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Our drive today was supposed to take only about two hours, so with some useful information given to us by our hosts we decided to explore the surrounding area of Northern Italy before crossing the border into Austria.
After saying farewell to our very large apartment we drove the short distance to Misurina deep in the Italian Dolomite Mountains. The views were spectacular and the drive was very stop-start to allow for photos. Arriving at Misurina we were quite overwhelmed by what we saw. There was a beautiful lake surrounded by hotels with a backdrop of these incredible mountains. On the way back to the highway we stopped at a World War 1 cemetery, Nassawand, where over 1200 markers represent fallen soldiers. This was the front line for Austria defending their country against the Italians. Many who died did so as a result of cold, rock falls, and disease. The cemetery remained forgotten for many years until recently when an Austrian woman took a strong interest in the site and now it is quite a beautiful resting place for these soldiers who may be forgotten in their home land.
Rather than cross into Austria by the usual route, E66, we chose
a more interesting route, over Passo Stalle. The scenery was great with small lakes surrounded by spruce and at one point we passed the venue for the 2012 Winter Olympics Biathlon Event. Crossing the pass from Italy can only be done on the half hour to three-quarter hour so we had some time to kill. When the light went green the bikers were off followed by us up a zig-zag road to the 2052 metre summit and Austria.
The drive through to Lienz was very pleasant. We took the turn to Route 100 without any problem and continued ready to turn right onto Route 110 and then Route 111 to our hotel. Easy, isn’t it. At some point we thought it was time to put the GPS into action. Immediately she had us U turning and taking a right turn up a steep zig zag hill. From our map the route was going into wilderness territory but who are we to argue even if we started to wonder where we were going as there were no roads in the area on our map. The road was narrow (in many places one lane) and twisted and turned for at least 40
kilometres. We passed through little hamlets and saw many farmers gathering hay with the use of large hand rakes. After about an hour and a half we arrived at our hotel feeling quite bewildered about how we got there but very relieved.
Sitting quietly in our hotel room we got the road map out and studied our route. Way back at Lienz we turned left onto Route 100 instead of right. This simple error was the reason for our state of confusion during the drive. Looking back on our little adventure the driving was quite exciting and the scenery fabulous. Something we would have missed if we had taken the right turning in the first place. And so the adventures continue.
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