I walk up to the bus just after seven and all is eerily
quiet. I have parked close to the hotel at the railway station and there is
nobody about! There are no buses or people or cars, which on a Monday morning
is very unusual.
I am torn about which way to go. Do I go into France and
down and then cut back into Germany to Karlsruhe or do I stay in Germany vis
Ludwigshafen to Karlsruhe. The first option in a little shorted but involves a
bit of driving off the motorway while the other is all motorway, which in
Germany means hold ups as they have an extreme amount of roadworks on their
motorways.
Or do I continue south into Switzerland and then across
into Austria? Whichever way I go it is a long day and I have to reach Innsbruck
one way or another!
Or do I go through Switzerland to Milan and across?!!
Dilemmas!!
I ask at reception and am told it is a public holiday in
Germany and everything is closed. Music to my ears is that! Less traffic on the
roads and no lorries, Fantastic! I’ll go through Germany, motorway all the
way!!
The motorways are very quiet and we have a great drive
through to our first stop at the service area
past Hockenheim Grand Prix circuit.
It has been raining heavily all morning but is now dry
and warm and will hopefully stay that way for the rest of the week!
From here we drive past Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Ulm to
our next stop at the Illertal services on the A7, not too far from the Austrian
border.
We time it just right as these are nice services but are
on the small side. We have no problem but soon after we arrive another two
coaches from Spain descend upon us and the queue is out the door!
When travelling in Austria a coach needs to have a Go
Box, which is a toll system the Austrians use. It is a good idea and save having
peages and queues at peages!
You have to buy this box that has a chip inside it with
the specific coach details on and put so much credit on it, much like a pay as
you go phone.
This coach hasn’t a Go Box so I have to buy one and am
able to do that here which will save me some time.
I go into the garage forecourt armed with the coach’s
logbook and purchase my box for €100. I then stick it to the inside of the
windscreen and everytime we pass under a radar it beeps. One beep means you are
in credit, two you have €35 credit left, three times you are out of credit and
four times you must top up within four hours of first four beeps!
We leave here at 13:40 and within an hour have crossed
the border into Austria and for the next 75km we are off the motorway and
driving over the Fern Pass. It keeps trying to rain but also the sun does show
its face every now and then so we can all enjoy the super scenery.
The only problem is I’m stuck behind two Italian camper
vans who go slow when they could go fast and go faster when the road is slower!
Once we reach the Austrian motorway we are twenty minutes
from Innsbruck and I pull into the excellent Pettnau services to again top up
with fuel and have a comfort break.
We leave the services and I get lost!! Well I take the
road out of the car park but it disappears into the hills and doesn’t go onto
the motorway! What a prat! I turn around, drive back to the coach park and then
take the exit for the motorway!
The rest of the journey is spectacular as we reach
Innsbruck and then take the Brenner Pass to Italy. This is a magnificent feat
of engineering with the motorway set high into the mountain and in many places
it is built up on stilts.
After twenty minutes or so we reach the Italian border
and it is all downhill from here. Literally! This must be the longest descent
in Europe.
We are still amongst the mountains but the scenery is
very different in Italy to Austria.
I have one more quick stop to call the hotel as we start
the final hour of our journey.
We arrive at our hotel, the Savoy Palace Hotel, at 19;06,
a journey of just over eleven hours. When we left this morning I anticipated
arriving at seven so am very happy with this. It was a bonus driving right
through Germany without any hold ups and at times was like driving on Christmas
Day.
I like this hotel and am very pleased to be back here.
It doesn’t take long to unload and sort everyone out and
I can park the bus here so have time for a quick shower before dinner at 20:15.
After dinner I go for a walk that doesn’t last long as it
starts to rain heavily again! I hope it will be fine tomorrow.
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