Shakespeare, Skype and Squeaking Marmots!

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As well as being a great German compound noun, the Grossglocknerhochalpenstrasse (or ‘big bell high Alp street’), is one of the main routes through the Austrian Alps towards Italy. The road opened in 1935 and was one of the first built specifically with tourism in mind.

At 28 euros to drive along, it’s not just the road that’s steep! But we’d been looking forward to the journey for some time and it certainly didn’t disappoint. It’s an amazing drive with countless hairpin bends, tunnels and stunning mountain views.


The road is completely blocked by snow from November to May, but there was just enough left at one of the highest points of the road for a small crowd to gather and throw snowballs at each other.


One of the main stopping points is the Swarovski Observation Tower, a glass observatory furnished with telescopes that give you a close-up view of the nearby Pasterze Glacier and Austria’s highest mountain, the Grossglockner. There’s also some rather sobering information on how the glacier has shrunk over the past 75 years. There are lots of marmots up here, which make a high pitched squeeking sound and look a bit like a badger sized hamster!


The road ends in the picturesque village of Heiligenblut; so named because the church is reputed to hold a relic of the Holy Blood.


The next day we crossed the border into Italy, a country we’ve wanted to explore for some time and which first made us think about going on the road.

We spent our first week in the Dolomites, a region of huge mountains made of pale rock which gives them a striking, almost lunar feel. We dusted off the walking boots and managed a couple of decent walks.




The paths in the area are extremely popular and were filled with walkers from different countries... with their NORDIC WALKING POLES!! One of the walks took us up to the base of the Tre Cime di Laveredo, a strange mass of rock with three sharp peaks, and the nearby refuge. Refuges give hikers somewhere to sleep so they can complete high level walks without having to drop back down to lower levels. They’re more like a basic hotel than the rickety old shack you might imagine!


While in Cortina we had a chat on Skype with some friends who dared to have a get together in London without us! It was great to see them all in Sharon’s kitchen. We’re often quite loud when we get together: let’s hope the campsite didn’t mind overhearing our raucous conversation.


We left Cortina on the Great Dolomite Road, another amazing mountain road with a number of high passes and stunning views. We stopped halfway along at the Falzarego pass and, after another walk, decided to stay the night. Waking up on August bank holiday Monday to a blizzard was quite odd! It snowed for a good hour and there was quite a covering.




After the cold of the mountains, arriving at the northern shores of Lake Garda and being able to strip down to T-shirts and shorts again was quite a relief! Garda is Italy’s largest lake at 52km; so large that it actually alters the local climate making it milder and sunnier.


The road that runs down the western shore of the lake is quite amazing. Much of the first few miles from Riva del Garda is in tunnels, which give only an occasional glimpse of the lake. The tunnels are quite narrow so meeting a coach coming the other way can be quite exciting!


It’s easy to find picturesque villages with amazing views further down the lake, such as Gargnano and Salo with their beautiful lakefront promenades. Charlie loves swimming and took the opportunity to practice her diving here...



Verona was the first Italian city we visited. The city centre is beautiful, with its bustling cobbled streets and piazzas, impressive Roman arena and more modern(!)Romanesque buildings.


Shakespeare and opera are the big draws here. Although he never visited, Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet in the city (the Montagues and Capulets are based on real families). Juliet’s balcony is one of the busiest places in town. You can queue to have your photo taken on it, if you don’t mind a couple of hundred people watching you from below.


The Roman arena is an impressive site; the third largest of all Roman amphitheatres and now the host of a famous opera season every summer renowned for its staging of Aida.


In fair Verona we also gave a wide berth to the overwhelming number of nightmares that are ‘living statues’! Quite why these people feel the need to paint themselves silver, create a tent-like costume from an old bedsheet, and terrorise innocent tourists is anyones guess.


After a quick stop at the pretty fortified town of Soave (wonder why we stopped there!), we headed on to a wild camping place we’d heard about near Venice. And it turned out to be just perfect!

Breakdowns, blimps and beer halls

View August 11th - 21st 2010 in a larger map

We said our goodbyes to David’s parents on 11th August and set off for Lake Constance. We ran out of petrol 10 minutes later! We were mortified! We were on a fairly busy main road and only able to half pull onto the verge, so we were a bit of an obstacle to the lorries that came roaring past. Luckily we’d come prepared, and our little red warning triangle was quickly positioned a few hundred yards back along the main road.

Having called international rescue, a German RAC wagon soon arrived and towed us to the local petrol station. The driver, a rather large and abrupt German chap, gave David a good telling off on the way for driving in the red! Which you’re not supposed to do apparently! Anyway, it turns out we were lucky. The engine started first time once we’d filled up, so we managed to avoid any further work. Phew!

Soon after, we arrived at Lake Constance and headed along the northern banks. Three countries have a border along this lake – Austria, Switzerland and Germany. It’s huge and feels more like the sea, with ferries criss-crossing the lake between the major towns along its shores.


