Author: Keith

Day nine – Seefeld to Konstanz

Distance today – 291 km	Journey time – 5h 15m
Total trip distance – 2,781 km	Total journey time – 1d 21h 20m

The plan for the day included numerous border crossings, and 4 countries – starting in Austria we’d transit the Hahntennjoch pass, into Switzerland, then briefly into Lichenstein, before returning to Switzerland and finally into Germany for our next overnight stay at Konstanz.

Of course we started with a huge buffet breakfast, taking part in what we missed out at dinner the night before. The hotel really was a long way from what we’d expect given the cost, and the decor once again failed to impress. We gave some strong feedback at check-out – the receptionist thanked us and apologised for the appalling welcome and smoke-smelling room (I think she meant it too).

On the road again, the scenery of this part of Austria was stunning. Lots of mountains, churches and windy roads as we avoided the faster motorway routes to pick up the road to the Hahntennjoch.

As we neared the Hahntennjoch the weather deteriorated rapidly. Rain turned to snow, which became heavier and as we climbed was settling on the ground and road in more places. The route was incredible though – continually twisting, turning roads, narrow lined with trees, then occasionally a glimpse of the mountains shrouded in cloud. Probably the prettiest route so far.

From here we continued on to a road which took us through a number of ski resorts including Lech, equally snowy and even narrower in places.

From here we travelled for an hour or so towards Lichtenstein, a tiny land-locked country of only around 40,000 inhabitants bordering Austria and Switzerland. A quick stop allowed for a cake, and a visit to two tourist attractions. The “Landesmuseum” contained a variety of things related to the country from nature to information on their part in the Second World War to archaeology. It was mostly interesting but the majority of the displays were annotated in German, which meant looking but not reading for the most part.

The “Treasury” was more interesting, containing some incredible Fabergé eggs. However strictly no photos were allowed. To get into the attraction you were given a coin, which gained you entry to an airlock space – for security I guess!

Before leaving we sent postcards to the children, from the tourist information office – staffed by a lady from Northampton who’d lived in Lichtenstein for 33 years!! And parking was free – all weekend, every weekend, apparently!!

Back across the Swiss border we headed to our next hotel. This place really smashed it. On arrival the concierge took all our bags straight from the car to our room (even hanging our coats in the wardrobe), I parked the car in the garage under the hotel (as the concierge wasn’t keen on parking a right hand drive car….fair enough!) and we were met in reception with sparkling wine from the receptionist. Once checked in, he took us to our room, giving us a tour of our home for the next 2 days before letting us know when we were ready he’d take us on a tour of the hotel. Whilst unpacking we had a ring from our doorbell and a hotel worker offered us petit-fours to add to the chocolates and apples that were already in the room.

We returned to reception straight away, for our guided tour, keen to see what was on offer. What a hotel and great welcome experience, probably one of the best we’ve ever had.

Once rested and showered we headed to dinner. The Michelin 2 star restaurant was closed (staff holiday!), but their other restaurant was not. Incredible food, probably the best we’ve had so far this holiday.

Day eight – Pontresina to Seefeld

Distance today – 270 km	Journey time – 4h 55m
Total trip distance – 2,490 km	Total journey time – 1d 16h 05m

Today would take us to the farthest point of our road trip, an Austrian ski resort called Seefeld-in-Tirol. We decided to start the day with some exercise, however decided that -4 degrees Celsius was not the temperature for running at moderate altitude, so after breakfast opted for a walk in our big coats instead. Jo was initially quite irritated as her birding app couldn’t hear any tweeting due to the noise of the nearby river) but eventually it worked and she heard something that pleased her – probably a sparrow, or a golden eagle, or something equally feathery.

We set off a little later than normal, stopping for fuel (in Switzerland you have to donate a kidney with each tank of petrol) and went into a supermarket for fruit for the car – we’re being very good with our car snacks, only fruit is allowed. However Jo did find the chocolate aisle….

Once replenished with fuel and fruit we headed off. It was a simple route today – direct to Seefeld via a castle on a hill and a glacier, both out and back diversions from the main route. The first part of the journey took us down the Engadin valley, which was where Pontresina was and seemingly stretched a very long way towards and into Austria with the border running along the river at the bottom. There were roads either side (both Austrian and Swiss) though the other side looked slightly more precarious than ours. Another border crossed into Austria and we stopped briefly at Schloss Tarasp, a castle perched on top of a hill. We arrived too early for the daily 1 hour afternoon slot tourists could visit (we hadn’t planned to stop though).

