Fred's Road Trip to Greece
May & June 2019 – Driving from the UK to Greece and back
Sterzing

Mountain Driving – The Alps :: Οδήγηση στα Βουνά: Οι Άλπεις

The view from my hotel room in Sterzing

I got up this morning and had breakfast with Alison and Dieter at their house in Sindelsdorf.

After breakfast we got out the road maps; the 1995 UK road atlas so I could point out to them all the points of interest – Cirencester, Fairford, and the route I take to get to London to visit the family. We also got the iPad out and looked through some photos of the extended family in New Zealand.

At about 11, my time in Sindelsdorf was over. It was only what the Germans call a ‘Blitzbesuch’ (the German way of saying ‘flying visit’ – I think it sounds bette in German than it does in English) – but I enjoyed my visit to Bavaria.

This weekend has only been by second time in Bavaria: The last time was when I did a long weekend in Munich in 2014. I keep saying I’ll go back to Munich, I liked it a lot, but I haven’t made it yet.

It was pouring with rain so no fast driving today. There wasn’t that much Autobahn left anyway – less than 20 miles, then the motorway ends at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and it was single-carriageway mountain road driving until I met the Austrian Autobahn just outside Innsbruck.

It took me about an hour and a half to get to Innsbruck, where I stopped at the Ambras Castle for a walk about the castle and gardens. View more photos.

It was lunch time to I also went in to the cafe and had bacon dumpling soup with some bread for lunch – very filling!

Crossing from Germany in to Austria, the border wasn’t noticable but it does have a very different feel compared to Germany; Perhaps its because the road signs and markings are different to the ones I’m used to in Germany!

From Innsbruck it was a short drive to the Italian border and tonight’s overnight stop of Sterzing (Vipiteno in Italian), located in the Alps in South Tyrol, one of Italy’s 2 Autonomous German speaking provinces. Geographically I’m in Italy, but culturally I’m still in Austria. The language border is further South.

The village is very popular in the Winter, when skiers come to stay. Higher up there is still snow on top of the Alps, but it was too cloudy today to see that.

My hotel for the night is the Hotel Brenner, next to a truck stop on the motoreay but also accessible from local roads. It’a short drive in to the village itself, which is where I went for my dinner.

I might be in an ‘Austrian’ part of Italy, but as far as I was concerned, Italy is Italy – so for dinner tonight I went for a pizza. I have to say the South Tyrol accent was qite noticable at first in the restaurant, but the accent was toned down a bit after I started speaking (clearly I didn’t come across as local but I must have sounded German enough for them not to switch to English).

It was still pouring with rain and while I did get a couple of photos in the village centre, I did also buy a couple of post cards showing how it should look, if the Sun were to be shining.

I drove back to the hotel and put the TV on for a bit – It was only a short drive in terms of distance today but on single carriageway mountain roads – and in the rain – quite tiring.

A fair bit of driving tomorrow to get to Venice – The Sat Nav estimates 3hrs 22min but I will probably stop on the way. Rain is forecast here again tomorrow but once I get clear of the Alps I should find the Sun comes out…That’s the theory anyway!

For those in to Dashcam videos – here’s a selection of clips showing my drive through the Alps, condensed in to 15 minutes…

Gute Nacht.

FH.

Today’s Mileage: 102.2
Accumulative Mileage: 968.6

Journey Map

Sindelsdorf

Bavaria :: Βαυαρία

Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber

My first of 2 mornings in Bavaria started with a good breakfast in the hotel, various rolls with a choice of jam, ham, cheese, honey, etc, an egg, yoghurt – the normal German breakfast.

Today not as much driving as the last 2 days. The Sat Nav estimated I should be able to get to Sindelsdorf in under 3 hours. Sunday is also a good day to be driving on the Autobahn – no trucks!

Before I left Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber I went for a walk in the old town and a little way round the outside of the City Walls, signposted as the Tower Rail. Selection of photos below…

I had time to browse one of the tourist shops, and before getting on the road I sat in an Eiscafè with a nice cold drink. Then I got on the road – filling up with yet another tank of fuel (I’d got through 2 tanks in 2 days) before getting on the Autobahn.

The roads were quiet and free-flowing for most of the journey. There were 2 traffic jams, one on the A7 caused by roadworks, and one on the A8 just outside Munich – a car was on its roof in a field next to the Autobahn. A reminder that, while the accident rate is no higher in Germany than it is elsewhere in Europe, despite the higher speed, when things do go wrong they go badly wrong.

But that only added half an hour to the journey time the Sat Nav estimated when I set off from Rothenburg. I made up for lost time when the roads cleared; When the roads were clear, when traffic flow and speed limits allowed, I went fast. Going downhill I briefly got to a GPS speed of 183km/h (113.7mph according to Google) with an indicated speed on the dashboard of 119mph – and still people would overtake me as though I was standing still!

Getting round Munich was easy enough; From the start of the A95 at
the München-Kreuzhof interchange on the outskirts of Munich, it was a simple 30 minute drive to Sindelsdorf.

A few km after joining the A95 I went round a corner, got my first glimpse of snow-topped Alps less than 30 miles away, and at the same time it clouded over and started to rain.

I got to Sindelsdorf at 15:10 and despite the rain it was warm enough to sit on the (sheltered) terrace with a drink while we talked; I unloaded the car after the rain stopped.

In Sindelsdorf I stayed the night with Alison and Dieter; Alison is Grandad’s cousin, but until now we have never met. It is useful to know that there are little pockets of friends and relatives around the world where I can go and be welcomed by a friendly face.

For dinner we got the BBQ going to cook the beef and lamb (New Zealand influencing the choice of meat), then went in to the sitting room to watch the TV – Death in Paradise and Lewis (both dubbed in to German – It wasn’t the German which put me off, but rather the characters all having the wrong voices). This was followed by a bit of Tatort, the German Police drama which I watch in England (sometimes with and sometimes without subtitles), while we looked through the family photo album.

Tomorrow, I’m heading in to the Alps to stop at Innsbruck, in Austria, before continuing to Sterzing in South Tyrol – an German speaking region of Italy.

Gute Nacht.

FH.

Today’s Mileage: 182.6
Accumulative Mileage: 866.4

Journey Map

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