The Jensen Owners' Club

That is an absolutely beautiful colour combination on the FF.
Kees Oudesluijs

Stunning landscape and car, Martin. I’ve not been to Ireland, it looks absolutely beautiful.

Thanks for the compliments! Always one for a bit of self promotion without hijacking the thread - here is another one with more of the car. Looking forward to meeting all.

Absolutely stunning- please continue to hijack, Martin!!

Mike organized special parking at the museum in Mulhouse, so we won't have a difficult time leaving the lot as a group with the barrier and the red light just behind it. Unfortunately

les ateliers de restauration ne peuvent pas être visités.

Sorry Dave!

The beer is excellent. It is stored at Andi's garage and we are hoping that there will still be some left by October.

Lynne and Andrew are planning to visit the Sherlock Holmes museum on Sunday (http://www.sherlockholmes.ch/de/Angebot/Museum). The museum is located in the town of Meiringen, which is about two hours from Morges and afterwards about 40 minutes from the Grimsel Pass. The museum opens at 13:30, but upon request can open earlier for a small fee. Close to Meiringen are the Reichenbach Falls. If others are interested in joining them, I'm sure that they wouldn't mind.

The Reichenbach Falls (http://www.grimselwelt.ch/en/transport- ... enbachfall), from Wikipedia:

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories

The town and the falls are known worldwide as the setting for a fictional event: it is the location where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's hero, Sherlock Holmes, fights to the death with Professor Moriarty, at the end of "The Final Problem", first published in 1893. A memorial plate at the funicular station commemorates Holmes and there is also a Sherlock Holmes museum in the nearby town of Meiringen.

Out of many waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland, Reichenbach Falls seems to have made the greatest impression on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was shown them on a Swiss holiday by his host Sir Henry Lunn, the founder of Lunn Poly. Sir Henry's grandson, Peter Lunn, recalled, "My grandfather said 'Push him over the Reichenbach Falls' and Conan Doyle hadn’t heard of them, so he showed them to him." So impressed was Doyle that he decided to let his hero die there.

The actual ledge from which Moriarty fell is on the other side of the falls from the funicular; it is accessible by climbing the path to the top of the falls, crossing the bridge and following the trail down the hill. The ledge is marked by a plaque as illustrated here; the English inscription reads: "At this fearful place, Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty, on 4 May 1891." The pathway on which the duel between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty occurs ends some hundred metres away from the falls. When Doyle viewed the falls, the path ended very close to the falls, close enough to touch it, yet over the hundred years after his visit, the pathway has become unsafe and slowly eroded away, and the falls have receded further back into the gorge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichenbach_Falls

Felix, thank you for trying ( to organise a visit to the restoration workshops at Mulhouse), I was not expecting success, but if you don't ask.....

Mike Smith, 541S and AH owner, has been on an organised AH tour which had some sort of contact within the museum workshop, but he did not organise it himself. I will ask him if he can help at all.

Cheers for now (but not over a crate of special beer, at least until we get there!)

Dave

DaveT wrote:Felix, thank you for trying ( to organise a visit to the restoration workshops at Mulhouse), I was not expecting success, but if you don't ask...Mike Smith, 541S and AH owner, has been on an organised AH tour which had some sort of contact within the museum workshop, but he did not organise it himself. I will ask him if he can help at all.

That would be much appreciated, Dave- looking forward to that beer with you!

For those not wishing to visit the museum, Mulhouse has quite a lovely towncenter to spend some time, with a few good shops and probably interesting things to see. Or as Kees has mentioned there is also the railway museum (http://www.citedutrain.com/?lang=en).

Alternatively there is the Pantheon car museum in Basle (http://www.pantheonbasel.ch/de/willkommen.html)- which is tiny compared to the museum in Mulhouse. They have a exhibit on electric cars (https://issuu.com/pantheonbasel/docs/un ... 3/60210825). Basle is 30 minutes from Mulhouse and on the way to Morges.

We still have requests coming in to take part at our meet. At the moment approx 52 parties are attending (counting those who have paid), which is fantastic. The hotel on Grimsel is pretty much booked to the last bed. There is another hotel about a 10-15 minute drive away. Accomodation in Morges and Mulhouse is less of a problem. The restaurants and hotels where we will be dining also have a maximum capacity. As much as we don't want to turn anybody down, we are pretty much booked out. Mike is doing his best to accomodate everyone and is checking with the restaurants how many of us they can serve. Those attending will be getting a mail in the next few days. If you don't receive anything by the end of next week let us know.

Having said that, we would welcome anyone to join us on Saturday at the British Car Meet in Morges. If you are coming with a Jensen and would like to be parked with our cars (which we would strongly encourage), you will need to be there by 8:00am. If you are arriving on Friday evening, let us know. On Saturday we have arranged a lunchtime Barbecue by the cars- if you want to join us for lunch we will need to know beforehand. Send us a note to office@jcc.ch.

And last but not least, our guest speaker has confirmed that he will be there, we are very much looking forward to that!

Felix

Just awaiting confirmation with Michi that we (Nigel & myself) are now booked in, so will see you all there for the full monty. A long story to get to this point, which we will certainly bore you all with when we get there.
Looking forward to it.

Kevin Birch wrote:Just awaiting confirmation with Michi that we (Nigel & myself) are now booked in, so will see you all there for the full monty. A long story to get to this point, which we will certainly bore you all with when we get there.
Looking forward to it.

