Day 3 (Great Race Europe) - Salzburg to Zurich
Well, we are continuing our trip and the light of Paris is in sight. I haven’t posted an update in two days, due to internet challenges on the road. I could access the internet, use my email and my VOIP phone to call anywhere in the world from Western China, but have been challenged over the past two days in Western Europe. We’re back on track today, so I will try to bring you up to date.
When we set out in mid-July on the beginning of this around-the-world trek, I had packed for summer weather. As we continue our search of the very best route for our world participants and one that will do justice to the pioneers that made this journey in 1908, I think we are on the right track.
Although, if those men and their great cars had driven into the summer blizzard we experienced in the Austrian Alps, it would have been a non-event compared to what they went through. For us, it was an adventure and gave me a greater appreciation for the feat that they accomplished so long ago.
Yesterday on our route from Salzburg, Switzerland to Zurich, we drove headlong into summer blizzard that forced even the experience drivers in the Alps to stop. Cars, busses, motorcycles and trucks were all stopped in their tracks by
the sudden onset of a winter storm in September. The Austrian police even flagged us down to ensure that our vehicle was equipped with winter tires. I assured him that it was, but he walked to the front of the car anyway to looked at the front tires somewhat blurred by the white out and then waved us on. A few hours and hundreds of curves later, we arrived in the sunshine in beautiful Zurich, Switzerland.
By the way, gas and ATM’s are plentiful.
The lights of Paris are on the horizon an as we make the turn towards the west and continue to follow the spirit of those that made a trip similar to this nearly a hundred years ago.
On the Road,
Wayne