{"id":300,"date":"2019-06-08T02:37:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T23:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/?p=300"},"modified":"2019-06-08T08:55:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T05:55:31","slug":"the-alps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/the-alps\/","title":{"rendered":"The Alps :: \u039f\u03b9 \u0386\u03bb\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It was warm and Sunny when I woke up in Italy this morning. So t-shirt and shorts it would be – even if I was about to go in to the Alps.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had 2 choices of route today. The quickest route would be on the motorway – that would mean going South to get on the motorway and turn North again once past Milano (Milan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatively I could take the scenic route – It would be a slower route, not meeting the motorway until well in to Switzerland – but it would be more fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just outside Corteno Golgi, Italy – shortly before the Swiss border (view to the South).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It took slightly more than an hour to get to the Swiss border. The Italian-Swiss border was the first land-border at which I had to show my passport. A Swiss customs official checked it and asked “Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” (Do you speak German?) – I replied “Ja, Ein Bisschen” (Yes, a bit) and he proceeded to ask me where I was going, was it just me in the car, was I in Switzerland for work or holiday, etc – before sending me on my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was impressed by the Swiss roads – they are good! Quite twisty and windy as you go over the Alps but in comparison to some of the Greek roads, not bad at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scenery was great. On the way to <\/em>Greece I’d followed the Brenner route, one of the lowest Alpine routes; Now I was getting high in to the Alps. I was following the Bernina Pass road<\/a>, one of the the highest routes through the Swiss Alps – it took me to an altitude of 2328m (7638ft) above sea level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Snow still on the ground in June!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The road is an excellent road to drive on – People were driving it in their sports cars (including a very nice looking Porsche on Russian plates), there were quite a few cyclists, and loads of Bikers – usually all stopped in groups at the view points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was still in my t-shirt and shorts when I stopped to take photos in the snow, and while it was definitely fresh outside I never felt cold. The car was boiling anyway (I drove with the window open most of the way), and at lower levels the temperature in the high 20s, so I wouldn’t have wanted to wear warm clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s journey also included taking my car on the train<\/a> between Sagliains and Klosters; Klosters is a ski resort apparently a favourite of the British Royal Family. At this point the local radio station (SRF 1) started playing music which didn’t sound too out of place in the Alps!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taking my car on the train<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, About 20 minutes from Vaduz, I reached the motorway – Vaduz, the main city in Liechtenstein had been somewhere I wanted to visit when I put this itinerary together. Vaduz doesn’t feel like a capital city; I parked at the Rheinpark football stadium – within walking distance from the centre but surrounded by farm land, with the Rhine river nearby; the Rhine forms the border between Switzerland and Liechtenstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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5 minutes walk from the centre of Vaduz (Capital of Liechtenstein) – It doesn’t feel like a capital city at all!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vaduz, Liechtenstein in the foreground – In the background, the Rhine forms the border with Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had a 2 hour stop in Vaduz which gave me time to have a drink, wander around the City Centre, and up to the castle<\/a> (the castle itself isn’t open to the public; it is the home of the Prince of Liechtenstein).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving Vaduz, I drove back in to Switzerland to get back on the motorway and soon after crossed in to Austria – My 4th country in one day! My destination was Bregenz, the capital of the Austrian State of Vorarlberg located on the Southern shore of Bodensee (Lake Constance); I arrived not long after 7pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the evening I wandered in to the centre of Bregenz where I found a Greek restaurant… Well, this is a Greek road trip after all, so why not!?! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have felt very at home being back in the German speaking world today, able to understand the language, and in particular I enjoyed eating at the Greek restaurant where I was able to switch from one language to the other (and back again) with no difficulties at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to head off to bed now – Got a long drive tomorrow to Boppard, but should have time to stop off in Stuttgart along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gute Nacht,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s Mileage: 187.5
Accumulative Mileage: 2984.4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journey Map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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I was impressed by the Swiss roads – they are good! Quite twisty and windy as you go over the Alps but in comparison to some of the Greek roads, not bad at all. … View Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,43,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-austria","category-liechtenstein","category-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}