European Vacation 2012

Österreich-Confoederatio Helvetica

Austria-Switzerland

During our vacation, we travelled through Austria twice (to Hungary and back) and Switzerland (to Italy and back) twice. We refer to Switzerland (in English) as Confoederatio Helvetica as there are at least three languages in Switzerland and the name in the native language is Schweiz, Suisse, or Svizzera depending on if you are in the German, French or Italian speaking portion of the country. If you have ever seen the short-symbol it is CH (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin).

The drive from near Salzburg to Italy. Note the snow. Maggie took these great shots.

Hotel in Salzburg

A bit of fun before bed

The pictures following are from our return from Italy to Germany via the Splugen Pass in Switzerland... a route that is NOT an option in Winter (portions actually have famous ski runs pass over them in the Winter!). The path is narrow, some of the turns are VERY SHARP hairpin turns... the kind you have to shift into reverse to cut tighter on! As Anton likes Wildflowers, there are also several shots of Wildflowers that are (in some cases) unique to this region. We hit it at the perfect time of year!

The dam at Splugen Pass, near the Summit.

Caden, 30 seconds after waking up, "Caden, wake up, quick break, we are on the summit." In reality this was to let the transmission cool down LOL

The Swiss have this way of unloading those great cows that make the milk for the chocolate ! They can unload TWO double tractor trailers at once. Hard to see in the next two pictures but they park one tractor-trailer on the shoulder (pictured) and then the other takes one lane. The road here is a small two lane mountain pass and they only block part of 1 lane with 2 semi's in this manner. Unloading those important cows responsible for the chocolate in the purple wrappers! The cows get unloaded, then wander down over the edge using ropes, harnesses, etc. as any good Swiss climber would... eating wonderful grasses and producing copious amounts of chocolate in purple wrappers that is known world wide!

The famous "Milka Chocolate" cows!

The next two pictures are from the lounge at the Jagdhof-Schloss Am Fuschlsee (Hunters lodge at the Castle, Lake Fuschl). Caden and Aurelia are enjoying their fruit cocktails and bar-snacks before the evening meal. The Castle, Hunters Lodge, lake, and surrounding grounds are amazing to say the least! We were lucky as usual and upgraded to a nice suite with a view out over the valley-a real shame we only stayed here one night. It is a real nice place to stay but the service at the Sheraton-Salzburg was far better. On the up side, the theme was obviously hunting and there were hunting artifacts, racks from red stag etc. all over the buildings, halls, etc.

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