Sue and Ken Slater are from Melbourne, Australia. The MGs Beijing to London along the Silk Road, 2010 presented a great opportunity to travel in a convoy of six MG classic cars with like minded adventurers. Ken is a retired secondary school principal who spends his time with his sons, building and renovating houses and classic cars. His other passion is the Collingwood football team. Sue works as an educational consultant and enjoys life, family and friends.
4:02 am
#89 Predictably gorgeous Suisse
Breathtaking
Swiss Magic
Dominic and Astrid from the Swiss MGA Club
Swiss Pretty
Mr Jeremy Fisher at Jungfrau
We booked the Gasthaus out
Danny and Dave
Danny's MG collection
What a superb little country and yes, I am running out of superlatives to describe what we see and the kindness of people we encounter. The Suisse MGA Club headed up by Dominic, Astrid and Marcel showed us a round for two days and their passion for their country is incredible. Not only is this country of seven million blessed with natural wonder, it seems their democratic processes and attitude is something many countries could look at. Did you know that in Switzerland any citizen can put a referendum to the populous as long as they get a petition signed by one hundred thousand authentic citizens. Imagine that, power really rests with the people and change can be enacted when it is put to the vote with a majority outcome. The place is absolutely immaculate. Everything is in order, runs with precision and they only pay about 11% total tax.
At Lausanne on Lake Geneva we meet Danny a classic car fanatic. He took us to drinks at a wonderful outdoor restaurant overlooking Lake Geneva. The vineyard was on the slopes of the lake and an outdoor moat surrounded the deck we sat on. We looked out to the village where they bottle Evian water and on the other side of the lake was Italy.
We spent the evening at Le Suisse Chalet feasting on fondue with members of the Suisse MG Car Club, and then off to view Danny’s MG collection. It is housed in an undercover park at a hotel in the centre of Lausanne. He has a fleet of classic MGs – quite possibly one of the world’s best MG colllections. He was offered one million francs for one car, but he declined the offer. He also has a fleet of classic Triumphs and othe classic fleets. So yet again another late night with some unsettled members of the convoy lusting after Danny’s collection, his set up and all the parts they would like to take home.
Some of our Suisse friends are saying we are”Aussie heroes” while Vin, the Yorkshire man, who has joined the convoy, says we are “the loonie Aussies”. Take your pick on that one.
As a result of all the challenging mountain passes Yellow Car needed new brakes and Peter was able to do that. Unfortunately Maroon Car driven by the South Africans also lost brakes and they had to be fitted at Lausanne. As a consequence they were not able to drive with us for two days and managed to catch up after repairs. Life is sometimes tough!
That car collections looks absolutely superb!
Big Dog would like to be adopted!
Keep posting
Hi Sue and all the crew! Wow – what an amazing adventure – have been following your blog with such enjoyment and envy! Looks absolutely awesome scenery – you must be so sad to be almost at the end of your journey …… great to have Simon home – although he is here in body but not so much in spirit! – which is still on the adventure with you ….. he is finding it hard to settle down! Enjoy the rest of the trip – cant wait to hear all about it when you get home – there is so much interest back home in the trip – yet another article appeared in the Westernport News. Love to you all – Maddy xx