Looking very much forward to having the two of you joining us!
Felix

Just over a month to go now, is there any weather forecast that we might need to worry about, like winter tyres, anti-freeze blankets, shovel, snow boots... Skis ???

Or just good humour and the will to join In?

In France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany snow or winter tyres are compulsory depending on the circumstances or if there is a sign indicating they are compulsory on that road. In Austria they are compulsory from the 1st of November, in the Italian Alpes from October 15.
You can get a fine if you drive through the snow on summer tyres. You can also be held responsible if you are involved in an accident if you have not fitted the proper tyres. Snow is quite possible during October so be prepared with e.g. snow chains.
All-weather tyres will not do and I think M+S tyres are also frowned upon in Austria and Switzerland but legal in Germany.
There was skying on the Furka/Grimsel passes when I went there in August.
Kees Oudesluijs

I have seen signs on some mountain roads saying 4x4s & snow chains only! So if you have an FF, you can just wave and drive on!

It has been hothothot here since May with very little rain. Saturday was cold and rainy, but now it has returned to being nice again. Really only possible to give a few days in advance a notice on how the weather will be.

Prices. The topic was brought up in the Norway 2019 post:

A beer in a restaurant (3.3dl) will be about CHF 5.-. A coffee is a bit cheaper. Main courses will be CHF 20-45 at a resonably priced restaurant. Wine is somewhere around CHF 5-9.- per dl. A pack of cigarettes is about CHF 8.-. Swimming in the Lake of Geneva is free. Not sure if skinny dipping is allowed. Parking on the streets can be quite costly. In Zurich it is I think CHF 5 for 2 hours, but that varies. Don't buy drinking water- the tapwater is excellent!

1l of 95 Octane Petrol is about CHF 1.70 at the moment

Speeding can be quite costly. The speed limit on the highway is 120km/h, see below. They subtract I think 4km/h. Driving across a redlight is I think CHF 250.-.

1CHF = .9 Euro / 1Euro = 1.1CHF
1CHF = .8 GBP / 1 GBP = 1.25CHF

(CH = Confederation Helvetica, F = Franc)

Fines for speeding:


Speed control units look like this:

Also radar detectors are banned in Switzerland. Ferrari driving friends recommend Camsam from google play, but it gets it wrong sometimes, if there is one on the flyover above it still warns you. Really it is best to stick to limits, it is NOT Germany, which is very close ! Don't get mixed up! Strangely you WILL have a mile long queue of irate motorists behind you if/when you do behave. Police also don't like you driving too slowly here. Aim to drive 2 to 5 kph below the limit using a Sat Nav. The Police are a funny bunch and can be unexpectedly very friendly! However speeding fines easily go into many £1000s very quickly for 30kph over.

Don't bother bringing any beer or alcohol with you. It is cheaper and the low price stuff is better in Switzerland than the UK. Even Aldi do a decent Weissbeer, 50p for 500ml. Lidl were selling Weissbeer for 30p a can last weekend. Denner is good for Alcohol, also Coop is ok. Water from street fountains is especially good. In tests most of it beats top branded bottled water! E.Leclerc is a French brand of hypermarket around Basel that sells good French quality food, Antifreeze, screenwash, and oils (rarely they even have 20w50) at reasonable prices. "Carter Cash", 170 Rue des Romains, 68200 Mulhouse, France, is as close as it gets to Halfords (their oil stocks are a bit dodgy though), they keep jacks, axle stands, tools, etc. There is a Hypermarket next door (probably better oils, brake fluid etc there), but strangely that hypermarket has seriously gone down hill recently.

Edit: The Swiss canton Aargau is very similar to Essex car wise. Peterhans is a great Swiss shop chain for tools, also Kull-Laube AG, in Wettingen, Aargau is absolutely top for that special socket or tool you need, or a bearing off the shelf. It is the best tool shop in terms of quality that I have ever been to, full stop. If price is a consideration, Landi, the farmers store, all over Switzerland, sell stuff like 20L of ATF for £50, nuts, bolts, threaded rod, etc.

johnw wrote:Also radar detectors are banned in Switzerland. Ferrari driving friends recommend Camsam from google play, but it gets it wrong sometimes, if there is one on the flyover above it still warns you. Really it is best to stick to limits, it is NOT Germany, which is very close ! Don't get mixed up! Strangely you WILL have a mile long queue of irate motorists behind you if/when you do behave. Police also don't like you driving too slowly here. Aim to drive 2 to 5 kph below the limit using a Sat Nav. The Police are a funny bunch and can be unexpectedly very friendly! However speeding fines easily go into many £1000s very quickly for 30kph over.

Don't bother bringing any beer or alcohol with you. It is cheaper and the low price stuff is better in Switzerland than the UK. Even Aldi do a decent Weissbeer, 50p for 500ml. Lidl were selling Weissbeer for 30p a can last weekend. Denner is good for Alcohol, also Coop is ok. Water from street fountains is especially good. In tests most of it beats top branded bottled water! E.Leclerc is a French brand of hypermarket around Basel that sells good French quality food, Antifreeze, screenwash, and oils (rarely they even have 20w50) at reasonable prices. "Carter Cash", 170 Rue des Romains, 68200 Mulhouse, France, is as close as it gets to Halfords (their oil stocks are a bit dodgy though), they keep jacks, axle stands, tools, etc. There is a Hypermarket next door (probably better oils, brake fluid etc there), but strangely that hypermarket has seriously gone down hill recently.

It is even worse. Warnings for speed traps on your sat nav seems to be illegal, so you have to remove the option from your GPS.
Kees Oudesluijs