ITALY, SWITZERLAND, GERMANY - A ROAD TRIP

After three days in Salzburg we were well and truly ready to hit the road and get back out into the countryside. But not before having to pay an extra Euro at the car park because the attendant didn’t bother to tell us we only had 10 minutes from paying to go through the gates. Since we had to set up the GPS, decide which way to go etc we took about 15 minutes and thus our ticket wouldn’t open the gate. When John went back up to the cashier he said “you must pay another 1€.”

“But we have paid for two days and we are three hours early leaving” said John, only to be informed that it was one more euro and that was that. When asked why he hadn’t informed us about the ten minute caper, he said he didn’t have to tell us. Unfortunately this was an attitude that often surfaced in Austria and France. They certainly aren’t service orientated.

Anyway we headed south toward the first of the iconic motorcycle passes in Italy and Switzerland, the Grossglockner. It costs about 30€ to drive it as it is a privately owned road, but it is worth it. The scenery is spectacular and of course we saw lots of bikes, both pedalled and motored along the way. We even came across a group of tractors driving the road and they weren’t heading out to do some ploughing.

We continued south on the 110 before turning west just past Paluzza. There were lots of lovely little villages and we just kept driving until we found a beautiful little town called Campolongo. By now we were across the border into Italy and the people who owned the Hotel Vittorio, where we stayed, had very little English. We managed to communicate though and they were lovely. I was still feeling really ill so John said he would bring some dinner up to the room for me. The landlady was insistant that she bring it up though. What a lovely home-cooked Italian dinner I had although I just couldn’t eat it all.

In the morning John went for a walk around the village. It was a beautiful little place and I was wishing that I could get out with him. The people were really friendly and the town really pretty with its mountain backdrop.

By now we were in the heart of the Dolomites, an area of northern Italy famous for its rugged grey coloured mountains. 

That's the road hugging the gorge at left.

Auronzo di Cadore

Continuing west we headed for Mizurina. This beautiful little town is nestled among the mountains beside a beautiful lake. When we arrived there were busloads of Asian tourists lakeside, taking happy snaps of course. 

Just west of the town is the turnoff to another very spectacular road which leads up to Drei Zinnen. Again, we had to pay 22€ and again there were plenty of bikes. Watching the guys cruising back down on their bicycles made us think they would be ensuring they had good brakes before setting out. They really do get some speed up. As you are driving up to the peak, you wonder why anyone would build a road up there in the first place. There were lots of people heading off on hikes when we arrived and of course there must be skiing opportunities in the winter, although we didn’t see any lifts etc.

From Drei Zinnen we drove south-west to the lovely little town of Riva on the northern shores of Largo di Garda. We managed to find an excellent little hotel called Garni Hotello. The landlady was lovely and the room and breakfast were excellent. It was also just a short walk from the old town and the lake. 

Strolling through the narrow streets of the old town is like stepping back hundreds of years. Riva was once a walled city and parts of the walls are still visible. When you see the steep mountains on either side of the lake it is easy to see how the wall would keep invaders out. Above the town, high on a cliff is a monastery just visible from the valley. God knows how they get up there. They have also built a crucifix up there which is lit up at night.

We had a lovely dinner beside the lake at one of the few restaurants that wasn’t showing the Italy vs Costa Rica game of the World Cup. The crowds were quite vocal for a while but after the final score of 1 – 0 to Costa Rica they were very quiet.

The lakeside restaurants in Riva were crowded for the World Cup game.

Next morning we drove north-west over Passo Croce Domini which is really different from most of the other passes in the Dolomites. Most of the road is very narrow and the forest is quite thick in some of the lower parts. 

Croc Domini pass we weren't surprised to come across the locals moving
their cows up to the higher pastures.

Weaving our way in and out of Switzerland and Italy, we arrived at Stelvio, probably the most famous pass in Europe. Again, the scenery was spectacular and the pass itself was crowded with both pushbikes and motorbikes. 

