Open the Alps by car

Alpine Valley - one of the few landscapes, which I'm not just dreaming, causing a burning desire to pack up and go - to see everything with my own eyes. But these trips - to walk in the meadows so wander along the mountain rivers - somehow things are not folded. But turned up cheap - and here we are in Munich, the starting point of our independent travel.

In order to develop themselves alpine expanses, we booked a car hire office in the Sixt. Recall that a car in Europe can be hired only if there is an international driving permit. Get it in Russia is not difficult - you just medspravka (plus a copy of it), our driver's license and passport (or copy).

Presenting at the reception Sixt in Munich Airport, passport, credit card, the rights and reservation number, we got the keys and went on a quest to become our five days of Mercedes-Benz A170. Find a car at a huge multi-storey car park was not easy, we had to resort to the help of local taxi drivers, by the way, almost never speak in English. Found submerged, try to have. Failed. The machine with the INC was got only when you press the clutch pedal (by the way, ordering cars we do not pay attention to the box, and the good that it was mechanical - for the mountains is the fact). Navigator, whose presence in the car, we also specify further from Moscow, in the parking lot would not work - apparently interfered with concrete walls and partitions. And get out of the airport had to guess. But as it turned out, all roads in the airport pie - do not get lost, and soon we saw a pointer to leave the motorway leading to Munich.

 

On reaching the hotel, faced with yet another poser - own parking at the hotel not be parked on a public, urban areas. On the streets everywhere are parkomaty, time-based payment: every 12 minutes - 50 cents in the blue zone (the old town, pedestrian streets and the location of the main attractions) and 20 cents in all other places marked by red markings. Payments from 8 am to 11 pm from Monday to Saturday. Night and Sunday parking is free. But the safety car is no guarantee. And on Sunday, if something goes a rally or demonstration (this is not uncommon in a free Europe), the car being evacuated and search-fistula ... If you want to leave the car for a long time, it is better to put it in a multi-storey car park. There are also minute, and hourly pay, but the main thing - you can safely stay open around the clock - it would cost 16 euros.

 

The next day we went to Austria on the road leading to the Mozart of Salzburg. Yes, I must say that in Germany for the road cars are free, fees for traffic on highways take only with trucks. But the Austrians are not so selfless - for travel on motorways where the tax is taken. Local bought an annual subscription - sticker called a vignette is glued to the windshield as we pass inspection, tourists are offered a vignette for 10 days and costs 7 euros. We are aware of this and wanted to buy, but where and how - did not know, but Saturday's reception at the hotel was not at all motorist and in such subtleties do not understand. Logically, sticker should have been sold somewhere just after crossing the border, but after passing the pointer with the word "Austria", nothing like the kiosks vignettes we have not seen. But after a mile we stopped the brave Austrian policemen. Followed this dialogue:
- Good afternoon! Present vignette! - We do not, we would like to buy it, but do not know where. - Two miles ago. - And where to turn? - It's too late. - Why? We are ready to buy it. - Not discussed, pay a penalty - 120 euros. And any cash. Do you have a credit card?

  That's the case ... The only consolation - summonses could produce the following police two more days. For the same violation is not penalized twice in two days. By the way, if you take a car rental in Austria, this vignette, you are automatically issued, but if in Germany - will have to take care of its own existence.

As a result, we realized that at the entrance to Austria, 2-3 km to the border had to ask a vignette at all occurring gas stations. And by the way, if we needed to fill the petrol, the petrol station on the border we need to ask - does not need a vignette gentlemen? But our "Mercy ate little, and we drove to the gas station just on the third day.
We poured gasoline, regular gasoline, not super, not ultra, and most common - in our 95 th. It cost in Germany on average 1.33 euros in Austria cheaper - 1,12. Still terribly expensive - under fifty rubles per liter! I must say that in Switzerland the same fuel was worth 1.6 Swiss francs (franc equals about 29 rubles, that is, came out roughly the same).

 

Generally, this trip is faced down a few myths in our heads. The first myth - the smart way. Of course, in general they are better than our will, but ... It may be that we were in Germany at the height of the maintenance season. Bad joints, ruts, bumps (such that the teeth are chattering and feeling - like going on a washboard), over tens of kilometers of fences and narrow roads ... Machine moving procession, flashing lights from irritation.

 

The second myth - is that the punctual Germans always adhere to the rules of the road. Even in the narrow sections of one lane, the marked red and white fences, signs with flashing "50 mph" We continually tried to get around, and not just to the left, and right (which is a flagrant violation of traffic rules in Europe), to Besides desperately horn and blinking lights. Not to mention driving on the autobahns. Speed is limited to 130 km / h, we go strictly adhering to this objective and the Germans were flying past us. At the most luxurious and powerful BMW and Porsche. And it's not crazy youth, and the respectable burghers, with a beard and a pipe in his mouth.
Yes, but back in the Alps. Turned off the highway into the mountains of Salzburg, we began to climb higher and higher. Surrounding roads located hostels, motels for asthmatics, hotels and ski lodges simple locals, this Tyroleans. Mountain River - dry, raucous, cliffs, gorges, somewhere below the bright green lush meadows, they are clean pacified cows. Breathtaking. Heaven on earth.

 

The next day, on his way to Switzerland, the mountains slightly parted, and we saw these valleys near and in all its glory. Stopping briefly in a town with a wonderful name Garmisch Partenkirchen (to get there, they had to overcome a long alpine tunnel), we have felt temporitm leisurely alpine life: breathe the clean mountain air, walking along the local river (a mandatory attribute of the towns), rustling fallen leaves in the alley and everywhere, right and left, smiling, replied with the same Aboriginal Labrador: "Guten Morgen", "Morgen."
When people ask me where I want to age, I will answer without hesitation: in Garmisch Partenkirchen. Well, or in similar alpine Raika ...

 

Well, while we waited for Switzerland - a land of lakes. It's not a cliche. Rather, it is true cliche. The German word "See" (lake), we've learned forever. See these (these are real sea), immense, with rocky beaches, misty horizons and quiet to deafness, we have not seen yet. Zurich is on the same Zeeman and descends to him from afar. The farther from the lake, the newer Micro-and off - the center: the hilly old town hall and the ringing of bells, floating above the water.
Finally, another spoonful of tar. Roads in Switzerland are also paid. But these one-time fee - yearly. Sticker, similar to the Austrian, there are also sold at every gas station for a year it costs 40 Swiss francs. Expensive. So when we bought it, the cashier was surprised: "Are you a new motorist?" I was surprised the issue, he explained: "Until the end of the year remained two months, and you buy an annual vignette. But the other is not the case, the guest a 10-day variations Swiss tourists do not offer, and once again speak with the police we do not want. Better to spend money ... Although, of course, a pity - for the time remaining until the end of 2009, we are unlikely to find ourselves again in this wonderful country of mountains and lakes ...