On August 30,1989, another solar experiment started at the Vorder Rhine (Surselva) in Disentis/Muster, a main town in the Romansh
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Figure 44.13 The hotel Ucliva was awarded as Europe’s best ecological hotel by the Council of Europe in Strassbourg 1988. |
part of Switzerland3: At the first European Championship of Alpine Solarcars (ASEM) the solar electric drive, brakes and safety were not only tested once, but each day. After the start in Disentis, the race course followed the river Rhine for 30 km. The participants then had to leave the Rhine plain and to overcome a difference in altitude of 350 m. In Waltensburg, a sun terrace on 1100 m, the solarcars could "refuel” in the sun in front of the ecological hotel Ucliva, where five years earlier the first edition of the Tour de Sol had been decided. After the racy mountain drive, batteries had to be recharged in order to pass the second mountain test to Flims/Laax, stage finish of the first day (see Fig. 44.1).
