Switzerland

Tues: Left Berchtesgarden to travel to Salzburg. It would be the most unfriendly tourist place so far, Couldn't even find the tourist bureau, so we checked out Mozart's house, just another house, and carried onto Innsbruk. On the way, as we are using the backroads, we went through some amazing villages, the ambience and character is indescribable. The train to Vienna was a 5.5 hour trip (500Kms) so we gave that a miss and stayed in Innsbruk - nice place. The tourist bureau booked us into a Zimmer (B&B), the room was creepy, smelly and 4 flights of stairs, cancelled the booking and went to the Zillerton Apartments which were very cosy. Visited several touist spots including the 1972 winter olympics ski jump (Bergisel) - amazing!



Wed: We revised our plan of attack and decided to go to Italy for lunch - BIG mistake!!!! Nobody told us we had to go over a mountain pass, 2211 m at the highest point. Got stuck in a snow storm, the roads were winding, windy & scary, car and trucks sliding down the slopes, one truck missed us by a bees dick....



We travelled from Austria, to Italy and ended up in Switzerland, travelled 220Km.s and took us 6 hours, ave less than 40 Km/H and it rained all day. Finally arrived in a village called Staila, about 1800 m ASL, which is in the heart of the ski area of Switzerland, not far away from Klosters. It wasn.t cheap, cost us 300 swiss francs for dinner, bed & breakfast, (about 290 aus dollars), but the scenery from our window was worth every cent, surrounded by huge snowcapped mountains.



Thu: The roads over the pass to get to Liechenstein were closed due snow, so the hotel manager suggested we put the car on the train and go under the pass, this we did, 18 swiss franc, the tunnel was 17Km.s long and saved us about 80 Km and 2 hours of winding snow covered roads. Had lunch at Liechenstein, guess where - McDonalds, two chicken burgers and medium drinks - 28 dollars AU! It.s 3:00pm local, now heading off to Zurich and Mount Palatis.