Following in the footsteps of the 'other' Bond.

As I'm sure the rest of the family will attest, living with a surname like Bond can be a mixed blessing. I spent most of my childhood being the butt of other people's jibes. You name them I've probably heard most of them...

I am still inordinately proud to have the same surname as Ian Fleming's fictional character although that's where the similarities between 007 and me end...

One of of the places which was a 'must see' during my travels is the Furka Pass in Switzerland made famous by 007 chasing down a Mustang driving femme fatale in his Aston Martin DB5.

I don't know who the stunt drivers were on Goldfinger; kudos is due to all of them as having driven the Furka pass in my borrowed Mazda 3 (at very pedestrian speeds), I would not be inclined to drive at over 50mph anywhere on that stretch of road. Least of all in either a Mustang (steering is so vague, you'd be better sending a telegraph to the front wheels than using the steering wheel) or the DB5 (Steering so heavy you'd look like Arnie after a couple of days at the wheel - at least the wonderful engine makes up for the steering!)

The views when you stop, either to recover you nerve or possibly to let the brakes cool down if you've been driving a Mustang are sensational. It has to be one of the best driving roads and the view is the icing on the cake. Fittingly the locals have renamed the stretch of the Furka Pass where the sniper scene was filmed James Bond Strasse,

58 years have passed since Goldfinger was filmed and a lot has changed (the roads on the pass are all paved now 😃 ) but probably the biggest change is the introduction of the motorail link between Realp and Oberwald which must have been a godsend for the locals in winter.

Sadly when I visited, the upper stretch of the pass were still closed from Winter so although I got to drive the section of the pass I really wanted to drive, I didn't make it as far as the Belvedere Hotel.

So having driven back down the mountain it was onto the Furka Matterhorn railway and then on via a very circuitous route to the Simplon Tunnel for the final stretch down into Italy and the Autostrada past Milan, Lake Garda & Venice and that's the story of my next post.

Alan