Thursday 19 July 2007

Admin in Munich

Since our last post we have travelled from Italy, through the Dolomites and Alps (again), into Austria and then to Munich in Germany. The mountains have been amazing, and since the weather has been absolutely great, the views have been spectacular. On Sunday we travelled over the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which is surrounded by a National Park. It is a popular weekend destination for the locals. We went for a bit of a walk up to the end of a glacier, and ended up helping carry a man on a stretcher to a place where a helicopter could land to pick him up. He had dislocated his ankle, but the doctor on the helicopter managed to put it back in, so he’ll be fine. Pretty painful though. We ended the day at Zell am See.

Grossglockner

We next passed through Berchtesgaden and nearby Obersalzburg where Hitler and the Nazi Party members had homes (and a full compliment of SS troops for protection). At the top of the mountain is Kehlsteinhaus, dubbed the Eagle’s Nest by the Americans, which was a house gifted to Hitler for his 50th birthday. Nice present.

View from the top


From there we have spent a morning walking around Salzburg, and have since made our way to Munich for a bit of admin. We now have our Carnet de Passages for the Land Rover, from the ADAC (German AA), and have picked up a spare oil filter from a LR dealer. Today we are having a wheel alignment and balance done at a very efficient tyre shop just to make sure all is A-OK before heading to more remote parts. Luckily for me, Catkin speaks German, although she has picked up a few new technical terms.


After Munich we head north-east towards Poland. Standby for further reports.