We only spent about a day and a half in Austria, it was mostly traveling through but we did get to see a lot. Being in the mountains was so beautiful, it felt like you were in the middle of the Sound of Music movie. If you are driving through Austria, you need to have a Autobahn Vignette. Right before you get in the country or right after (we didn't see an option until after), you need to stop and purchase this. It's just a fee you pay & place the sticker in your cars' window. Christian learned the hard way once before; he got pulled over and had to pay the fine on the spot.
It was raining when we arrived in the afternoon so it was kinda foggy. Think this was the only day it rained on our whole trip, so that was OK and Austria was still so beautiful. We decided to just drive around in the mountains and check things out. As you can imagine, the roads were very twisty and windy and with them being slick from rain and snow, it was a little interesting. The car did great and we were fine & I was just being a wuss ;) It was so cool because at the bottom of the mountain, it was rolling green hills and then at the top, it was still snowing! We got out at the very top and you could barely see in front of you because of the snow and fog.
We ended up in a town called Innsbruck and were driving around until dark just checking things out. This is the only mishap we had while on vacation, when we stopped to get gas on the top of the bypass on the mountain, it was extremely windy. When Christian opened his car door, the wind just flew it back and it hit the gas pump stand. It left a decent sized ding in the door needless to say. We busted out laughing, thank goodness we had insurance on the car ;) The worse thing was were were trying to find a hotel that late at night and there only seemed to be guest houses or B&B around and they were all closed. We could see a hotel at the bottom of the mountain but just couldn't figure out who to get to it, lol. Eventually we made it to Hotel Innsbruck. It was a very nice hotel and not too pricey in the heart of Innsbruck.
The next day we got up and checked out Austria some more. The landscape and scenery was absolutely breathtaking there. Everything was so perfect, we joked that if a leave fell or a tree fell down, someone ran out right away to clean it up, just beautiful. There were many roads along the bottom of the mountain that we drove up and down just looking around. Since the snow was starting to melt, it caused little waterfalls all over the mountain. We planned on taking the Josefsberg Pass but it was closed because there was too much snow still on there (they typically close it during the winter and re-open it in the spring when they can get the plows through there).
We decided to check out the famous ski resort Solden. Unfortunately is was closed for the year but it was kinda neat to drive up there just by ourselves. I was not planning on being in that cold of temperatures, let alone snow so I was happy that I at least had my north face jacket with me. I was running around in that and my flip flops. The slopes looked like they'd be awesome to ski on, they must be since they had the Olympics there in 2010. Look at the little chairlift seat in the pic below. I would be so freaking scared to ride that up the mountain!
After leaving Solden, we went on another pass (think there are only two options around Innsbruck) on our way to Germany. If we went back to Austria, I would love to spend more time there and get to do actual activities there. I would love to go back there and go skiing! It is such a beautiful country.
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