July 14 – What the heck is a vignette? and Alpine Coaster
Today was a very slow start. The bad weather started early this morning so we did not get out until around lunchtime but after being on the go constantly for more than 2 weeks it was probably time to have a relaxing morning.
First up today we needed to go get some hiking poles and gloves for Sable and Patrick for a 12 km mountain hike on Thursday. Heading out from the hotel, we went the only way we have not driven yet and all I have to say is holy cow what a crazy narrow road that was. It was fine to start off with but then about halfway down (we are currently in our hotel at is 5,086 feet or 1,550 metres) the road went from a narrow two lane road to a narrow 1 lane road, with traffic allowed to go in both directions, and some little pullouts in varying distances apart. If you come up upon another person, depending on which side has the pull out you are the ones to back up. We had to do that once and it was very nerve racking to say the least.
Once we found everything we needed we decided to head back to a alpine coaster that we could not do yesterday but thought it was worth a drive of over and hour to do. Plugged in the location in google maps, noticed it was a toll highway and figured it was a toll plaza situation. NOPE! In Austria you need to purchase vignettes and if you do not they can send a lovely penalty to you….Great 🙁 Pulled into the first gas station reststop we saw, bought the vignette and emailed the company asking for leniency. Hope this works if not it will be an expensive mistake.
Got to the alpine coaster and headed up the chair lift to the start to wait our turn. Over an hour later we were at the start. First Bryan didn’t want to do it, then they wanted to go with Patrick and finally we settled with the following order, Sable, Esther, Bryan and Patrick. Yeah….Bryan was on my butt the whole way down. To give some context of the coaster, it is 2.8 km long, speed allowed up to 40 km/h, 68 curves, 23 waves, 7 jumps and 4 bridges. We went across the mountain, through the forest, by the cows and sheep. This ride included it all.
Back to the hotel for dinner again tonight and a little 1.8 km hike for Patrick and I. Headed up to find our cows (they were lower tonight…didn’t want to get shocked again), down to the church and back up.
Didn’t quite hit my 10,000 steps today but did manage to get 9,621.
