Day 19 - Tyrolean knockabout and Vaduz
- manicmondeo
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
A sunny morning on a quiet Tyrolean road was the perfect introduction to a four-country drive.
Leaving Austria, we entered Italy, but you wouldn’t know. Rocky Dolomite peaks impress to our left as we made our way through the slow Italian traffic to Bruneck/Brusio. As mentioned yesterday, Ian has beef with Italy. It can be summed up briefly as an undeserved reputation for world-class food (it’s fine, but just pasta with tomato-based sauce usually), epic landscapes (fine again, but not as good as most other countries) and iconic landmarks (ditto).
After seeing a guy in a smart suit cycling to work, Ian was delighted then that Bruneck was German speaking so had a lovely cheese, meat and pickle sandwich for breakfast.
Tirol was beautiful (but very Austrian-leaning so it doesn’t count as Italy!) and the Brenner Pass fulfilled the epic brief. We’d chosen the old road and were glad. Passing through alpine villages where the buildings jut out into the street had an old-world vibe.
A stop at an Austrian service station brought some surprise. It looked like an alpine manor house and, even inside, contained wooden details and a meat and cheese cellar. Even Tebay can’t stand up against that.
It’s amazing to get WhatsApp messages in a nine-mile-long Austrian tunnel when we struggle to get them in a pub in Howden.
Liechtenstein is odd. It appears to be in a slightly wider bit of an alpine valley than usual. On the Austrian side, there’s a wall of mountains. On the Swiss side, you’re staring at green meadows seemingly too close to be in a separate country.
Nonetheless, we stopped in Vaduz, its capital. Not a lot was going on but we managed to book a hotel in the Swiss mountain resort of Flims.
Not far from the Rhine Gorge, it’s geared up for winter. There were few places open but the views were astonishing. And we even had time for fußball.
Songs of the day
Ian: Tage Wie Diese by Die Toten Hosen
Jase: Suspicious Minds by Elvis
Craig: Bad Guy by Too Many Zooz
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