Austria and Grossglocknerstrasse
Country
Back on the road… From Zurich we turned east to S. Gallen, beautiful city close to the lake Constance (Bodensee), where I lived and studied 33 years ago, it was so nice too share these remembrances with Ale. In St. Gallen we visited the Swiss Milling School where, as a former student, the principal received us as old friends.
We turned south to Appenzell, one of the most typical Swiss towns and cheese production areas. The countryside between St. Gallen, Appenzell and Vaduz is very nice, lots of small roads as we love.
After passing along Lichtenstein without major comments, we entered Austria, better to say Österreich.
In Switzerland you will have to buy a vignette (sticker) that costs 40 Swiss francs per year and allows you to use all their highways. In Austria you will pay 8 euros for a 10 day motorcycle vignette. Only highways require vignette, secondary roads not, there are no road tolls in Switzerland and only a couple on special roads in Austria.
Too many tunnels on the highway to Innsbruck, there are a couple of alternate roads but we were a bit late and lazy to take them.
Innsbruck… So nice. Don´t forget to take the Nordkette up to the Hafelekar Mountain and see the Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), amongst many other attractions.
We needed to feel the Alps again, not only to see them… We headed to Kitzbüehl and Heiligenblut where we slept. Beautiful road and scenery and an amazing preamble for the next day…
Grossglocknerstrasse is maybe the most famous Alpine pass and is the highest one in Austria, it is also the most expensive one (28 euros one way for motorcycles), it is an incredibly beautiful road of medium difficulty, very touristic. We were lucky enough to be there on the same day of a Vespa convention, it felt like being a beetle inside a bee hive, so nice; Vespa fans are more insane than the Italian Ducati riders.
We avoided the highway to Salzburg, took the road to Zell am See, Lofer, Salzburg; nice and easy, more curvy, fun and lonely. A day to remember.
From Mozart´s house in Salzburg to the Spanish Horse Riding School in Wien, a lot could be said, we enjoyed it all.
Thanks Austria, let´s find an uncommon road to go to Czech Republic.