Sometimes, things just go wrong – in Austria

They say “be careful what you wish for”. Well, just this morning, I said to Nanette that it would be so much nicer if our trip to Slovenia was along the old roads rather than that big sterile freeway. Well, the wassergersplunkinkonnektor sure fixed that!

It’s Wednesday morning – time to leave the quaint little apartment and drag our luggage back down the rough cobblestone streets of old Salzburg. As we step out the door, Nanette casually asks whether I remember the day we arrived. Well, yeah, of course – it was only three days ago after all. Our driver, Oscar, was so upset that he couldn’t drive all the way to the address we gave him. “No problem” I said. “We can walk from here” I said. Then, as his car disappeared into the traffic, the rain started. Have you ever tried to navigate Google maps in walking mode – in the rain – dragging luggage. “Are you sure it’s this way?” “Of course. Look – that little line there is probably that laneway, so, if we go back up that hill we just came down we should …”

Fortunately, that refreshing walk up the steep hill in the summer rain was the only slight mishap in our Bavarian adventure. Well, that is if you don’t count the long awkward minutes when the train back to the surface from the salt mine appeared to break down. We’re still not sure if that was a gimmick, and the maniacal laughter and unintelligible curses of our mine ‘guide’ were just meant to soften us up for the gift shop. Oh, then there was that other thing with the tour bus – you know, that thing where the tour guide has just finished arguing with the driver about knowing a great shortcut through some narrow suburban streets, then two very large buses try to pass in opposite directions through one very narrow tunnel. Bang! Oops. Looks like both buses have lost one of those huge outside mirrors. I don’t understand German, but even I know it’s a challenge to drive a bus without any idea whatsoever of who’s beside or behind you on the road.

Anyway, today will be different. We’re travelling to Slovenia using the same intercity-Uber type company that our brought us here from Munich. Ah, here’s our driver (who I’ll call Lukki). Hmm, his Skoda looks a wee bit older than the last one, but that’s ok. Lukki tells us he’s a 21-year-old Croatian student who makes a little money on the side driving people from Slovenia to Italy. Nanette asks him whether he stayed in Salzburg last night. “No, I never come to Salzburg before. I drive my car from Zagreb this same morning.” Something in my hind brain is asking “tired – student – with student car – that’s probably older than he is – on his first trip to Austria??” My forebrain tells my hind brain to shut up, and off we go.

All goes well, for a while. We leave Salzburg behind, then spend an interesting hour or two at Hohenwerfen Fortress (of “Where Eagles Dare” movie fame) and now we’re on the way to Bled via the beautiful Vintgar Gorge.

We’re just driving up the entry ramp onto the autobahn when – BEEP! BEEP! – red flashing light – then – nothing. Lukki is just as surprised as we are. “This light, it say the engine is overheat.” Yep, and the temperature gauge is off the scale. We haven’t quite merged onto the freeway, so Lukki just has enough room to pull over out of the path of the trucks screaming by. “You think we keep drive and see what happen?” “No Lukki. I do not think we ‘keep drive’. That sign says it’s only two kilometres to Bischofshofen. I think we drive very carefully to there and look for a mechanic.”

Lukki has a better idea. He’s worried that the Austrian mechanic will tell him the wassergersplunkinkonnektor ist kaput – “and that will take much times to fix. I will call my friend. He know about car.” To his surprise, the phone-a-friend also thinks it’s a good idea to get off the freeway at the first possible chance, so into Bischofhofen we go. No mechanic here, but we can buy enough bottled water from the local store to fill the obviously empty radiator. Start the engine. Much relief all round – the temperature gauge is back to normal. Half-way back up the hill to the freeway and – BEEP! BEEP!

At least there’s room to pull over here. Lukki phones both his friend and his manager. “My manager, he say there are two options. He can send another car for you from Croatia – it will take four or five hours to get here – or you can travel slow with me. My friend, he says we should be ok if we go slow, and we keep the heater on to help the engine.” So, here we are, trundling along on an intensely hot day, with the heater blasting at maximum and the air conditioning off. Oh, and Lukki’s iphone, which is our only source of Google map navigation, keeps shutting down from heat overload.

At our current rate of progress we not only won’t get to Vintgar Gorge, but we’ll be about five hours late arriving at Bled. The upside is – it’s way too risky to try to travel at 70 km/hr (downhill) and 10 km/hr (uphill) on the freeway, so we’re taking all the forgotten old roads through the beautiful Bavarian countryside. Guess you wouldn’t get that if your wassergersplunkinkonnektor worked properly.