I am getting a bit worried, having seen the stuff that is getting packed for our next trip. Old clothes, paint brushes, plumbing accessories, books on French electrical installations… the car is packed up to the roof with everything but the kitchen sink. In fact, I think I spotted a kitchen sink in amongst all the gear. It very much looks like we are in for a working holiday.

I don’t think I like the look of this!

But at least we are back on the road, definitely heading westward and definitely with France as the goal. It will take us a few days to get there so there should be plenty to see along the way.

Whilst still in Austria, we stuck to the motorways initially in order to get a bit of mileage under our belts, but we have also driven some lovely routes through the mountains and seen many lovely sights. We passed the famous skiing areas such as Schladming, Zell am See, Gerlos and Zillertal. Those slopes look very scary, even without snow on them!

We didn’t have time to hike out to the Krimmler waterfalls which are the highest waterfalls in Europe, but they still look very impressive from a distance. And of course, we drove over many mountain passes such as the Hahntennjoch Pass and the Gerlos Pass. The roads themselves were only around a mere 1700m, but the surrounding mountains are over 3000m. Talk about being at dizzy heights!

I’ve never seen so many motorcyclists on the road. I suppose they are making the most of the good weather before winter sets in.

By early evening we crossed over the border into Germany and started to look for somewhere to stay overnight in the Allgäu area of Bavaria. Her Ladyship took a bit of a trip down memory lane. She had spent a summer working in a goulash factory in the tiny village of Oberreute 36 years ago (I told you she’s ancient!) and she was anxious to see it again after all these years.

Oberreute itself has apparently hardly changed an iota since her ladyship worked there, although a local told her that the goulash factory was now a vegan cheese manufacturing facility. A sign of the times, perhaps. Her Ladyship turned vegetarian herself for many years after that four months stint of weighing and packing 100g portions of venison, wild boar and hare. I don’t blame her!

We also visited Sulzberg in Austria, just 5km from the Oberreute. The Irish students used to walk over there on a Saturday afternoons and Sundays to buy ice creams because all the shops in the German village were closed. They had to remember to bring their passports with them. The border guards tended to be very suspicious. I doubt they came across many Irish passports back then. The border checkpoint is long gone of course.

Motorcyclists were not the only ones out enjoying the Indian summer. Oberreute and several other villages in the area were booked out with hikers. We eventually found a hotel which, like so many guest houses and hotels in the area appeared to be stuck in the 1980’s (style wise, if not price wise), but the food was good and the views stunning. My owners even got up at dawn the next morning to watch the sunrise, the old eejits! I reckon that watching sunsets is just as good as watching sunrises.

And you don’t lose any sleep over them.