We stopped at Friedrichshafen to visit the Zeppelin museum. Count Zeppelin developed, manufactured and launched his airships from here between 1900 and around 1940. The town became a departure point for international travel with people flying to Rio de Janiero for example, in just 12 days. The best part of the museum is a mock up of a section of the Hindenburg. You climb up the boarding ladder to enter the main lounge and guest rooms which were like those on a cruise ship. Airships fell out of favour after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, but the American navy continued to work on them right into the 1960s after developing the technology during World War 2.

Heading east we reached Bavaria’s most spectacular scenery and home to some of its most popular tourist destinations. We started by rocketing down a hillside on Germany’s longest summer toboggan run at Alpsee! Great fun!


Our next stop was Fussen, and the famous castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. These fairytale castles were built by ‘Mad’ King Ludwig II in the 19th century and are perhaps Bavaria’s most iconic images. Neuschwanstein, with its turrets and stunning mountain setting, provided the inspiration for Disney’s famous Cinderella castle.


To say they were busy would be an understatement. We parked just outside the village and cycled up to the castles past the massive queue for tickets (we’d decided by this point that we wouldn’t go in). Just beyond the castles is Marienbrücke, a footbridge which crosses the gorge above the castles and provides some amazing views. The little bridge was packed so it made for quite a hair-raising experience!


Munich is Germany’s third city and regularly tops surveys about the best place to live on the planet. We spent four days there and loved it. We really enjoyed wandering around the city centre with its fantastic architecture, and sampling the tasty German food sold at the outdoor market. The campsite there was great; close to a Metro station, a 15 minute cycle from the city centre, and surrounded by parkland and canals.


Munich was the home of the Nazi party, so it was completely destroyed during World War 2. The city has since been completely rebuilt and its amazing 19th century buildings returned to their former glory.


The nightlife is renowned so we felt we had to sample a few of the bars. To mark 6 months away we had a night in one of the oldest and most famous beer halls, the Hofbrauhaus. It’s a great experience. You sit at long wooden tables and share them with whoever turns up. The hearty German food is great – not to mention the beer. The problem is that the beer is available in 1 litre glasses and it's very difficult to resist them! It’s a jolly good job we didn’t get drunk before cycling back to the campsite!




We hopped over the border into Austria then to visit Salzburg. Famous for its architecture, Mozart, and The Sound of Music, we came to hunt down Sachertorte! If you’ve never tried it, you must! It’s a rich chocolate cake with apricot jam filling which takes its name from the hotel in Vienna where it was invented. There’s a recipe for it in our guide book - if only we had an oven!!

The best place to stay was just over the border in Germany so for a couple of days we hopped back and forwards over the border. Salzburg is a city with a beautiful historic centre which we really enjoyed investigating for a couple of days.


At this point we started our journey south, heading for Italy. Obersalzburg, a tiny village in the German Alps, was our first stop. One of the most scenic areas of Germany and a popular tourist destination since the 19th century, it’s now infamous as the site of Hitler’s holiday home. In fact, the locals were all driven out so the area could be developed, with holiday homes built for a number of the Nazi elite.

Most of the buildings were destroyed during or after the Second World War. The area was only handed back to Germany by the USA during the 1990s, and a museum now occupies the site which graphically documents the rise of Hitler and the Nazi movement. The final sections of the museum are underground, in some of the surviving bunkers that once ran through the whole hillside.

Buses leave the museum and head up a steep mountain road for the Eagles Nest, a building which only avoided the American dynamite because of the work of the local Mayor. After a stunning ride, you’re dropped at the entrance to a tunnel in the mountainside. This leads to a lift that whisks you up into the building which sits at 1,834 metres on a rocky ridge and has glorious views of the surrounding countryside.


The Eagles Nest was a tea house built by the Nazi party as a gift for Hitler on his 50th birthday. It was rarely used by Hitler himself as he was scared of heights and aerial attack. The building is now a restaurant which left rather a bad taste in our mouths. While the museum at the bottom of the hill was very quiet, the restaurant, which bears few reminders of its history, was full of people laughing and enjoying a meal. It all felt just a bit wrong to us, although there’s no doubt that the setting was amazing.


Another thing that seemed completely wrong to us was the use of Nordic walking poles!! Everyone we saw walking in Germany and Austria seemed to have a set of the bloody things. Why? Mountaineers, we could understand. Fat women in awful leggings on their way down the high street, we couldn’t! And generally speaking, the walking pole bearer has no spacial awareness and will quite happily take an eye or chunk of leg out of anyone who happens to be passing! On the other hand, we did pass a couple of boards displaying walking pole exercises which we found quite amusing!


Our last stop in Germany was the fjord-like Lake Konigsee, one of the most photographed lakes in Germany. We took a boat ride to the far end of the lake and then walked on to Obersee, a small lake beyond it where you can see Germany’s highest waterfall. During the boat trip one of the crew blew his horn at a mountain to demonstrate the amazing echo. Quite impressive!


And so ended a great visit to Germany - we hope to be back next year to explore some more of it. Next time – the Grossglocknerhochalpenstrasse! Try saying that after a couple of beers!