Sunday 30 May

Normally we would have today as a free day but being a Sunday and out of season I have decided to take the group to the Kaunertal. This is a high mountain road with summer ski-ing at the top and a nice restaurant to enjoy lunch.
Leaving the hotel at 10:00 we shall be at the top by 12:00, spend a couple of hours there and then back by 16:00. A nice ride out.
I wake up to heavy rain and very low clouds. This in itself is not a good as visibility will be bad, not what you want on a mountain drive. Also when it rains like this in Nauders you can bet it issnowing higher up. I really don't fancy driving the Kaunertal in the snow when we can do it another day when the sun is out (hopefully!). I have snow chains with me and do not mind driving in the snow but doing it up 30 hairpin bends doesn't appeal too much.
I speak to Patricia and her young man Christian and they kindly check on the internet and it is indeed snowing at Kaunertal.
I ask them to check the weather for Samnaun, our other short day, and the forecast is a bit better. The only problem is that the shops do not open until 13:00!
Samnaun is a beautiful Swiss village that has a tax free status enabling it to sell all manner of goods at tax free prices. Seeing that most of the items for sale are designer goods then it is a bit out of my league even without the tax. Alcohol and perfume are good buys as is fuel but not until one o'clock!

So we do what anyone would do in this situation, we pop into Italy for a couple of hours! The border is only 5km away and we drive to the pretty town of Glurns which is surrounded by a city wall that I think was once an aquaduct.
Just as we leave Nauders I realise I have forgotten to fill up with fuel so have to do this soon after leaving the hotel. I may have enough to reach Samnaun and its cheap fuel but then again I might not and that would be expensive.
We reach Glurns at 11:00 and stop for an hour. The sun is out when we arrive.
Once everybody is off I drive a couple of miles to Malles Railway Station to sort out tickets for our train ride on the Val Venosta Railway on Tuesday. There is no ticket office and all tickets have to be purchased from a ticket machine that doesn't recognise groups. I don't really want to be buying 27 individual tickets with my card as it will take forever. I decide to sort this out tomorrow via either the internet, tourist office or Charly!
Back in Glurns there is both heavy rain and bright sunshine, sometimes at the same time.

Leaving here at midday we drive back over the Reschen Pass to Nauders and on to Samnaun. The ride to Samnaun is gorgeous and the cloud stays high enough for all to enjoy the scenery. It really is quite high in places.
I park in the coach park and give the passengers the best part of three hours to enjoy this pretty but unusual town.
The nearest restaurant to the coach is the Hotel Post and this is where I decide to have my lunch.
This place must be the headquarters of the pretty people. A beautiful blonde lady, who I presume is the owner, is walking about with a young child and she is stunning. Then there is the waitress who served me and she is a dark haired lady but no less stunning! I feel quite ugly! The food wasn't bad either!
Back at the coach I have a fiddle about with my recently acquired Sat Nav. I bought this system a couple of weeks ago and haven't used it yet so I decide to set it up for the drive home. This way if it is not giving me correct directions then I can ignore it as I know the way back. It is not too difficult as there are only two roads back to Nauders.
We are away by 15:45 and by 15:50 I have switched the Sat Nav off! I must have programmed it incorrectly as it doesn't seem to agree with my way back.

Once back in the hotel I go to my room to write this blog and do some work on the computer but for the life of me I cannot get the internet set up. All I should be doing is connecting the cable that is in the room and then put in the code Patricia has given me and off we go, but we don't move anywhere.
I speak to Patricia and am given another code but this doesn't work either.
Soon I have Charly in my room with Patricia's laptop connected to the internet but he can't get a connection even after pressing just about every button on the laptop! Patricia appears, as does Dagmar (Charly's eldest), at one point but however many times Charly presses something on the computer nothing works! We even try my laptop in another room but that is no good either.
Soon I am in the room with Christian who seems to understand the computer a bit more than Charly. He tries lots of things to no avail when suddenly we are connected! I don't know how he did it, and I don't think he does, but we are now sorted!
Time for a beer before dinner!