[MrsC_772]

Day 14 - Friday 8 July

I'dthought that Waldblick provided the ultimate continental breakfast: Hotel Glocknerhof in Austria proved that I ain't seen nothing yet. While waiting for my egg to boil, I counted 13 different fruit & veg juices (I had cherry), 10 cheeses, 25 herb teas including a house blend and around 15 types of bread (complete with an illustrated guide to what the different types of roll contained). I didn't even recognise some of the dishes (there was a pot of some sort of bubbling broth, surrounded by dishes of ham, chopped veg and chickpeas). Wandering round I felt like the east German Martin/Moritz character in Deutschland 83 on first encountering a west German supermarket.

I should have taken Slob's advice and allowed myself a whole day for the Grossglocknerhochalpenstrasse. 25 Euros is a steep charge for 48 km but there's a lot to see (waterfalls, Tobleronesque triangular mountain peaks, meadows of wild flowers) as well as riding the bends. Although limited for time, I couldn't resist taking the spur road to Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe get closer views of the main glacier. (It may be 25 years since my A-level geography studies but I couldn't resist good cwm/col/cirque and a bit of moraine).

I also rode up to Bikers' Point - whoever thought that bikers would appreciate a special bit of road with cobblestoned hairpins needs a stern talking to. I was most amused by a poster there advertising an alpine herb face cream - made in "Rottenegg". Austria seems particularly prone to "lost in translation" language that seems amusing to the English ear and eye. (I must confess to smirking when spotting a van later that day emblazoned with "Fritzen.w.a.n.k.e.r").

After the Grossglockner, the 3rd and final entertaining toll road: the Gerlospass. I can understand why Triumph have their big knees up (their equivalent of World Ducati Week) based in Neukirchen, not Hinckley, as Neukirchen lies close to the Gerlospass. More flowing than the Grossglockner, and I was riding better, enjoying the slightly more open road and less traffic.

"Toll" is the German word for "great" (that much I had absorbed from the Memrise app) and the Grossglocknerhochalpenstrasse and Gerlosspass are "toll" roads in both the English and German senses of the word.

After the fun stuff, and a mediocre coffee at a cafe where the radio was playing nothing but cheesy accordion music, and the purchase of a new vignette, on to the motorway to make swifter progress towards the Italian Dolomites. Austrian motorway services apfelstrudel was, unsurprisingly, not as good as the BKK bakery version.

The motorway climbed out of Innsbruck, crossing the Italian border at the Brennero pass. Just after Bolzano I turned and caught my first glimpse of the Dolomites proper. If the Grossglockner mountains were Toblerone chunks, the Dolomites were the ragged jagged bone comb in the Bled Castle museum. It was now more pleasantly cool, and the road wound through the trees. It was such a relief on stopping for fuel to speak Italian again.

The Rider Hotel, Rauth, is a fairly basic establishment, geared up to touring German bikers. I was the only non-German guest there, and the proprietor greeted me initially in German. Unlike another guest, I did not make use of the hotel's Karcher jet wash to clean my bike. On checking in I was handed a map showing suggested touring routes in the region, and over a weissbier, the hotel proprietor helped me put together a route down to Verona. Dinner choices (served in the hotel bar, not a fancy restaurant) was a limited choice between steak cooked on a hot stone (quite expensive), burgers or (to my pleasant suprise) a limited Thai menu - I think the cook was Thai. I had a large and tasty bowl of pad thai noodles with chicken, which made a nice change.