We got here on Wednesday after a full day on the trains. The train from Venice to Verano Italy was a friggin cattle car! It was so hot and of course the AC was not working. We knew we were in trouble when we boarded the train and all of the windows were open. It was what they call a "regional train", so there was no first class (the rail passes we bought only come in first class and we have been loving that), no restaurant car, straight back vinyl seats, and a very bumpy ride. Fortunately that part of the trip was only 1 1/2 hours. Then we got on a really nice train for the next 4 1/2 hours to Innsbruk Austria. We met a young girl from Italy and a guy from China on the train. They shared our little compartment and we talked the whole way. It was very interesting talking about the governments and daily life in each of our different countries. Especially the contrast of China! The 4 1/2 hours flew by and we hated to say goodbye to them.
We got off the train with no idea of where we were going, but we found a room right away and were able to walk all around Innsbruk. It is another adorable town that looks like a little Disney Land village. It is surrounded by the Alps, snow-capped mountains all around. One thing we noticed right away was how clean it is! We couldn't find a single piece of trash on the streets or sidewalks. Definitely the cleanest place we have seen so far.
We took a bus to the airport the next day and rented a car. Another Mercedes just like the one we rented in Germany. Then we programmed the GPS for "No Highways" and took off for Salzburg. It was a beautiful ride through the Alps all day. We stopped at a town called Zell Am See, where we were hoping to spend the night. We were shocked right away because there were muslims everywhere! Maybe I shouldn't call them muslims, I don't know... Arabs, Indians?? I'm talking about women completely covered in black with just a tiny slit for their eyes while their husbands where shorts and tank-tops and ray ban sunglasses! It was 100 degrees and I can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be under all that material! We thought we had taken a wrong turn and drove to India somehow. They were everywhere! Anyway, we checked out 2 hotels and were about to check in at one when I off-handedly asked about air conditioning. The lady said there is no A/C in the whole town! It is never this hot here and today's temperature was extremely out of the ordinary. We checked another hotel that was over 350 euro a night and had no A/C. Needless to say, we got back in the car and drove the rest of the way to Salzburg, where we did find AC in the hotel rooms.
Yesterday we drove over a $35 toll road that winds through the alps. It was absolutely amazing. The road itself is impressive in how difficult it must have been to build and the views were outstanding. We drove it from end to end and it took all day. Then we found a room in an adorable place at the end of the toll road that had great views of the Alps. There was a full moon last night too, so that was a bonus.
Today we took a similar ride that brought us back into Italy. We had a bit of a scare at the border too! Italy is the only country that we have seen any kind of border control. There was a soldier there when we got to the border and he didn't speak English at all. He came up to my window and barked out some Italian, I said "I'm sorry, I only speak English", then he barked out a whole bunch more Italian and eventually held his hand up and told us to wait. So, we waited, and waited, and waited a little more, we started to get a little anxious and then suddenly he flagged us on and directed us down a narrow side road. The road eventually became almost too narrow for our car and seemed to be going nowhere. Then, it curved around and we were back on the main road and on the Italy side. Another soldier waved us on and we were on our way! Not sure what all the hoop-la was about.
This mountain road was not a toll road and at times was pretty darn scary! It often became a single lane with sheer drops on the side. The temp dropped to almost freezing and it poured rain and hailed on us a bit too!! That didn't last very long though and the views were just as impressive as yesterday. Funny, it's way up in the mountains and there are free range cattle. We came around a sharp bend and there were a bunch of cows in the road!!
Tonight we are back in Innsbruk. Tomorrow we are going to drive into Germany to see the Van Ludwig castle. It is only about an hour and a half from here. It is the castle that the Disney Land castle is based on and is supposed to be pretty cool.
Well, enough babbling. Here are some pics...
The view from the train station
In Innsbruk, I assume it is important
Innsbruk
Cool detail, just one example
That's in Euros, and it's in liters. 1.32 dollars to the Euro, 3.8 liters to a gallon, you do the math (it eqauls too much!)
This is the walking around view in Innsbruk
Alps!
This is a sporty Smart car.
Free range sheep too!
That's a glacier!!
We hiked up to this waterfall
This was awesome!! We happened upon it today and we had such a blast! It's like an alpine slide / roller coaster. I stopped and waited for Teeny. When you go full speed it really flies and it was a pretty long trip down the mountain. We took a gondola to the top and rode this back down.
This is part of the road in Italy.
Moo!
There was a music festival going on here in Innsbruk tonight.
I don't know what this has to do with traditional Austrian music, but she was drawing the biggest crowd!
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