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The Sound of Music Tour
The hills are alive...
... with the sound of tourists.
Yes, after peppering Salzburg with photos, I embarked the next morning on The Sound of Music tour. Now, after some research (and guidance from a friend who has done the tour twice) I decided to go with 'Panorama Tours'. I called to book my place and headed down there early the next morn. Unfortunately, I didn't allow for the Salzburg rush hour, so arrived at exactly 9:30am for the 9:30 tour. With relief, I saw a Sound of Music bus, rushed onto it, paid someone some money and sat down... before realising I was on the wrong tour.
It was still a Sound of Music tour, but it wasn't the premium tour I had been looking forward to (which I saw across the road as it departed). But it was five Euros cheaper, the coach was only about one third full and it was mostly Americans, so I made the most of it and made some new friends.
Our first stop was the Gazebo...
... which was sixteen, going on seventeen minutes into the tour.
Everyone sat around and sang some of the songs, and I had my photo taken. We then returned to the coach and proceeded to have several stops, including Schloss Leopoldskron, where they filmed the scenes by the lake...
We had a very rambling going-off-track tour guide who made fun of The Sound of Music, and we were vaguely encouraged to sing along to the music as it was played over the loud speaker. Unfortunately, with only fifteen of us on the coach, the atmosphere wasn't quite what I'd seen on the promo video (of the premium tour I wasn't on), so everyone just sat there quietly, looking subdued. Quite disappointing really. But we did have a detour to the Red Bull Headquarters...
I don't remember seeing that in the film.
Anyway, I got to escape for an hour at one of our stops, and having returned to our coach park on time, and resisted the temptation to sneak onto the premium coach parked next to ours, we returned to where we started - the Mirabell Gardens - where much of Doe a Deer was filmed...
We were also told that 'The Hills Are Alive' was sung at a place near Bergestaden, which gave me great excitement. Coincidentally, this was the next stop on my road trip, so without any further ado (or doe), I headed off to my mountain resort to sing.
Lake Bled, Slovenia
Now this is what I call a nice lake...
That's Lake Bled in Slovenia, and it even has a chateau...
... and a castle...
Slovenia is what I call a nice country, in fact it is my fave country of the trip so far. Admittedly, I still don't think I am travelling in it legally, but the roads are fantastic and clear, the people are ever so friendly (and their English is better than mine) and the scenery is beautiful. Oh, and it's cheap. Slovenia wins the prize for the cheapest petrol of the whole road trip.
On the first morning, I awoke early (in my terms) to go for a quick run around the lake of blood and take a few photos. Unlike Lake Garda, there was not a tourist attraction in sight, it was just calm and beautiful and the cheap hotel where I stayed was also beautiful.
That's it in the background. Following my run, I headed up to the castle to get a few more picturesque shots, and sat in the sun, wishing I didn't have to leave.
I could have happily stayed another day or even a week, but I had a dinner date in Vienna that night, a Sound of Music tour in Salzburg the next day and another date arriving in Bergestaden the day after that. Life is tough on the road...
Lake Garda & Venice, Italy
Driving in Italy is like driving in Texas. Not only do people overtake on both sides, refuse to use their indicators, and drive bumper to bumper, but all the truck drivers also honk their horns at females driving convertibles.
Horn honking aside, after leaving the thunderstorms in Verazze, I headed to Lake Garda to see what I'd missed as a result of my diversion...
The answer was not a lot. Many people had told me I must see Lake Garda, but (and I may be a lake snob here) I was very disappointed. It was full of tourist attractions and adventure parks, and too packed with people to make it beautiful. Admittedly, the clouds didn’t help the mountains shine through, but... well, give me Lake Tahoe or Crater Lake any day.
So after putting a brave face on the situation...
... I headed on to Venice. And Venice is as beautiful as everyone says it is. At least in the quiet, non-touristy parts of the city. In the famous bits (like St Mark’s square) it looks like all humans and pigeons are fighting for a place to take a picture...
And obviously I was one of them. Meanwhile, some of the gondola rides on the Grande Canale looked more like bumper boats, rather than relaxing or romantic trips along the river.
But the backstreets and the bits where the maps and tourist books don’t tell you to go are very beautiful.
After a few hours of walking, I enjoyed some sunbathing, before deciding I was Veniced out and it was time to head back to pick up my car. That was at 2:30pm. I didn't escape Venice until 5pm. It took me 2.5 hours to walk back to where I had begun my sightseeing.
Admittedly if I had followed the signs (and not stopped for photos), I probably could have found it a lot quicker, but after many human traffic jams, I eventually decided to take my own route back. Which would have been fine if all the streets and canals were on my map. Which they weren't. So instead, I started following the sun. Which also would have been fine if I hadn't ended up surrounded by tall buildings and unable to see it.
