Four countries in one day

A total of about 15cm of snow had fallen over night and as I opened the front door in my pjs to see what we were going to have to deal with today the sight of it still made me smile. It had transformed the mountains around us and it now looked like a winter wonderland. The road had been graded but it looked incredibly slippery and snow was still coming down steadily. I really had no idea how we were planning on getting out of here and decided to let Lew sleep for a bit more whilst I showered. He didn't quite believe me when I woke him up at 9.30am and explained we had 15cm of fresh powder out there. Straight away he was outside in his pjs and wanted me to get out there and assess the road conditions which I wasn't keen to do yet since it was so cold. So straight after he showered he was back outside stomping around and came back to declare it was just slush under the snow and that he thought we would be fine. We had a wee visiter whilst we were outside which was the next door neighbours dog who was just so overly excited by the snow and was running around with a single croc in his mouth. Lew said it reminded him of his dog Max back when they were in Colorado and he used to bury himself under it all so no one could find him. By 11am it had stopped snowing and the sun was beginning to peak through in places allowing us to see a the rest of the valley around us. We decided to pack up and try it out and whilst Lew packed everything into the boot I vacuumed the rest of the car since it was looking very unloved with all the bits of food in it. There was honestly enough to feed a small African family in there since Lew doesn't have great aim when he is driving and eating. We also have to return it in 9 days In Lyon, France and if we don't want to be charged €80 ($134 NZD) to have it cleaned we need to have it in a reasonable condition.  Once everything was in the car Lew turned it around in the driveway and we continued down the road. We almost didn't make it up the small hill by the house but thankfully we had enough speed to get through the slipping. The rest of the drive down the hill was fine as the snow on the road had turned slush well and truely but that didn't stop Lew did a few break tests to see how slippery it was on the way down. The sun was coming out in the mountains around us and it was so beautiful we stopped to take pictures a couple of times. I put the route into my phone and it seemed it would take us 5 hours to reach Lucerne, Switzerland. Scrolling out I realised it was taking us in the direction we didn't want to go which was up through Innsbruck, Austria and also Lichtenstein. However, the other option of staying in Italy would take us an extra hour meaning it would be pitch black when we arrived in our accomodation. We decided we would just have to be in four different countries in one day - Italy, Austria, Lichtenstein and Switzerland! We knew we needed a vignette for Switzerland but our Airbnb hosts also told us we would also need one for Austria. A vignette for those of you who dont know is a sticker you have to buy and put on your car windscreen in certain countries to allow you to use the motorways. Basically it is like the tolls we had to pay in France and Italy but all rolled into one sticker so you have no toll booths (or so we thought!).  We almost changed our mind about the direction we were going in but looked at the roads we would be traveling on and they were small roads- not so ideal if it begins snowing again.  We stopped off in a petrol station not long after to ask the whether we could buy an Austrian vignette before we got into the autoroute as it said they usually sell them. They just shook their head at us and we decided to see what we could find closer to the border. It was interesting driving around the hills and seeing the line in which the snow came down to last night separating some houses from others. It didn't take us long to reach the Austria border and we started seeing signs for a vignette which made us drive off the road to buy one at a cafe on the side of the road. It cost us €8.90 ($15 NZD) and we had to google how to put the things on since there is a particular place and a particular way and if you don't get it right your fined as it's not valid. The way we were getting into Austria from Italy was over a pass called the Brenner Pass at 1,375 m (4,511 feet) and as we reached the top of the pass it was snowing again and -1 degrees. We were very confused when we reached a toll both and I vaguely remembered that there were certain tunnels that were not included in your vignette and they charged us €9 ($15.10 NZD) to have driven this pass! There weren't many extra toll routes so we figured that was probably the last one. Unfortunately I wasn't correct and we got charges an extra €9.50 ($16 NZD) again for a tunnel called the Arlberg Road Tunnel which is actually pretty spectacular as it is the largest tunnel in Austria. It was built in 1978 and is a 13,972 m long tunnel that allows drivers to avoid the