Awesome Austrian Alps

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Tuesday 15th September
Awesome Austrian Alps
The weather has improved on yesterday and so has Arnies arm to the extent that the swelling has almost gone and she can no longer be a contender for Mrs Biceps!!We will now avoid all outdoor drinking and eating where those pesky wasps are present.
The temperature is still cool but the prospects for the day are for rising temperature after we cross over into Germany which is our destination for the next 4 nights.
We hadn’t met the proprietor of the apartment we have been staying in but she turned up just as we were packing up,to collect money for our stay.
To avoid the motorways we need to take a bit more of a tiki tour route but that is the way we like it and you get to see the countryside of course.
Leaving Bled behind we head off on route #201 and soon pass through the town of Jesenice as the valley we have been in starts to narrow.Jesenice is one of those industrial towns that still has plants belching out stuff into the atmosphere.It looks a rather bleak place to live with the high mountains on both sides of the town hemming the place in and the look is not helped by several of those old communist apartment buildings still being used and situated alongside the main road.A coat of cheerful coloured paint would make all the difference as we have seen in some other Eastern European towns that were previously part of the communist bloc.
The Sava River flowed alongside the road for most of the early part of today’s journey and with the rain of the past 36 hours it was running quite high and much swifter than it probably had been.
After passing through Kranjska Gora we bypassed a short steep road that would have taken us directly into Austria.Instead we drove further westwards to Podkoren and entered Italy for about 20 minutes only to switch back at Tarvisio in an easterly direction towards Villach which is located in Austria.All this to avoid a short sharp climb to a summit of 1073 metres over the Wurzenpass.
At the city of Villach the roads became confusing and we passed route #100 thinking that the sign pointing to where we wanted to go also led to a motorway we wanted to stay off.After realising there was no other direct way to get onto route #100 we doubled back and took the road anyway to find that it didn’t just go onto the motorway but also to the ‘old’highway,which we wanted,which ran parallel to the new motorway.
Gretchen was looking for a comfort stop and although we passed several of the handy roadside parking bays none had WC’s as we had found when we drove the road up from the Croatian border on Saturday.
She jokingly(or that was what I thought)said that the next sizeable town we were to pass through,Spittal an der Drau,would have a McD’s and they had been good standbys when a comfort stop was needed.
And hey presto!! As we entered the town there was a McD’s sign pointing the way to where the store was located.So as it was near lunchtime and we hadn’t had McD’s for a couple of weeks we lunched on a cheeseburger,fries and a coke,and of course used the facilities!!
As we left the town,which wasn’t actually that small,the Austrian Alps came more into view and so did the SNOW!!
It seems the rain of yesterday and the cooler temperatures had brought a fresh dusting of snow to the mountains which was quite visible as we were climbing the valley and we started to have doubts as to whether it was going to be possible to take the route we wanted to over the alps.
In the general area we were now in there were 4 alternatives to crossing the alps.A road tunnel on the motorway,a high alpine pass,another road tunnel further to the west which would have added another 50 or so kilometres to the journey and another tunnel directly ahead of us that we were aiming for.
It was only after we started up route #106 with more and more snow becoming evident on the mountains and some of it closer than it had appeared to us as we approached from further down the valley,that we spotted a sign that showed a rail wagon with a car on it and put two and two together to realise that what I had thought was a car tunnel was in fact a train tunnel through which your car could be transported on a rail wagon.
The scenery we were now driving through was now spectacular with soaring peaks covered in snow,pretty villages on the floor of the valley and also on the mountainsides some so far up it was difficult to make out how people got to the houses as there didn’t appear to be any roads leading to the villages.Up to the left of us was the rail line traversing several tall viaducts as the line wound its way around the mountainside high above the valley.
We had no idea as to the cost of transporting RR through the rail tunnel nor did we know how often or when the next train would be but we thought that as we had gone this far we might as well climb the last 9 kilometres up the steep and winding road to the railhead village of Mallnitz to find out.The views from the road going up were even more spectacular than what we had had from the floor of the valley and as we reached our destination we were just below the ceiling of cloud gave peeks of the mountains and fresh snow.
We passed a line of cars coming down the mountain and we deduced that perhaps a train had arrived into Mallnitz and that perhaps it would go back in the direction we wanted to go shortly.
Sure enough there was a train at the platform with about 20 rail wagons designed for you to drive your car onto and already about 10 cars loaded on.After walking up and down the platform looking for information and where to buy a ticket we spied a booth with a man in it and asked him for the information we sought.The cost would be €17 but we were too late for this train and would need to wait an hour for the next.
We watched the train pull out of the platform and decided we could probably get to where we wanted to be in the hour we would have to wait around.How wrong we would be!!!!
