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After the excitement and enjoyment of our days in Venice, and yesterday's journey we were both tired so had a very early night and a long sleep. When we wake it is clear we are moving towards both the north and autumn. The gauge is reading 16C inside and 9C outside, and the sun rising through the trees highlights the leaves beginning to change colour.
We set off at 11:00 down the winding mountain road and through the village of Terlago with its very narrow streets. We stop for fuel but the pump here won't accept cards. Only Italy could make buying fuel such a palaver; there is a central money slot which snatches a note out of your hand quicker than a gull stealing chips. Money gone you enter your pump number, grab the receipt which it spits out, realise it's not your receipt so scrunch it in the bin, then return to your pump and select a button for the amount to be pumped, wait for the green light and pump your fuel. Return to the money-mouth to find someone else has pulled out your receipt by mistake and scrunched in into the bin. It was much easier in Tuscany and Bologna where there we found garages with attendant service.
We join the autostrada outside Trento and straight away we are driving into and through the Dolomites. The first thirty-odd miles are similar to yesterday except that there is no haze and all the colours are brighter. There is a strange sensation with such tall mountains rising up in front that leads to feeling like going down hill, but the amount of throttle required tells you it's either flat or slightly up. In one valley we definitely were going down quite a steep hill but the wind up from the valley floor really held us back.
As we get north of Bolzano, major roadworks add over half an hour to our journey, but let us enjoy the changing scenery as the mountains change from grey to red and become steep cliffs with high pointy peaks, and away in the distance some mountains still have some ice on their tops.
When we planned to come through Austria is was merely as a direct route, the quickest way out of Italy towards home, but the journey here has been enchanting and by the time we reach the toll booths we are delighted we came this way. Just past the tolls we have to call into a service station to buy a vignette. This is a windscreen sticker required to drive on expressways and motorways in Austria. We buy the 9 day minimum for €2.20 and proceed towards Innsbruck.
For the last few miles in Italy, and now in Austria, we are taken right into 'The Sound of Music' landscape.
Cue Julie Andrews
Towering mountains with Brunswick green trees / Fast flowing rivers on their way to the seas / Pale hillside pastures with chalets of wood / Red pointed spires where churches are stood
Not quite Rogers and Hammerstein but you get the gist, although we didn't spot any yodlers yodel-aying that they'd stepped on a lonely goatturd!
We have a long descent on the motorway where Austria's different traffic system takes a little getting used to. On these descents lorries must stay in lane 1 and are limited to 40kph [25mph] so it's a bit strange running past an endless, slow moving convoy doing twice its speed, while in lane 3 you are being passed by cars doing half as much again.
Finally we see signs for the town of Natters, which isn't much to speak about, and drive through a lovely flat grass pasture to the Natter See campsite and get a pitch right on the edge of the lake.
It's really peaceful. There are mountains in the distance and trees all around the lake. The perfect reflections are disturbed occasionally by jumping fish. On the far side is a restaurant which we will try this evening.
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