Next was Austria , why isnt it called Eastern State in English? though we were a bit unsure at the border. The road was fine and the idea was that we would get to Innsbruck early to mooch around in the afternoon, but as we didn't leave Vaduz until 11.30 that was going to make it difficult. Photo-opportunities were proving difficult for Francoise as either the weather was hazy, it was about to rain (but never did) or we were in tunnels. The Austrians clearly like tunnelling. With the closure of one tunnel we were obliged to take the mountain pass, so having come down from 1800 m we climbed back up and had lunch at the top of the pass. Switzerland was expensive; Liechtenstein similar. Austria seemed good value.
To fully appreciate the 5D experience on a motorbike one really needs to wear open faced helmets. Preferably silly ones but on long trips we try to be a bit more sensible. Just after the champagne region Paul caught a wasp just to the side of his left eye. The impact didn't kill it as it kept on stinging Paul for about 15 minutes until we pulled in for petrol and it was still wriggling just about alive when Paul took his helmet off. The side of his temple was slightly numb. A couple of days on now and the swelling has moved from the side of his temple to a rather large bag below his eye. This was a wasp and NOT the end result of one of our couple moments.
We arrived in Innsbruck quite early and still dry. Our hotel was five minutes walk from the Old Town so we were straight out there, having checked in. Our nose for the weather meant that we knew exactly when to hit the coffee shop before the rain broke and the crowds looked for shelter. And we found a good one at that, Seit 1803 and Innsbrucker Torte every bit as good as Sacher! Innsbruck with its medieval old town was also very nice. We continued our Zaha theme by going to see the four metro/cable car stations. Some issues with the glass tolerances. We even went almost to the top as the sun had come out post our afternoon coffee. We dined in the old town - almost a new definition of 'old' - our German wasn't quite up to deciding whether the Goldener Adler had been going since 1390 or 1494.
Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria all seem to be very clean and tidy indeed. Almost Singaporean. But the dogs are bigger and better dressed in Austria, those wolfhounds with the knitted bonnets to stop their ears flapping around; nice.
Next day head South East. Lovely roads, castles, churches with ridiculously steep steeples - (perhaps thats where there word comes from?), houses with geraniums and Gasthofs serving coffee at every bend. Cream of Garlic soup for lunch at 1630m altitude. And then down to Mittelsee for our stop over. More 'fun' with hairpins as Francoise wanted to take photos on right handers - words said. All well that ends well with an aperitif down by the lake - quite like Windermere, but a hundred times less people here.
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