3^rd to 5^th May 2005 - I saw SNOW!!!!! - Austria & Liechtenstein

After leaving Ludwig's house we arrived in Austria (it was only a couple of kilometers away). With Austria came the Alps. The scenery really was beautiful, although we didn't stop to enjoy much of it.

We did stop so that I could tough the snow though!

At home we think of spring as a time to plant the tomatoes and to put on your summer frocks after the long months of winter woolies. Here in Austria it's time to put your skis away. Clever old Bradley pointed out that they put their skis away when the snow begins to get low. But what they call low is a bumper year for the Australian snow fields. This area was completely devoid of snow-seeking tourists and had been for months - no snow left.

Up in the alpine passes they've got these strange dug-in half tunnel-like enclosed roadways around the edges of the mountains. They must serve some snowy purpose, but we couldn't work it out. Still took a photo though.

News Flash!! Chris Callanan has just emailed to solve the mystry! Here's what she had to say, "the covered tunnelly things on the roads through snowy bits are avalanche protection - so that when an avalanche happens (and they do with monotonous regularity) the road can stay open". She sure wins *first prize* in the clever aunty division for this week!

Finally pulled in for the night at a little caravan park in Brazbei Bludenz in Austria. Not a bad place to let the night pass.

The next morning we blasted off to Liechtenstein, the smallest country Bradley had ever visited. It was a whole 6km long and 25km long (on average). It's very famous for it's 400km of well maintained hiking trails through the Alps. Liechtenstein sits directly between Austria and Switzerland, and you need a pretty good map to find it at all! But I must say that it's worth the effort. The scenery is magnificent and the mountain air is lovely. These are some pics we took from our caravan park site in the village of Triessen.

We stuck around an extra night to do one of the alpine walks, but old Murphy stepped in and rained on our parade! So in the end we took a scenic drive around the country in our bus.

I was sure I saw snow up there, but again, all the snow seeking tourists had gone to better places because of the distinct lack of snow.

This is a really cool picture that Bradley took while we were having lunch at a local restaurant on the side of the road

This is a view of Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, from the side of one of the Alps. You can see the Rhien River running through the center of the country.

And down we go again (you get pretty used to this up and down business in the Alps).

Ohhhh. Pause here! Are they Lichtenstein-ian cows!