Driving conditions

As we were stuck in a Stau for about 45 minutes.

Above and below as we stopped in between Garmisch and Salzburg at a WC.

Ok, so maybe you don't think these are very interesting moments to capture on film....but it was interesting to be here, rest assured. With just myself, a 6 year old child and a road map (anyone who has tried to read a road map of Europe knows it is not as easy as you'd think...lol), and driving through the Alps....hmmm. Put it this way....I had muscular soreness the days following the drives due to my relentless grip on the steering wheel and 'nerved up' back and neck - not from hiking!

We had snow and ice on the way through the Alps as we went TO Garmisch Germany....then we had snow and ice on the way to Salzburg, Austria from Garmisch and then we had bunches of snow on the way back home as we traveled from Salzburg to Vicenza. I wish I had you all with me as I took this drive (in particular from ...I swear it was the most beautiful drive I have ever been on. But I was too busy gawking (and trying to drive) to take any photos. We had one stau (traffic hold up) for about 45 minutes (pictured above) and had a one hour stau (traffic hold up) while at the very tops (we had wondered if we would be there for the night.....the weather was bad....but we turned off the car to save heat/gas and had a blanket and food and water)

It was so surprising....there were huge piles of snow falling as we got to the highest peaks in Austria and that was so pretty with those gorgeous snow covered Alpine homes (no homes on the highest parts at least where we drove) and then as we started decending...things dried out and it got so gorgeous (the surprising part)....I wanted to pull over but there is really no where to pull over. I have a new outlook on Italy. NOW THIS is Beautiful!!!!!

Now I must say that we went through some amazing tunnels on our way through on the drive home both in Austria and Italy. At times the tunnels were a reprieve from the snow and ice...you could at least get your windshield really clean. An interesting point...which I don't understand is that while going through the tunnels in Austria (one was 6500 meters- close to 6K- or about 4 miles long!) the radio STILL WORKED THE WHOLE TIME! Not so in Italy on the shorter tunnels...who knows?

Ok, one more thing about the drive. I didn't expect all the beauty along the way and even through at first I was nervous and tense while driving...they somehow keep the roads fairly dry (except when it is so heavily snowing that you can't even keep your windsheild snow free). We did see many cars stuck along side the road after sliding off and we saw one truck jack knifed going the opposite direction than what he should be....it was still a wonderful experience for me and I feel like I really accomplished something interesting.

My lasting thought....the Alps are BIG. Didn't realize how so.