Austrian Arrival - July 26, 2008

We are lying in our very comfortable bed, with a fluffy duvet each, listening to a band around the corner playing Achy Breaky Heart. My view through the window is a pine covered alp and thinning clouds. I feel so good and so far not very tired despite the fact that I have been up for 30 hours.

Our journey to this magical place went surprisingly smoothly. We were overdue for a smooth trip after the lost luggage, delayed flights and medical problems of our trips in recent years. Checking our bags at Dulles took mere minutes and the 3 hour wait for take off went unbelievably fast. We landed 30 minutes late at the quiet and serene Munich airport and our luggage popped onto the conveyor minutes after we arrived. After picking up our rental car, we were out on the Autobahn navigating our way towards Austria. The signs were excellent and matched my Google Map directions exactly.

Two hours later, just shy of our first desitination, Graham ran out of steam. Extremely sleepy, he needed to pull over on the side of the road for a 20 minute nap. I couldn't take over the driving, because I needed to navigate, so all I could do was sit in the car and watch him snore and hope he woke refreshed.

A few minutes after we were back on our way, we arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Here we stopped at a gas station to buy our Austrian Vignette before crossing the border into Austria. This vignette is a tax sticker that is required to drive on toll roads and the autobahn in Austria. The woman in the station who sold me the sticker also sold me the required orange safety-vest for 2 Euros. The sticker was about 10 Euros.

Moments later we crossed the border, a non-event, and soon we reached Ehrwald our first destination. The plan was to ride a 10 minute cable-car up to the top of the Zugspitze - the highest alp in Germany - from the Austrian side. We carried on with the plan despite the fact that the peak (Spitze) was hidden in the clouds. The ride up was breathtaking and took only 7 minutes and the last 3 were completely and eerily in the clouds.

At the top it was much colder, but not bad. Refreshing really. We toured the history of the mountain museum, but I was ravenous. It was 1pm and breakfast on the plane had been mediocre - just a cookie, granola bar and sun chips (which I gave to Graham). The cafeteria wasn't busy and had some nice choices. I ended up with a bowl of minestrone and Graham made a salad from the salad bar.

We went outside briefly just because we could. We couldn't see much except the cloud enshrouding the entire peak and a bit of snow, but we can say "we were there!"

A bit later we were back on the road again heading toward our final destination - Serfaus. We drove through the twisty, bendy Fernpaß and then Graham was hit with a bout of sleepiness again. This time the spot we stopped for his "mini nap" was more interesting for me. It was a restaurant rest stop. While Graham napped, I bought a few postcards and a diet coke. I had Graham drink some of the coke for the benefit of the caffeine and we set out again as it started to drizzle.

The last 30 kilometers were hard on Graham. It rained, we had hairpin bends and a 4 mile (endless!) tunnel. Finally we arrived in Serfaus at 4:00pm - 2 hours later than the original plan. We found the hotel easily and checked in quickly. The woman at the desk didn't speak English, but I understood 90% of her words as she gave us a tour of the facilities and I could ask my questions and was understood.

After settling into the room, we went back downstairs to partake of the free coffee, tea and cake offered every afternoon. Next we went outside and wandered around the village getting oriented. By now the drizzle had stopped and the clouds were moving quickly.

When we attempted to return to our room, something very funny happened. The introduction tour had included the basement boot room, involved many twists and turns, and ended with a ride up the elevator. We knew our room was #14 and remembered it was on the 2nd floor, but in Europe, the floors are numbered differently. We were aware of this so we were being careful as we climbed the stairs and we went to what we thought was the correct floor. We looked at every door on this floor, but #14 was not there. Assuming we had got it wrong we went down a floor, but it wasn't there either. We repeated this twice and #14 was nowhere to be found. Finally, we called the elevator so we could see what floor it said we were currently on and it confirmed we were on floor 2. There was an unmarked door next to the stairs and I tried the key. It worked! We had been standing next to our door from the start. We never did learn why it was not labeled with a room number.

We returned downstairs at 6pm for dinner (also included in our room price). The food was fantastic: soup, salad from the salad buffet, Wienerschnitzel for me and trout for Graham. We were too full to eat the Apple compote dessert. Instead we went walking again to hear the band that we can still hear as I write this. Graham is now sound asleep and I think it is time for me to sleep too. I hope the music won't keep me awake. It is also still quite bright outside as it is only 9pm, but we don't want to shut the drapes because we want to wake up at 7am.

I have good feelings about tomorrow. Hope the rain stays away.