Friday, September 23, 2011
Innsbruck, Austria to Verona, Italy
Up at 7:30, breakfast at 8, on the road a bit slow at around 9:45am after packing the car and extracting ourselves from the underground parking. The GPS was really acting up, we now call her Brunhilda, and she started the day grumpy and very confused in Innsbruck. We relied on signs and our own GPS to get us on the road, it wasn't really that difficult.
Once away, we ran into some of the most beautiful mountain scenery that you could ever imagine. Wall to wall, valley bottom to mountain top, sparkling green and white in the brilliant sunlight. We took lots of pictures and video, I hope that it conveys the beauty and the wonder of the alps although how could it. You have to be there on a day like this, we all were stunned by the scenery, although I least of all as I had to focus on the road as it does go by quickly at 140Km/h, and there was a lot of truck traffic and as always a lot of high speed cars going by.
Straight through we drove, all the way to Verona, about 2 and 3/4 hours in all. After a long detour, about 25 kilometers in total, due to Brunhilda being brain-dead, we found our way to the hotel. Once we reset her, she got us to our hotel without error, but she was sure way off in her instructions when she sent us way, way off course. At least all of us were bad-mouthing her and not each other, and we were all laughing at the end.
Checked into the Verona Ibis, then back in the car and drove down about 10 minutes to the 'old town'. We parked on the street, a two hour maximum, then wandered to the archway and the area of the old forum, where we stopped for a late lunch at about 3:00pm. Then wandering about, I went back to feed the meter again then wandered the forum exterior completely fascinated by the roman arches and the talent of the ancient engineers. The other three wandered deep into the old town, checking out the stores and finding the tourist depiction of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliette's fabled balcony. 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo ......'. Then together again at 6:00pm, and a walk back to the car, and a drive in Verona's Friday evening traffic jam back to the hotel. We made it, went to the bar for a drink, then to bed. A big day, we're tired. Tomorrow, Venice.
