I went out to pick up a pizza dinner last night from a little place down the road called ‘Ali Babbas’. When I first walked in it looked like the fourty thieves were in residence. But it turned into an interesting experience. The guy that served me spoke English very well and asked me where I was from. And then while I was waiting for our pizza he was googling New Zealand and telling his mates in Turkish all about it. Then they would ask him questions in Turkish, he would translate to me and then back to them. They came up with the conclusion that New Zealand is to Australia, what Cyprus is to Turkey. A very funny and surreal experience to be having in the middle of the night, in an Austrian backstreet pizza shop. A little aside on the Australian theme, we have seen quite a few Tee Shirts here that say ‘There are no Kangaroos in Austria’. Sounds like an identity crisis.
We started the morning with a four course breakfast, well it was included in the price and we don’t like to shirk on these things. What we have enjoyed since we arrived in Austria is the ‘proper’ bread they have here. Justine refers to it as wholesome and healthy, whereas I like to think of it as ‘with lumps’. But it is great, very grainy and tasty, compared to the very sweet white breads that have been the only thing available to us until now.
Headed to Innsbruck and decided to go via the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse (National Park), which is reportedly one of the greatest scenic routes in the world. The first part of the journey was via autobahn. I have to say that it is rather disconcerting when you are doing 130 kph (yes that is the speed limit) and you get passed quite comfortably by a Fiat Bambina (one of those new Fiat 500s).
There was a little more scenery than most autobahns with high hills, covered with conifer forests, pockets of green fields scattered over them. I say ‘fields’ as the word ‘field’ or ‘meadow’ seems more applicable. Rather than the good ol’ kiwi ‘paddock’ which just seems so harsh, functional and industrial compared to what is fitting to this environment.
Soon after we got off the autobahn and onto the ‘real’ roads we noticed some parasails coming down in a field very close to the road, so we went back have a look. When we looked up to have a look we counted about 25 parasails in the air. This was a very approximate count as they were up so high that they weren’t much more than specks. However we don’t know what was happening up there or how they got there, because no matter how many were coming in to land, there were more appearing. It appeared to be some sort of popcorn machine just spitting them out from the peaks.
We were close to the Slovanian and Italian borders now but we were determined not to cross them this time. We saw a bridge going over the road and it was just packed with trucks moving slowly bumper to bumper. Trucks of all shapes and sizes, with barely inches between them And we thought “Oh no … it’s those bloody French truck drivers having one of their infamous strikes where they block the roads. But why are they here? That is all that we need.” But then we realized that the trucks were on a train. They looked like they were all loaded up with goods, and were being transported long distance. So that’s how they do it.
The fields became bigger and there became more of them as we progressed onto the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse. We would see a house (chalet), surrounded by a large field, that in kiwi land would be full of cattle or sheep, but not a sign of any stock was to be seen. Actually I tell a lie, we saw a huge herd … of about 10 cows eating hay by one of the houses. They seem to reserve the fields for haymaking. Perhaps the cattle are mostly inside and they feed them all year round. To us this just seems wrong and such an underutilization of the land, especially on days like today (over 30 degrees and blue sky).
They are haymaking here at the moment, something that they were doing in Tuscany two months ago, when we first arrived. Evidence of the fact that we are further north now. In many places they are doing the haymaking by hand. Not sure how they cut it but when we saw them they were raking it into piles with rakes by hand. It appears as if much of the landscape is now too steep for machinery. I certainly wouldn’t want to drive a tractor there.
We started doing some serious climbing. There are snow tipped mountains on either side of us. We passed some cyclists at 950 meter elevation and thought ‘Man, you’re keen’, at 2100 meters we started meeting patches of snow on the side of the road. We started our descent after hitting the highway peak at 2510 meters, with the mountains still majestically standing tall above us and still quite a bit of snow all around us. We stopped at the top and looked at the highest Austrian peak, standing at 3600 meters. This whole area is filled with comparible monsters. These aren’t hills, these are mountains of stone.
Coming down the other side we passed though village after village packed with postcard style chalets. Dark wood walls, tile roof, brightly flowered window boxes, little balconies. A prominent feature of all of the houses are the large stacks of firewood. An indication of just how cold it gets. If these houses were anywhere else they would look cheesy, but here … well, they just look like they belong, they look as they should be. This is Austria.
As we headed closer to our destination the sun began to dip and lose its intensity. With the haze that is all around us, the way was paved with row upon row of mountains appearing as great slabs of pastel colours, as if on an artist’s palette, receding into the distance.
We arrived in Innsbruck, well more accurately Rum where we are staying, after completing the tail end of our journey on the autobahn again. The scenic route does make for a long day of travel, but it was well worth it. One of the memories to be stored with us for years to come. If you are heading this way, just remember that there is a 28 Euro toll (in excess of the normal toll) for the privilege of traveling this piece of road. But don’t let that put you off, it was promised as the most scenic road in the world and we think it deserves that title.
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