Written in the car:
Bringing along the ACER has really changed our travel modus operandi. Stuck in traffic on the Autobahn heading to Austria I can type out the blog post and upload it later. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to find a stray wireless signal along the way…

Our plan was to leave Munich around 10 a.m. and arrive in St. Anton for lunch. The best plans sometimes don’t work though. It started with Bridget, who was unable to get a signal outside the hotel. I had to walk a block and a half to a park before Bridget started to talk. And then we she finally did, she steered us in the wrong direction. Instead of telling us to go towards Salzberg, then south to Innsbruck  she was recommending going south to Oberammergau, then across the mountains through a switch-back road. It was snowing all last night and into the morning, and I thought the main road would be a safer option, so I programmed in a detour.

It was quite a pretty drive through small Bavarian towns, watching older Germans go cross country skiing and younger ones kite surfing on snowboards and skis through farmer’s fields. We even passed a small ski hill.

Traffic on the autobahn

Traffic on the autobahn

When we finally got onto the A8, traffic was backed up like rush on the Queensway during a bus strike. After going 6 km in about an hour, we decided to pull over at the Autobahn rest stop to buy our pass for the Austrian autobahn. It was yet another traffic jam. And that was just to get into the parking lot. We missed the parking lot turn off and ended up in the gas line. We didn’t need any, but while Rob sat in line I went in to buy the sticker. That line up was the fastest moving one I experienced. I went back out and told Rob I really needed to pinkeln. It was one of the pay machines and there were about 15 people ahead of me. It took about 15 minutes to get through the line because there were only THREE cubicles. Can you imagine hundreds of thousands of Germans, British and Dutch holiday makers all pulling over to relieve themselves, and that’s all you get.

So now we’re back on the autobahn, still 8km from our turn off that will take us into Austria, then we have to travel way over to the west side to reach our destination.

So while I’d like to blame Bridget for giving us bad directions starting off today, really I guess I should have listened to her. I’m sure we’d be over that mountain pass by now. Our estimated time of arrival keeps getting longer and longer.

We finally made to St. Anton around 4:30, stopped at the bigger grocery store on our way in, and have finished our unpacking. That didn’t take long with the small amount of clothes we brought.

Hani has updated our room with new duvet covers and a new chair. Across the street is a brand new chalet, for a British family. And down the hill from Hani, her sister’s place has been expanded. Well, it’s Valentine’s Day,  so we’ll be off for supper then to the Internet Café, this time bringing ACER along.

For supper, we stopped at the Fuhrmannstube. Initially the service was quite slow, no menu, no drinks. But then the owner stepped back into the picture and everything was good. Being Valentine’s Day, we opted to order and share our choices. Rob ordered the Austrian sausage plate, and I ordered a pork shin, with dumplings, sauerkraut and vegetables. We also had soup to start.

Pictures will follow tomorrow.