Anyway, I eventually escaped Italy and headed to Slovenia. Unusually, I had done some research, and discovered that I needed to pay a 15 Euro road tax entry. But as I came up to the border, there was a huge queue which seemed to consist of just lorries. So I followed the car queue. Which turned out not to be a queue, but just a lot of cars driving straight into Slovenia.
As I continued following them, I noticed they all had 'SLO' (for Slovenia, not Slow) on their number plates, and had a horrible feeling that I should have joined the lorry queue. I seriously regretted not including the Slovenian language as part of my research, and started to wonder what Slovenian jails were like...
Mountain Passes & Lugano, Switzerland / Italian Riviera
My trip from Wengen to Lugano was interesting. I could have taken a fairly tame mountain pass, but keen to push my car to the limit, I decided to take one which I had heard provided amazing views (and I think was featured on Top Gear)...
I climbed from 1,000ft to 7,500 in a very short space of time, which would have been enjoyable, had it not been rainy and cloudy, and the engine warning light hadn’t appeared on my car. When I got to the top, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Until I saw the route down...
There were places where the road (if you can call it that) had only enough room for one car, and there were no crash barriers. Admittedly, I gained a lot of experience of such driving conditions during my epic adventures in the US, but over there, the only life I ever came across was of the wild variety. In Switzerland things are very different. There were all sorts of people taking the same route, so the likelihood of having to reverse back up the mountain pass was quite high.
I survived the first bit, and paused to admire the view...
... at which point I drove straight into cloud. With visibility less than two metres, and the knowledge that there was a sheer drop on one side of me, and cars on the other (and behind), this mountain pass experience gets ten out of ten for scariness. And yes, I did regret not taking the tamer route.
Anyway, back down on earth, I headed to Lake Lugano for some sun, rest and recuperation....
It was a beautiful place, but alas the sunbathing I'd planned to do was a little difficult with the near continuous downpour.
So I consoled myself by shopping, and planning a road-trip diversion to find some sun.
After using my meteorological skills to analyse the weather, I realised that if I continued on my original route, I would have a permanent rain cloud over me for the next week. So a diversion was required so that I could get behind the east moving front. And what better way to find some warmth and sunshine than with a seven hour diversion to Varazze in Italy...
As I went through the Italian border, there were two long queues for Italian citizens, but no queue for the 'foreign passports'. As I entered, there was no one on guard, so I felt obliged to stop my car and get out and find someone. The guy looked at me, I waved my passport around, he didn’t look at it, but asked another guy who said 'let her through'. They're obviously trying to keep the Italians out and replace them with foreigners.
The next day, I enjoyed a happy morning of sunshine...
... until the thunder and lightning started at lunchtime. I clearly need to read my met books again.
Lake Geneva and Wengen, Switzerland
The last time I visited Switzerland (20 years ago) I got into trouble for accidentally letting an ice cream wrapper blow away from me. So, to enter their country, I figured there would be a lot of rules about cleanliness, and they would be keenly checking all my car documents as well as every item of ID I had on me. But it was the complete opposite - I had to give them 40 Swiss Francs and they let me through without even checking my passport (why does that sound dodgy?).
But I like driving in Switzerland - the roads are well maintained and clean (not an ice cream wrapper in sight), so what better place for me to stay whilst on a road trip, than a car-free mountain resort at 4,000 feet...
Wengen was the place, and following my instructions, I had to get to Lauterbrunnan to dump my car and catch a small train.
However, having not seen a chateau for a couple of days, I felt it was time one featured on my journey, so I made a detour via this specimen on Lake Geneva en route to the place of no cars...
Back to the journey, my GPS found Lauterbrunnan (but then it was also able to direct me to Wengen, which is odd) but it told me I had to catch a ferry for the last five miles. As this is a place in the mountains, I checked out my guide book. It told me that the quickest way was to put my car on a train to Lauterbrunnan. As the book was last updated in May 2010, I decided to follow its advice.
So off to the mountains I went, as I followed the guide book's instructions. After driving through mountains and valleys, I arrived at the car train place (fortunately, the pictures of cars on trains provided guidance). My German is non-existent, but by pointing to my guide book and Lauterbrunnan, the woman then directed me back to names of places I recognised from the GPS instructions. The GPS was right for once. Worried I would now miss the last real train, I sped through the mountains and valleys, pausing momentarily at Interlaken (the area's answer to Lake Geneva)...
... before continuing for another couple of hours. I found the train just before dark, ditched the car and headed up to Wengen.
Wengen was indeed very beautiful and I awoke early the next morning to go hiking and visit a monument to Felix Mendelssohn. I had to compose myself when I found out he died at the age of 38.
My early start was just as well because by 10am, Wengen was covered in cloud. So having waved goodbye to Mendelssohn, I orchestrated a cable car ride up another 7,000 feet in an attempt to find sun. It kind of worked, until the cloud caught up with me...
I gave up, left Wengen and descended to 1,000ft to escape the white fluffy stuff.