It was Saturday and obviously a big bike weekend was under way in this area. 

Some friendly locals

The view from the top of Stelvio.

At the ski resort we stopped for one of the tasty sausage an saukraut rolls that John remembered trying on his trip in ’08. (As did everyone else)

The road down the other side.

Then we headed north down the other side, stopping at a small pension a few miles on at Gomagoi.

Next morning when we got up for breakfast we noticed pushbikes arriving at a meeting point just up from our hotel. They kept coming for over an hour. Being a Sunday, it was obvious that there was a big bike race on. The bikes had numbers on the front as well which was a bit of a giveaway. Anyway we were glad we weren’t trying to drive up the pass that day although it turned out that they weren’t riding the normal route. From the top of Stelvio they must have taken a side-road as we ended up passing lots of them coming toward us as we drove west again on Highway 27 and 28 toward St Moritz. We kept passing push bikes going our way as well for hours.

Just after we left Gomagoi we passed an amazing array of “art”. We stopped to take a look and discovered the place belonged to an artist and poet who was very much taken by American Indian culture, nature etc. He makes his artworks from nature, scrap materials and the remains of dead animals. We talked with him for quite a while. It was interesting to say the least. Follow this link if you want to learn more about Lorenz Kuntner. (unfortunate name).

We saw crucifixes like this everywhere beside the roads all through Europe although in Italy they were inside little shelters and a bit more elaborate.

Of course we had to stop for coffee in St Moritz just to say we had been there. It is beautiful by the lake but of course very commercial. 

St Moritz

Then we drove west over Julierpass then north to Bonaduz. 

The view from halfway up Julierpass.

One of the many road tunnels we passed through in Europe. Some are miles long. If they can't go over the mountain, they go through it!

We then took a minor road which led up a lovely dead end bike road to Berggasthaus Beverin, a biker friendly guesthouse where John had spent his first night on the road in ’08. The house itself is over 300 years old and made completely of timber. Inside is a bit of a rabbit warren but it has lots of character as does the owner, Willie, who even remembered John’s name when he said he had stayed there before. As I said the road ends at the farmyard about 100 metres on and it was lovely just sitting outside watching the farmer and his family busily raking up his fresh cut grass, ready for baling.

This school, like houses we saw all over, had its roof completely
covered in solar panels. Australia has a long way to catch up to
Europe when it comes to solar. Houses with solar panels all over their
roofs were especially prolific in Germany.

We were undecided where to head next day so we just headed west, following the Vord Rhein (a river which runs into Lake Constance). After Andermat we turned north-west again at Gletsch and at Interlaken we decided to go up to Grindelwald, site of the famous Eiger. 

More lovely scenery!

These structures are to prevent avalanches in the winter.

We were quite lucky to get a room at Hotel Tschuggen and were even more pleased when we discovered that from our balcony we could look straight up at the main face of the mountain, as well as having an excellent view up to the other mountains with their snowcaps and glaciers. Unfortunately, rain and no vacancies prevented us from staying an extra night to take the cablecar up into the mountains and doing some walking.

The view from our balcony in Grindelwald. The face of the Eiger is at left with glacier at the centre.

So it was off again next morning north through Thun and back up into Germany. We thought that we would prefer Germany as they were a lot friendlier than the French and we also wanted to take a closer look at the Rhine. 

The houses around Grindelwald had a distinct style.

Not everyone has motorised transport!

We continued north until we hit the Rhine at Bad Sackingen. It took us a while to find a road that actually led to the river, but with the help of the GPS and some guesswork we found a carpark near the old part of the town and went for a walk along the riverbank. It was really interesting as we passed a very old monastery, then came across an ancient wooden bridge which spanned the river. The old town itself was also interesting with lots of tourists, coffee shops etc.

Unusual sculpture!

