A bridge into Italy

Friday September 20, 2013

 

This highest bridge in Europe, Europabrüke, we drove over today on our way into Italy. As you can see, we finally had a sterling weather day. It was a beautiful drive over Brenner Pass and down to the first offramp in Italy, the town of Vipitano.

Given that we changed our itinerary to not spend a few days in Italy seeing Verona, Brescia, and Lake Como, we decided our final day trip from Scharnitz could include a dip into Italy just to say we'd been in that country. Soon after turning south on the autobahn from Innsbruck, we came to a toll booth. This was our first autobahn toll booth on this trip, so we didn't know what to expect. However, we were still shocked to see that it was 8.5 € (about $11), given that highway tolls in the U.S. are not even close to being this high. We wondered whether we would get to any more toll booths.

Certainly, the highway was an expensive one to build considering all the bridges involved. 

Just look at this photo, where the entire highway for as far as you can see is a bridge. Eventually we weaved our way up and over Brenner Pass into Italy. We slowed and drove through what used to be the Customs booth, but they waved us on. Janet has wanted her passport stamped with these new countries for her, but they don't do that anymore. At one point, I had to make a potty stop at an autobahn gas station. I could not believe that even at a gas station like that, they charged 0.50 € to get into the W/C. My oh my.

Our plan was to take the first offramp we could in Italy, and then drive back on frontage roads instead of the autobahn. We saw our offramp ahead in Vipitano, but just before the exit, we came to a booth and had to take a ticket. Immediately, within 100 meters, we exited and came to a toll booth where they read the ticket we had just gotten and charged us 1.2 € (about $1.50)! To simply exit and drive 100 meters, $1.50!

We drove through Vipitano thinking that we might want to park and walk around a little, but it was pretty crowded and we didn't see any easy parking, so we just circled around and departed. It didn't really look any different than Austria, and most signs were in both Italian and German, so any thought that Italy would be uniquely "Italian" was dashed. 

We were glad we drove back on country roads and not the autobahn because it gave us a more intimate view of the Alpine villages, canyons, rivers, and....the autobahn! We wound around and up and over and down, and were treated to picture-perfect countryside and views of those impressive autobahn bridges we had been on earlier.

Just as we reached Brenner Pass, we noticed there was a huge flea market ahead, with cars parked along the road starting WAY back. So, we decided to check it out. It truly was huge, and we wandered around and decided some prices were pretty low. 

Janet found espresso cups she liked, and the price for a set of six was only about $9, so we got them. And here is Janet with her new purchase. See how big this place was, and you can't even see the half of it. So, we actually bought a souvenir in Italy to go with those we have bought, or will buy, in our other countries on this trip.

Once we passed back into Austria and were halfway to Innsbruck on the scenic side roads, we turned southwest into the Stubaital Valley simply to continue our incredible scenery on this sparkling day. This valley dead-ends at an 11,000 foot peak with the Stubai Glacier, captured in this photo:

Most photos in today's blog so far have been without Janet or me, but when we stopped for lunch in Neustift, halfway down the valley, we got ourselves into a photo.

As we were eating lunch, we got to watch hang gliders directly across from us. They rode up in the gondola, and then one after the other kept gliding down. Probably 25 of them while we ate.

Here was the view from our seats, and I took about 10 photos of the hang gliders, but only one was half-decent:

 Do you see the two hang gliders up there?

As we headed back to Innsbruck, we got a couple more photos of the scenery.

Snow-capped peaks surrounding lush valleys.

Before heading back to the time share, we thought it would be nice to visit two more sites mentioned in our tour book - a schloss near Innsbruck, and the village of Igls. However, we didn't know how to get from where we were on the east side of the valley to the west side where these two places were, split down the middle by the autobahn. So, it was pretty funny how we ended up doing it: I had remembered signs for the schloss on the autobahn when going to Innsbruck, so we got on the autobahn back toward Scharnitz, and after several miles got off and back on going the other direction toward Innsbruck. Then we just followed signs, first choosing signs toward Igls.

 Igls was high on a hillside south of Innsbruck overlooking the vast valley below. We could see the '76 Olympic bobsleigh and toboggan venue a bit higher up on the hillside, which was cool. Since this village was also famous for the church in this photo, we stopped to look around. This Church of St Giles, originally 13th century, was re-done in Baroque.

We walked all around the church's cemetery (a corner of it is in the photo above), noticing that it's apparently a new custom to put the person's photograph on the headstone.We then strolled a bit down this street and again took in the neat, clean and attractive way that Alpine villages look, which we'd come to appreciate.

I studied a detailed map of the area so that I'd know exactly how to reach the schloss farther down the hill that we wanted to visit. However, as we drove off, heck if I could find the roads I was looking for. I finally gave up and just decided to follow my instincts back to Innsbruck and we'd skip the schloss. And then, around a bend was the entrance to the schloss!

After we parked and were walking to the entrance, we caught these peahens and peacock on the wall next to us. We then entered the gates of the castle, and quickly learned that yet again, we arrived at a venue just as they were closing for the day. So, no formal tour, but we did walk around a bit since we were there.

This Schloss Ambris was once the symbol of Tyrolean power and glory, since in the 12th century it was the seat of local rulers. The two buildings you see back there on the left are 16th century, on different tiers of the hillside.

In one section of the grounds, inside a courtyard, we had this beautiful view back to Innsbruck. Janet is holding the brochure for the schloss.

The schloss courtyard looked nice.

On today's trip, we brought with us all our dirty laundry so that we could stop at a laundromat in Seefeld on our way home. Luckily there was a machine open, but we could not figure out the German instructions how to make it work. Luckily, a man came in who could help us. It turned out he was not Austrian or German, but Polish who was here for a construction job. He got us started, and Janet stayed to read while I explored the town some more. As I left, across the railroad tracks, I got this photo of the laundromat:

As I wandered around, I found a grocery market and decided to buy some marzipan. When I returned to see how Janet was doing, she was so thankful for the treat because she had just been thinking how she would love some chocolate! Several kids on their bikes were playing there, and they had fun saying to us, "Hello. What's your name?" and then quickly riding away laughing. At one point I said, "My name is Johann," and that got a response, but I had no idea what he said. One kid was seriously telling Janet something, as if she understood, but of course she didn't. Fun.

By then our clothes were in the dryer and I took off again while Janet read.I passed by where the civic concert had been last night and got this photo of the venue, a nice little park next to their famous casino:

When the clothes were done, we made one last tour visit to Seefeld's famous Seekirchl Chapel on the outskirts of town. Archduke Leopold V in 1620 ordered it built to house a crucifix with "miraculous" powers.

We were surprised that the door was open! As usual, it was magnificently ornate and fabulous inside. The crucifix still rests within the alterpiece. There was one worshiper inside, praying. When she got up to leave, we thought we'd have it to ourselves, but instead she remained kneeling by the door. When we finally did leave, she then followed us out and locked the door. She'd been patiently waiting for us to leave so she could lock up and go home!

For dinner, on our final evening here, I cooked up the remaining bratwurst and red cabbage, and we heated up the leftover spätzle and cheese. Another great little dinner! Of course, our 1.69€ beer helped. We then packed up what we could for our departure the next morning. It was a perfect week here, as our base for our day trips all over Bavaria and Tyrol.