The road pass was only a short drive away although we would have to go back down the 9 kilometres from Mallnitz and head 30km west before switching north on route 107 over the Grossglocknerstrasse Pass.We weren’t sure if the height marked on the map of 2503 metres was how high the road went to traverse the pass or whether it was a mark for the highest peak.With the snow all around us we were fairly sure that at 2503metres there would be snow on or next to the road had it been cleared for traffic.
We arrived at the village of Winklern and had to make the decision of going over the pass or travelling on further westwards to the road tunnel but adding considerably more to the journey.
The is the BBA after all and A stands for adventure and we had driven through snow before on the Desert Road in New Zealand and survived,we just hadn’t expected snow on our summer/autumn adventure around Europe.So we turned right and began the 20 odd kilometre drive up the increasingly, beautiful scenic valley towards the pass.!!
The scenery was just jaw dropping and although there was some low cloud here and there the mountain peaks revealed themselves from time to time and we stopped often to take photos and video as the road steadily climbed.
We passed through the last town of Heiligenblut and the road became even steeper with a sign warning of 12% grades.
Then Gretchen noticed something we hadn’t seen before,a sign warning of a toll gate ahead!!The BBA doesn’t take toll roads!!and this road wasn’t marked on our atlas as one.
What to do??!!We had driven all this way up the mountain side and to turn around and go back to take the road tunnel or the rail/car wagon option would take another hour or more and the afternoon was getting on as it was after we had stopped frequently to take photos of the scenery.
So we drove up to the barrier and looked for a sign advertising the cost to go on further.€28 was what we read and it was confirmed by the man in the toll booth!!!!The rest of this road had better be worth it!!!’cos we could have gone through the rail tunnel and got some change on what we had to pay here.!!
What we hadn’t realised and now we appreciated was that this road ran through a National Park with all sorts of facilities ahead of us and someone has to pay for it all.The only problem was we were entering in the late afternoon and didn’t have long to enjoy what might be ahead of us.
So with a sticker for RR to say we had paid our €28 and a brochure with a descriptive map we continued on our way ever climbing.
Soon after passing through the toll gate we came across a small herd of highland cattle with their shaggy coats necessary to protect them from the sharp change that had occurred in the weather over the past day or so.Looking out the fresh snow on the mountains didn’t seem to be that much further higher than we were already and yet we still had another 1000+ metres to the summit.
We were sort of pleased when the road switched so that we were on the bank side rather than the side that looked over the mountainside with not a lot to stop you crashing down should you miss a turn while viewing the scenery all around.
Then the road reached the level where the fresh snow was on the roadside having being swept clear probably only that morning after the front had passed through.At every opportunity we stopped to take more and more photos and video of the awesome scenery all around us.The outside temperature had dropped to 4C and we remarked how we had been melting in 30C+ only a couple of days earlier.
RR didn’t miss a beat as we climbed steadily further to make the summit at 2503 metres and entered a 300 metre tunnel to take us through to the other side of the mountain peak and even more spectacular scenery with a greater amount of snow on what was the northern face of the mountain.
Our brochure that came with our €28 sticker for RR told us that the best scenery was from this side and it was quite true and although the temperature was bitingly cold with a stiff breeze blowing we stopped frequently to take in the peaks and hanging glaciers,all of which were at close hand to where the road wound its way down the mountain.At some stopping points the view down to the valleys was as awesome as the ones out to the snow covered peaks with the drop to the floor being what seemed like kilometres!!
It was after 6pm by the time we made route #311 which would take us through to Bad Reichenhall and our apartment.We had spent nearly 3 hours on the alpine pass driving the 70 kilometres but it had certainly been an experience and worth all the €28 of the privilege in doing so.
The scenery on towards Lofer and beyond to our destination was pretty awesome as well with mountains all around although there was no snow at the levels visible from the road.We didn’t have time to take it all in and anyway we had already had a feast for greater part of the day which just got better and better as the afternoon wore on.We would probably pass back over part of this road when we head later in the week towards Innsbruck.
Finding our accommodation in the failing light was straightforward and for once we didn’t have to park RR to walk and find the street where the apartment was located.
The key was waiting for us on top of a letterbox at the door of the building and we realised that there was no reception area to check in to.
Our apartment had every comfort of home including a small dishwasher and we have an overn for the first time since Settle so bacon and eggs will be on the breakfast menu if the local store stocks it!!
It had been a long but very satisfying day with awesome scenery and well worth the €28 toll to take in scenery that equalled the Croatian coast and we opted for the local Gasthaus up the road for a feed of schnitzel,what else when you are staying on the German/Austrian border!!

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Photos

For drying the hay
For days we have been wondering about these structures and now we have found one with hay on it.

Comments

[Rin]

Wow....who thought you would encounter so much snow on your Summer European Adventure! Love the photo of Murry in the snow :-)