The views outside the window as we landed in Munich were fantastic- lots of little distinct villages closely spaced and all looking very Bavarian in design. We laughed as we practically walked into Germany without anyone in the way. Picking up the rental car looked like it would be an issue as there was a problem processing credit cards, but we eventually got it sorted. The instructions on our googlemap were difficult to follow and we started out following our noses at first. Fortunately, we picked a series of exits that led us in the right direction and we were on our way. I struggled quite a lot with the manual transmission and would have much preferred the nice auto that we had in California.
Travelling on the highways in Germany was drastically different as the speed limits became more like guidelines that were generally ignored. I found I was pushing the car to a speed of 150 kph (pretty much its limit) with quite a few cars flying past us. Several drivers were courteous enough to flash their lights at us to make us get out of their way so they could pass.
Further down the road, there was an accident at one of the Ausfährts which forced me to change lanes in front of a green and orange coloured van which flashed at me and gave me a (relatively) friendly toot as I cut back in past the accident. Only as it went by did we see the word “Polizei” on the side. We had a good laugh about that once we made sure we weren’t being followed! I pulled into a petrol station to get a vignette for travelling in Austria and was a little shocked by the badly covered pornographic DVDs for sale near the counter. Another failed attempt at conversing in German let me to believe that it wasn’t the best plan and we headed for Salzburg and our rendezvous with Gill.
Salzburg, while very pretty, was quite difficult to navigate through and I found it very difficult to master driving the car and figuring out where to go. I must have stalled the car twice and looked very much like a tourist. The roads were very narrow which didn’t help as I still wasn’t totally used to the dimensions of the car.
Despite the small signs and the large confusion, we managed to get to Gill’s hotel without making a wrong turn. We met up with Gill, Rex and Jenny and Gill joined us for our journey to Hallstatt (pronounced Heh-schtat by the locals). Our earlier good-sense-of-direction had left us by this point and we found ourselves quite lost. Gill spotted the signs that led us to the A1 but we discovered fairly quickly that we were heading in the wrong direction. After leaving the A1 to try and turn around, we got much more lost than before and stopped to ask for directions. A trade of sloppy German from me and sloppy English from a local got us back on track just as a thunderstorm hit.
The googlemap was very good at getting us to Hallstatt (once we were pointing the right way) and after leaving the A10, we headed for the hills. We decided to stop for Kaffee en route as both Lou and I were starting to blackout (this is not a good thing while driving)! We stumbled across a cute little place called Voglauerhof where nobody spoke English but we managed to get our coffee (although we couldn’t convey the meaning of decaffeinated to the confused looking barmaid so Gill missed out).
We arrived in Hallstatt taking in the amazing scenery along the way (and all the Heidi houses, churches and villages) and found our way to Pension Hallberg. We were later than expected (by about an hour and a half) but fortunately our room was still available and it was so worth the dramas we had that day. We found a good spot across the road for a cheap (and huge) meal, then came back and collapsed into bed.