Farewell breakfast. Rolf made scrambled eggs to accompany the usual spread and coffee. Thanked Carol's parents for the hospitality and great food. Truly wonderful hosts. Said goodbye and took the tractor back to pick up Carol's mum's car. From the garage, Carol's father had suggested we take the high mountain pass instead of the 16km tunnel through the mountains (Europe's longest tunnel I've been told). There was a 6km traffic jam at the entrance to the tunnel according to the news (not uncommon at this time of year with many Dutch caravaners going to Italy for vacation). I wanted to go the mountain pass anyway, even though it's longer and tougher driving. Carol was more keen on the tunnel, but changed her mind once we sampled some of the traffic jam in today's blazing sun. So we took the mountain pass on the agreement that I would do all the driving.
When we were up over 2000 metres it started to pour rain. Then we got caught behind a farmer moving his cows. I really enjoyed it all. We were in no hurry and the scenery from so high was spectacular, if a little vertigo-inducing. However, the drive took much longer than expected so our plans of checking our Liechtenstein and then reaching Innsbruck by evening weren't impossible. We had a quick look around Liechtenstein, a double-landlocked country measuring only 3 X 25km. Then we crossed the border into Austria.
Stopping near the border for coffee, we were told by a wonderful Austrian woman who kicked the hell out of the vending machine that was stealing my money, that it was two and a half hours to Innsbruck. So we just found a hotel near the border. It was a strange kind of place, but fitted my budget, so we endured the strange and unfriendly manageress and grandmotherly smell/style of the rooms. We did however have a lovely meal in town in quite a classy restaurant despite our informal/smelly attire. I was hoping to get a little drunk in the Irish bar we had seen earlier, but I was beat from driving so just went to sleep.
When we were up over 2000 metres it started to pour rain. Then we got caught behind a farmer moving his cows. I really enjoyed it all. We were in no hurry and the scenery from so high was spectacular, if a little vertigo-inducing. However, the drive took much longer than expected so our plans of checking our Liechtenstein and then reaching Innsbruck by evening weren't impossible. We had a quick look around Liechtenstein, a double-landlocked country measuring only 3 X 25km. Then we crossed the border into Austria.
Stopping near the border for coffee, we were told by a wonderful Austrian woman who kicked the hell out of the vending machine that was stealing my money, that it was two and a half hours to Innsbruck. So we just found a hotel near the border. It was a strange kind of place, but fitted my budget, so we endured the strange and unfriendly manageress and grandmotherly smell/style of the rooms. We did however have a lovely meal in town in quite a classy restaurant despite our informal/smelly attire. I was hoping to get a little drunk in the Irish bar we had seen earlier, but I was beat from driving so just went to sleep.
Nice roads and valleys.
Traffic jam.
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