Prego!

Our chauffer arrived promptly at 9am with the car to whisk us away on our holiday.

PREGO!

Ok. . . I had a moment of imagination.

Back in January when I knew Manfred would be doing the driving on our trip I sent off for a fun chauffer’s hat. We presented it to him this morning as we packed our suitcases into the back of Siggi’s car.
For you math geniuses, we filled the car with gas at their town for 1.55euro per liter. That would be $1.35=1euro. And I think it is 2.7 liters to the gallon. So do your math.
For the 700km we drove we went through about 27 liters.

OK enough of the math stuff. The drive was terrible, scary and beautiful. Terrible rain in the German part of the trip. Going into the alps was scary, there was lots of construction and big trucks, the lanes were very narrow and I swear if I rolled down the window I could push the trucks away with my hand, they were that close to us and going 60mph.
We had to buy a pass at the border that allows us to drive in Austria *chang ching$$* 8euro, then we had to pay a toll when we went through tunnels that go under the alps, there were about 15 tunnels and several of them were 8+kilometers long. That cost us a total of 40euro.
Getting the idea this is expense just to drive. . .yup.

Italy!!


Once on the other side of the alps were then drove the Dolomite mountains.
These photos are not good, but considering they were taken at 120kph from the backseat, they are ok.



It is so hot on this side, and steamy humid. UGH! We have gone from 20c to 32c in one day.

It was easy to see the differences of German house architecture then move into Austrian and finally Italian.


Look at this Italian vineyard. They are all on hillsides, there is no way an automated machine could pick these grapes, they have to be done by hand.


Arrived in our hotel after 7+ hours of driving. Our chauffer gets a gold star on his hat for one day of safe (cough cough) driving.
This hotel is an excellent deal Siggi got for us. We are paying 135.00euro per person for 4 nights and breakfast and dinner. Free wifi, wonderful pool (I’ll take pictures of that tomorrow. And air conditioning.

Dinner was very nice, and comes with full salad bar, soup, two entrees and dessert. (I had apple sorbet and it was NOT ice cream, it was like a slushy served in a juice glass with a straw, tasted great but unexpected). You have to pay for your drinks but the food is included in the hotel bill. GREAT.

Took a promenade on the boardwalk along the lake as the sunset. Bought postcards and started counting how many pizzeria and gelato shops there were. I can tell you I saw over 25 gelato shops on my walk. GEEZ!! And of course Jerry & Manfred had to stop for some. Hmmmmmm, I’m going to hell after all this food.



Tomorrow we plan a ferry boat tour around the lake and time by the pool and of course some shopping in the evening to catch the sunset on the lake., . . . .this is the life!