Still tired from the castle tour and the weather than cam along, we were slow to get going on this Friday Morning. We were excited, as we would add two more countries, but would also be in the middle of the Alps. Before we left Garmisch, we emptied the waste tank and toilet cassette, filled up with water and headed for our Amazon Pick-Up Point. Originally, I was told my items wouldn’t be there, so lets see if they are?

The package was there, and we were able to make our way out of town, and before too long, back into Austria. We stopped for fuel, Kasey bought some bread since the station had a Spar inside. We back-tracked our route through Austria and back into Germany for one last time. Shortly after crossing back into Austria, we stopped at an orchard that was supposed to have a parking space. It is a unique Farm Camp. It had electric, but the charge was donation based. A trailer and camper were already there, and we were joined by a large camper van later that evening.

In the morning, I got the camper ready for travel and walked Salsa while Kasey went shopping at the store in the orchard. One of our LP Gas Bottles ran out last night, our first stop is to make an exchange for a full on. I think this one lasted at least 3 weeks if not longer, need to keep better track.

The first place we tried, a BP Gas Station, didn’t have them, so we went on to a big store, kind of reminded me of a Menards or a Lowes. They had a bottle, but no luck on getting deposit back, it happens. Just add into the cost of the fuel and we move on.

Our next big event would be crossing into Liechtenstein. This was the first time we saw a border crossing. We were slowed, but waved on, most likely because we have German License Plates. You could tell you were in another country, as it was a mix of Austria and Swiss in the look of the buildings. Austria seems to really like modern architecture.

If you look on a map, and look close to find Liechtenstein, you will see it didn’t take us long to get through. At about 62 square miles, it is just a square mile larger than Washington, DC. Passing into Switzerland was just like a lot of other country borders, we just breezed right in. We were also now deep in the Alps.

So far, mountain passes were not the issue, tight spots that were man made were. We had to pass through a couple of arches with centimeters on either side. Then into a town with roads that were barely a single lane wide. A navigation mix up in a town left us in the middle of an intersection. After people cleared the side walk, I was able to make our turn. I guess the camper van behind was not backing up for no one!

We got out in the wilds, and raising in altitude, so we stopped at a pull off to have lunch. After a mid afternoon meal, we headed on to where we wanted to park for the night. We turned off a main road, and started switchbacking and forth up an Alp. At the turn, we were about 800 (2600 feet) meters above sea level, shortly down the road, we went through 1km (3300 feet), then 1500 meters (4900 feet). We arrived at the turn for our selected and the road was narrow and steep, and the parking are looked to small for our rig.

Searching Park4Night, I saw that parking for a dam was just up ahead, so we thought that would be a much better place. As we made our way, we passed through 2000 meters (6600 feet). By the time we got to the dam, crossed it to the parking area, were at 2214 meters (7263 feet). For reference, the highest peak in The Smoky Mountains is 2025 meters (6643 feet), so we were 600 feet above that and still driving. We were also looking up at higher peaks!

Another van was parked there, they were from England, we both talked about leaving or staying. As we were, the snow started increasing, large flakes, too. They decided to run another two hours to Italy. We checked the weather. Despite having the same phones using the same app, we both got different forecasts, but both included 3 inches of snow and sub-freezing temperatures. I made the decision to head for lower, dryer ground. There was a gentle incline to get back on the road, and I think would make us stuck in the morning. That would also be Sunday Morning, and we had no idea when someone would come and clear the road.

While moving to the next spot, we dropped a kilometer in elevation. No snow, no rain, and the temperature was much more acceptable. It was a parking lot along the main road through town, but traffic settled over night, and we slept well.