Holzbrücke Bad Säckingen is a road bridge over the Rhine. It connects the German city of Bad Säckingen with the village Stein in Switzerland. The wooden bridge spans 203.7 metres (668 ft) over the Rhine and is the longest roofed wooden bridge of Europe. The bridge was built in 1272 and was destroyed several times (1570, 1633, 1678). The current bridge was completed in 1700. Today, the bridge is only open for pedestrians since a new road bridge was opened in 1979.

Inside the bridge.

As soon as we got into Germany we called into the police station at Wehr to report the loss of our front numberplate. It had been hit by a piece of flying debris on the motorway just west of Vienna and we had been constantly explaining its absence during the whole trip. It is amazing how many people pointed it out to us, and some local police in Italy had also asked about it, advising us to report it once we got back into Germany. The officer in Wehr was really good and just took all the details from us in case the hire car company had any issues.

A little further north we arrived at a quaint little village called Todmoos where there were lots of guesthouses and decided to stay for the night. Again, it was nice to just stroll around town and have a beer at one of the local pubs. Being a week night in such a small town however meant that most places were closed by 5 so we had a very quiet night, spending some time on the balcony watching the cat next door navigate a rather elaborate ladder which had obviously been constructed especially for its use.

That's the cat sitting in the window centre right.

Wednesday the 25^th was to be our last full day in Europe and since we had to be in Paris next day we decided to venture into north-eastern France to the Lorraine region. It was a lovely picturesque area but finding a pension proved a bit of a challenge. In most countries we had visited they were easily spotted from the road but in this area they seemed to be tucked away and not easy to recognise. We were getting pretty frustrated, and almost driving around in circles until we found a lovely little place near Obersteinbach. Although the landlady only spoke French and we were actually in France, the whole area seemed more German than French. I had fun practising my French and was surprised that I did understand the landlady and managed to get my message across to her. Unlike in Paris, they spoke more slowly up here which obviously helped my comprehension. Anyway it was a lovely little spot, with the cabins located in the garden out the back and the village was very small and quiet. As it was a holiday, we had to drive quite a way to get dinner but it gave us a chance to see more of the area so we didn’t mind.

On Thursday morning we headed back into Paris and managed to navigate to Terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle airport without too much trouble. Finding the hire car returns area was a bit more challenging but we managed that too without taking any wrong turns.

As expected, there was some talking to do with the hire car staff, who at first doubted our story about the condition of the original car we had been given. However, when I described the guy at Terminal 1 to her, she suddenly changed her attitude. Not only did she accept what we were telling her but she also waived the 50€ administration fee for replacement of the number plate.

So we were feeling pretty happy as we walked to Terminal 2D to check in our baggage and settle in to wait for our flight. By now we were pretty happy to be heading home after 8 weeks away. We bought our 4 litres of duty free alcohol, went through security and away we went to Hong Kong. As we flew over mainland China, we could see the countryside quite clearly and it is quite scarey when you see the extent of the factories etc. The towns and cities just seem to go on forever. One wonders where it will all end.

We had a few hours stopover in Hong Kong and managed to meet up with Lachlan, our son, on his way back from London. Again we had to go through security to get to the departure lounges. But then, at the actual boarding gate there was another security check. No problem – or so we thought. You can imagine our reaction when told that we couldn’t take the alcohol on as carry on because Australia and America do not allow more than 100mls of fluids in carry-on luggage. John assured them they had it wrong but they insisted we couldn’t take it on even though the bags were sealed and the receipts clearly visible. Anyway John stood his ground and asked to see a supervisor. Instead they got one of the hostesses from the flight who suggested we could put the alcohol into my carry on case and they would check it in and put it in the baggage hold. We agree to this and when we arrived in Brisbane I spoke to one of the staff at the luggage area who informed me that this had become quite a problem as Hong Kong security staff had been confiscating alcohol and perfumes worth quite a lot of money on the premise of this misinterpretation of the rules. The final outcome for us is we will never fly through Hong Kong again. They must be having some good end of year parties up there at the travellers’ expense.

So here we are back home in Oz and really happy to be here. You really do have to go overseas to appreciate what a great country we have here.