I took the GTI today to go to Southern Switzerland for two days. It's a very nice region and the weather is way better than here. On the way down I went over the pass and couldn't believe how much snow there still is. 3°C on top of the pass...
... one hour later: 27°C
On the way back I wanted to save some time and went through the Gotthard tunnel instead of driving over the pass. After 2 or 3 minutes in the tunnel the traffic lights switched to red and we stopped. Not very pleasant.
I switched the radio on and they said that a car is on fire in the tunnel, followed by safety instructions: Stay in the car, let the ignition key in the car even when you have to leave it, if you see smoke go to the next emergency exit. It may sounds ridiculous but I packed my bag with all the necessary stuff and I honestly thought I will never see my GTI again. I remembered the terrible accident in that tunnel 2001 with 11 fatalities... I waited and waited and it seemed like ages. There was quite a big gap between the cars in front of me and the cars behind me, must have been a couple of hundred meters. Fire engines and police cars where passing by with a million miles an hour and than it became VERY quite and VERY scary. No radio, no people... but thankfully no smoke. Suddenly I spotted a police car in my rear view mirror, it stopped and the police man told me to turn around, leave the tunnel and drive over the pass.
At home I saw in the news that the engine of a coach exploded, nobody got hurt but the tunnel remained closed for 3 hours.
Puuh I'm happy that it's over, I really hope I never have to go through this again.