Arlberg Pass. We didn't know how long it actually was until we were about 1km in and it tells you have far you have been and how far you have to go on the walls. Lew says "do we have 12km to go in this thing still!" And it was then I did some googling as to what we were actually driving through. Still we didn't reckon it was worth the €9.50 we paid and if the weather had been more favourable we wouldn't have said no to a free route over the top of the pass. I think they recently upped their toll price since they finished a €156 million ($261.8 million NZD) upgrade end of September this year which included more escape routes of shorter distances, thermal scanner that detect overheated parts of trucks and buses before they enter the tunnel and an acoustic warning system to name a few. After we passed through these two routes we got a view of Innsbruck on our right hand side as the motorway flew over it. Someplace we will certainly come back to but their car rules indicate that we should have snow tires on right now so we don't want to be fined for that! We lost track of time and it was about 3pm when we saw what looked like the Lichtenstein border that was two containers on the side of the road with a speed bump in the middle. We thought for sure we would have to pass through some sort of border crossing since it isn't part of the EU but no one was around and surprisingly we just entered our third country for the day! Lichtenstein looked pretty similar to Austria and also to the Dolomites with its mountains, green grass and trees. We had been searching for food for awhile now and Lew was on the hunt for a good burger place since now we are out of Italy we have to wean ourselves off pizza. We looked at a couple of places in Lichtenstein but they ended up being just a bakery and a supermarket, but they did have a free bathroom! Giving up we were only about an hour away from our destination so Lew said he could wait. Turning back around we planned to keep going on the motorway but realised as we crossed this bridge there were the flags from Lichtenstein on one side and the Swiss flags on the other and we were surprised to find ourselves in Switzerland also without a border crossing and about to get onto a motorway without a vignette in which we would be fined for. We had to turn around and go back to try this supermarket we just came from to see if we could buy one. On the way Lew was still looking for burger places and was so concentrated on this we ended up on the curb driving along the footpath. I had to remind him that I would find the food and he just needs to keep his eyes on the road! The supermarket didn't have any but luckily the post shop next door did and for 40 CHF ($58 NZD) we came away with our vignette which is for the rest of 2017. They really scam tourists since there isn't a short term option like there was in Austria and whilst being cheap if you were buying them yearly it's rather expensive for a week long trip. The Citroen dealership is really getting a good deal when return this thing with both an Austrian and a Swiss vignette attached!

After placing this on the windscreen we were ready to get on the motorway to head into Switzerland. It didn't take us long on the motorway to get to Eschenbach where we are staying a short drive out of Lucerne since we didn't have to stop to pay tolls along the road. Our host Irene met us as we arrived and showed us into the accomodation. It was very cute and almost everything we needed except I had been excited all day about dealing to our huge bag of washing and was disappointed to see it didn't have a washing machine. My fault for not checking as it was never supposed to. We unpacked everything and despite already having been to a supermarket last night and also today in Lichtenstein Lew had forgotten to buy milk and his routine of a hot chocolate each night certainly cannot be broken! It was raining outside but the place had an umbrella Lew could borrow so finally half of me didn't have to get wet due to his stubbornness for still not having purchased his own one. The town was pretty small with nothing really to see, especially on a dark raining night and most people were going about their usual routines since it was a Monday night. We enjoyed the walk after being cooped up in the car all day and found the grocery store easily. It had good supply of fresh milk which Lew had been looking for and that UHT milk he had been buying  instead just did'nt cut it. We were very pleased we had done a decent shop yesterday in Ortisi, Italy since the prices of everything were outrageous and basically double the price of everything in Italy. After getting back to the accomodation we cooked up some chicken we had brought from the butcher yesterday, a salad and some boiled potatoes. There wasn't a chance we were eating out whilst we were here and we can only imagine how expensive it will be. Tomorrow we will have to see what the weather is up to - possibly Mount Rigi (which our host told us is a girl!) or the Lucerne transport museum.