Hop, Skip & Jumping across countries

During the night I looked out our hotel window to see a layer of snow in the mall at Innsbruck – but by morning there was none left on the ground – the only real evidence was the piles of snow of the roofs of the Christmas Market stalls. But in my walk across town to pick up the hire car you could see plenty of other evidence. And finally the car itself had plenty of snow on it.

That snow was just the start of a day full off snow and temperatures that got as low as minus16 (mind you we were in the car at that point and neither of us intended to stick our noses out the window to feel what it was like). However temperatures in the range minus 6 to minus 11 were common for most of the day. Apparently all of Europe is going through a cold snap at the moment with temperatures up to 7 degrees below average. However we also had a top temperature for the day of 19 degrees – but that was at the halfway point in a 15km long tunnel so probably doesn't really count.

With some of the parking fees we have had to pay on this trip it was a pleasant surprise to find that the parking station in Innsbruck didn't charge for the first hour, so I was able to park, load up the car and even do a couple of other things without it costing us.

First stop for the day was across the border into Lichtenstein – you have to be quick because when you do cross the border you have only about 10km before you drive out the other side into Switzerland. Lichtenstein is a principality of about 30,000 people spread across 11 towns, with the capital Vaduz having a population of only 5,000. Even our guide book struggles to nominate a day's worth of activities there so includes bathroom breaks and discussions with tourist office staff as part of a suggested 1-day itinerary. Anyway, we settled on driving into Vaduz, parking and having a very quick look around which included seeing the palace which is quite obvious being halfway up the mountain overlooking the town.

Then it was off toward Germany, but the route took us briefly into Switzerland and Austria again. Once we got into Germany we turned off the major roads and headed west toward a town called Fussen which is the start of the so-called Romantic Road up through Germany. The Romantic Road is so-named because in summer it goes through a region abundant with sunflowers and vineyards and hills dotted with almost 100 castles. At Fussen were the first 2 castles, both built by King Ludwig II (Ludwig the Mad), with the more famous one being Konigsschlosser. It apparently was the inspiration of Disney's Cinderella Castle.

Traveling to Fussen was along minor roads up and down through foothills covered with snow and even through a couple of towns with skiing facilities. The traffic was fairly light and it was great to just be seeing the country rathr than rushing along an autobahn. But after Fussen it was starting to get dark and we still had around 90km to go to our nights accommodation, so it was onto an autobahn to watch the km's slip away rather than to watch the scenery. We are staying in a town called Altenstadt in a very nice hotel, but on arrival we were greeted by the comment 'you're the Australians' – obviously visits from folk from down-under are not a common occurrence. And after tea at their associated restaurant (which is across the carpark) we came back and had to unlock the front door of the hotel (the 'manager' was helping in the restaurant) and there was a minibus load of people who had just arrived. We let them into the foyer, with Cathy holding the door open for them as the manager rushed across – and she said to Cathy 'thanks Australia'.