Our next stop was the Kaunertal glacier. All we knew was that there was a road which went alongside a glacier until you could go no further, from where you’d turn around and come back. We didn’t expect a toll gate at the entrance – €28 paid. From here we wound slowly upwards, from about 1,200m at the gate to 2,750m at the farthest point, taking around 30 minutes.

After an entertaining driving road, we found a huge dam wall, behind which was a large bright blue lake. We’re not clear why the water was being retained, as there was no hydroelectric power station or any obvious sign of water coming from the dam – which was just a huge rocky barrier.

We kept going up, and up. The road became narrower and twistier until we arrived at the end. There was a ski resort! Cable cars, lifts, a big restaurant, a ski shop, it was all there! We’d met very few cars on our way up, but in the car park were probably 200 cars with loads of skiers enjoying the snow. The views were pretty spectacular too.

Whilst here we decided to get a hot chocolate, which turned into a hot chocolate and a slice of strudel and custard. Unfortunately we failed to use the correct cup for the hot chocolate…an Austrian restaurant assistant didn’t look too impressed, but removed our mess, replaced the cup, and filled a correctly sized vessel for us. The strudel was excellent…unfortunately it cost almost €10. Jo tells me she didn’t get much hot chocolate – I thought she needed to pay more attention to playing her part in the activity of sharing.

On the way back down the glacier, the views were incredible, and we stopped a few times to take more pictures.

Once back through the toll gate we returned to the route and headed on to Seefeld. The weather had begun to deteriorate and the rain came again, which probably helped clean the car a little.

On arrival at the next hotel we unloaded and checked in – unfortunately not a great start as the receptionist didn’t seem that interested in us. He didn’t explain anything about the hotel, or ask if we wanted to book dinner, or how the spa worked, or where the lift to our room was. We were on the top floor in one of 5 rooms, but only one lift took us there – something he failed to tell us, and which we found out the hard way. Unimpressed Krumers Alpin, you’ve failed the basic guest test and will be judged accordingly.

Once we eventually found the room, it was pleasant enough. In contrast to the communal areas of the hotel which were very modern, the room was very old-school hotel, like something we would have stayed in 30 years ago. The room, probably like all hotel rooms in Austria, smelled lightly of cigarettes. In fact the hotel has its own Smoking Room in the bar area – bit backward this place!! But the view from the room was excellent.

Before dinner Jo went for a swim and a sauna – but the clothed “textile” sauna, not the naked sauna. We headed to the bar for a drink, then dinner. The waitress was pushing the 5 course buffet dinner – but for us this would have been far too much food, so we picked from the very short a la carte menu. The waitress did seem slightly confused, but I explained we were eating out in numerous locations for weeks and didn’t want to eat that much. She seemed to understand. The food was good – I had wiener schnitzel and Jo has sea bass. No dessert, despite the €13 dessert buffet offered to us (it was a vast selection!!)

Day seven – Pontresina

Distance today – 218 km	Journey time – 5h 10m
Total trip distance – 2,220 km	Total journey time – 1d 11h 10m

We went to bed having looked at the passes for day seven, to prepare ourselves for more closures given the snowfall the evening before. It didn’t look great.

When we woke, and checked again, everything was open! Lots of warnings of snow and ice on the road, but everything was open. And we had winter tyres, so snow and ice are meaningless to us.

A cracking view from bed awaited us, then breakfast – a good selection of really good quality fare. They even had a machine you inserted your plate into, for it to deposit a roundel of fresh butter.

Something like 5 hours in the car was planned, taking in a host of passes – Bernina, Livigno, Stelvio, Umbrail, Fuorn (aka Offen) and Flüela. We set off earlier than normal as we had a plan for the late afternoon. The first couple of passes took us through various ski resorts, and a lot of roadworks which kept cars and lorries together in groups.

A lucky stop happened early on, in the Bernina pass, where we stopped to look at the view and saw two photographers with kit set up on tripods, obviously waiting for something. Turns out we’d arrived about 3 minutes before the hourly train crossed the pass. Spectacular!

Bernina and Livigno passes:

With the Bernina and Livigno passes done, it was onto the main event, the Stelvio. The road was incredible leading up the valley, criss-crossing in famous fashion, before summiting at Stelvio. On the way up the roads were really narrow in places, and we came across 8 or so BMW test mules being taken back down the pass, towards us. They were hard to distinguish because of their camouflage markings, but likely new 7-Series test platforms given their size. And fully electric. They waved at us as we passed by.

As we neared the summit the snow appeared and the roads got really icy, then covered in snow for the last kilometre or so. I have to say, the winter tyres were excellent. There was some movement, but not much. It was only slightly worrying coming back down when there were no barriers. Once at the top the snow was really deep, and the road over the other side was closed – impassable for a fair distance. We had planned to descend and come back up, but not today. Another to save for another time.

