 1/250 sec – f/2.2 – ISO 200

From Chur we drove up the Rhine Valley to cross the major European mountain range, the Alps. We crossed the mountains via the San Bernardino pass, which reaches an altitude of 2066m / 6788 ft. Big Boy enjoyed navigating the tight bends of the narrow pass road on his first mountain crossing as a driver. We had beautiful weather and splendid views and really took our time.

Coffee Break | 1/8000 sec – f/1.2 – ISO 160

Up the pass | 1/250 sec – f/10 – ISO 200

Mountain Lake | 1/125 sec – f/13 – ISO 200

San Bernardino Pass | 1/400 sec – F/6.3 – ISO 200

Mountain Picknick | 1/1000 sec – f/5 – ISO 200

Downward bound | 1/160 sec – f/13 – ISO 200

We drove down on the South side of the pass into Tessin, the southern most canton of Switzerland, then past Lake Lugano we crossed our third border of the morning into Italy, where we continued past Milan down towards the Mediterranean. Driving across the Northern Italian plains with its lush green rice fields, we stopped for an Espresso in one of the iconic highway bridge restaurants.

Finally we crossed the Italian coastal mountain range, the Appenin, to reach the Ligurian coast near our former hometown Genoa, then turned right for the final 100km stretch along the Riviera Dei Fiori (Flower Coast) to Imperia, where we will be spending the next two weeks in a house with a view in the hills above the coast.

Almost there | 1/1600 sec – f/5.6 – ISO 200

We reached our destination after a relaxed 10 hour drive just in time for the classic Italian afternoon Apertivo, before moving into our home for the next two weeks.