At last: our day starts with a blue sky, warm temperatures and the sun fighting its way through the last remainders of fog in the valley. Our destination for today is Villach – getting there will see us leave the northern Italian Dolomites region and crossing into southern Austria – both regions are, given nice weather, beautiful – we’re really looking forward to our drive today.
We will have to cross three passes today – some of them are above 1800m. We will have to see if the roads have already been cleared. I’ve promised my wife that we would continue to take zero risks and focus on enjoying the trip…
Up the first pass we go…
The higher we go, the more left-over snow is on the roads … never critical but sometimes rather icy if in the shade.
Taking our small one-lane roads is – again – totally worth all the planning beforehand – see for yourself!
Coming back down to the last valley before crossing the border into Austria sees us in an unreal landscape.
Here we experience a something very rare in Europe – no villages, no industry, no mobile phone reception for dozens of Kilometres. It feels like somewhere in north America or Canada.
Crossing into Austria, we drive down the Gailtal all the way to Villach, our destination for today.
TW560 and I have been to Villach twice before, as there is a car train from here to Feldkirch which I was forced to take previously as both Vienna and Graz originated ones were completely full.
The town itself is rather nice – finally we get to spend some time here and explore more than I was able to do in the few hours I usually have when arriving and essentially waiting for TW560 to be loaded onto the train.
Arriving at the hotel, we get a covered and secured parking spot with a plug – we make real difference here, as all other cars here are petrol-guzzling monsters. Really hoping for that EV revolution to start soon!
Today was a very nice day – enjoyable, warm, not too long distance-wise. We’re looking forward to tomorrow!
