WE WERE WARNED!! Hubert constantly warned us against travelling on a Saturday (especially in the school holidays). Now...we know why!!
I vow and declare that I will never, ever, complain about heavy traffic again. Not word of complaint will escape my lips if I am stuck in traffic from Auckland Airport, not a moan or groan about Melbourne footy traffic nor will I curse if I am stuck on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Australians and New Zealanders know nothing about heavy traffic!
2/ That's four lanes at a standstill!!
Today, we, along with the entire Dutch population decided to drive east through Europe. Leaving on Friday morning from Araches, it’s taken us 2 days and 16 hours of driving to travel less than 600km! Our route has taken us through Switzerland, Lichtenstein (can’t remember this part), Austria, Germany and back again into Austria. To top it off, it has been snowing heavily for almost all the journey. Yesterday was the start of the French (Paris), British and obviously, given the predominance of NL Number Plates on the road, - Dutch school holidays. The Autobahn from Munich, east to the Innsbruk turn off was at a standstill for most of the day. At its worst, it took us over an hour to travel 5 kilometres. That’s walking pace! Even when we decided to pull off the road for lunch at a petrol station, it took us over half an hour to negotiate the carpark!! It was chaos.
But you just gotta love those pragmatic dutchies! We met a nice man in the lunch stop who was travelling with his sons to a rented house in southern Austria. He had left Holland at 1:30am that morning. When we met him he had been travelling for 12 hours. He was laughing and cheerful and thoroughly delightful. We suspect he may have also been high on copious quantities of caffeine. But he certainly made us feel a bit humbled and shy about mentioning our stiff necks and sore backs.
3/ Andy's usual expression while a passenger!
Long distance car travel is not for me. I am not a good passenger at the best of times. When it is snowing heavily, you are doing 120km/hr just to stay with the flow of the traffic and there are still cars roaring past you at 150- 180km/hr – I am transformed by fear into a blithering mess. Poor Graeme. He is a very good driver and he has to suffer me slamming on the imaginary brake in the passenger seat. I also combine this with full body twitching routines, regular gasping and eye covering movements as we hurtle around bends or through long tunnels. Any time we have to slow for a stoppage, I reach for the hazard light button – conveniently located in the centre of the dashboard. After 8 hours of this, we are both wrung out physically and emotionally!!
4/ I've worn the triangle symbol off this button due to overuse!!
By 3 o’clock, our plans to reach Vienna were abandoned. Instead we opted for Salzberg. It’s been over 17 years since I last visited Salzberg and Graeme 30 years. We have forgotten the city's breathtaking beauty. The consummate European tourist town, Salzberg has every thing. Incredible history, scenery, groovy bars and restaurants and of course loads of interesting shops to tempt the Euros from your wallet. Of course being the lowest of low season, we found accommodation easy to find and good value. 72 Euro for a good double room with ensuite and breakfast. The hotel Weisse Taube (White Dove) where we are staying, is over 600 years old and has been run by the same family for 5 generations. We are enjoying our re-visit so much, I think that we'll stay another night. My nervous system needs another 24 hours to recover!! We’ll drive all the way through to Slovakia tomorrow and leave the exploration of Vienna until our return home.
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