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Reply to "Pre-LMC trip to the Swiss Alps"

Now, men, be prepared, now it gets a bit emotional. If you don’t care for that kind of thing, skip this part. I won’t hold back, so expect the worst.

When I was a child, we almost always drove to Italy on vacation. I’m not sure how we could afford it in the 60s, my father was in the military, and nobody else in my class drove that far. We drove 4 days from Denmark to Venice area in a VW Bug. Back then you couldn’t go through the Alps in tunnels, you had to drive over them. It had no A/C, max speed was around 110 km/h and my sister and I sat in the back seat with two large suitcases between us, fighting for space. The roof was filled with the tent that we raised every evening on the way, and air mattresses had to be inflated. While I of course enjoyed the vacation, I also looked enviously at some of the cars we saw on the way. Needless to say, they all overtook us, it was a minor sensation when we overtook anybody. Being very interested in cars already at that age, I was not satisfied. I dreamt of crossing the continent in a proper luxury car. The first super car I saw up close was the car of the owner of the campsite, he had a Ferrari 500 Superfast. What a car, what a name. 300 on the speedo, we could do 110. Compared to a VW Bug, you can imagine. I could stand and look at his car for hours. And I said to myself, one day...

Too emotional? It gets worse. When driving to Italy, both as a child and later as a grown up in crummy cars I could afford, one highlight of the tour was when suddenly the Alps appeared in the horizon. South of Germany is quite flat until it isn’t, so the Alps in the horizon come as a small surprise every trip. Now, on this trip, I was driving a new road, had no idea when the Alps would appear. I knew it would be today. So I prepared for it. That meant putting on the Opera CD. A new one, Pavarotti’s Top 50. I had to listen through it all to find the good ones, so I knew which ones to listen to. I would have no time for that when the winding roads appeared. So on flat German Autobahns, Opera was blasting from the loudspeakers.
Also, to add enjoyment to yet another sense, I was holding on to one if the finest works of art, created by immaculate craftsmanship, my wooden Nardi steering wheel.

And then it all clicked. I had been through the CD, and I was listening to my favorite, Nessun Dorma. And just as the crescendo was building, the truck in front of me returned to his right lane, I could accelerate and I could see far. And there were the Alps in the distance. I got chills. Yes, sorry if this is getting too emotional for all of you, but I warned you. I was living my childhood dream. Not all dreams come true, this one did! I’ve had similar moments before, they always involve three things: DeTomaso, Alps, Nessun Dorma.

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