Stelvio pass (2 parts!):

From here we retraced our stops to the top of the Umbrail Pass, which was treacherous at the top but quickly cleared and turned into a pretty and green Alpine valley. Then the Fuorn Pass (also known as the Offenpass), which was equally green. The final pass of the day was Flüela, which was a lot snowier than any of the others that day.

Umbrail pass:

Fuorn pass:

Flüela pass:

Once back at the hotel we quizzed the staff about using our free rail and cable car tickets (as residents of the hotel) to take us up the Diavolezza, a 4,000m+ peak with a glacier. The plan was to take the train from Pontresina (the same red one we saw that morning) to the cable car, around 20 minutes away, get the cable car to the summit, then once we’d had a look we’d reverse the journey.

The first challenge was getting the train. The station near the hotel was an “on request” stop which meant we had to press a button no earlier than 15 minutes before the train arrived, which would signal it to stop. No way would we have worked that out without the help of some German-speaking tourists!!

Whilst waiting we saw a helicopter, a train travelling in the other direction and Jo found lots of birds to listen to/look at.

Our train was packed, but we got seats and snapped photos of mountains out of the window, until we arrived. We think the cable car was used to take large volumes of skiers to the summit from where they would ski down to Livigno, St Moritz, etc…. given the car park we saw was huge.

A ride to the top took 12ish minutes, enough time to get a good view. The car itself could hold 102 passenger plus the “driver”, a maximum of 8.4 tonnes. There were only a dozen of us.

Once at the top we discovered it was -7 degrees Celsius and windy, so we had a quick look and caught the next cable car down (they leave every 20 minutes, so we were outside for less than 8 minutes!!).

The return train journey was a lot nicer, as we found the bike carriage and had it almost to ourselves! Views out of both sides allowed a lot more photos to be taken! At one point the train turns a full 180 degrees – very sharply!

Once back at the hotel we went via the (very dirty) car to collect our washing, and began the process of replenishing our clean clothes. Whilst waiting we had early starters with a glass of wine, returning later for dinner. Then bed.

Day six – Vitznau to Pontresina

Distance today – 286 km	Journey time – 5h 05m
Total trip distance – 2,002 km	Total journey time – 1d 06h 00m

After the best shower so far, and breakfast that didn’t need to be weighed, a route replan was necessary.

Travelling into the mountains at this time of year carried a significant risk that early snowfall would close some of the passes, and unfortunately a couple on our route had been shut for this reason. So we headed south from Vitznau, missing our turn at Wassen, on to Andermatt from where we picked up the planned route again. Sustenpass will have to wait for another trip!

The weather was really bad – heavy rain and freezing temperatures kept us inside the car, but first on the revised route was Oberalppass which took us up to 2,044m altitude and just above zero celcius. We saw the red lighthouse which marks the source of the Rhine but didn’t stop.

Then lunch. We needed a stop for fuel, so found a supermarket which had a nice looking café, serving soup and cake, so Jo had what she says was a conversation entirely in German (I’m doubtful, and suspect a lot of pointing was involved) to order.

Onto the next pass, which was a lot more exciting mostly due to the road being less than 2 cars wide for a good proportion! Albulapass is 2,312m at its highest point, and when we were at its peak it was snowing and very, very wet. We were lucky for most of the drive that we didn’t follow anything (a VW van was trying, and failing, to keep up), but those we did catch were passed very carefully.

Once safely at the bottom we then continued on to Pontresina, for our next hotel stop. The best hotel so far, but then it was considerably more expensive than all the previous stays. The view from the bedroom clearly added some CHF to the bill.

We had a short wander round the town once we’d unloaded the car, and it was clear a lot of the hotels were relatively old and owned by generations of (rich) families. The view of the mountain came and went as the clouds rolled in.

It turned out that it was very cold outside, so we were glad to get back to the hotel, and sat in the bar and had a glass of wine whilst it got darker and the snow began to fall. Heavily.

Onto dinner. We decided to stay in the hotel since a) it was snowing and b) it was cold outside and c) the menu looked good. And it was. We had two local dishes: a meat and cheese platter, and a sort of pizza. It came with a bowl of what Jo thought was apple sauce, which she spread thickly on her bread, loaded her cheese and took a bite. It was fig mustard. For dessert we had ice cream. The smallest pot in the world, yours for only CHF 6.00 – about £5.70. Oh, and the tap water cost CHF 3.50. Thieving Swiss.