Monday 18 April

6-20C

Oh no….up at 6 again!!!!I hope we don't have to do this for the rest of the tour!We were in bed fairly early last night so we had a pretty good rest.The sun is shining and there are clear blue skies so hopefully it'll be a lovely day.We drove south this morning, the landscape changing to snow capped mountains.We drove through a long tunnel which, at the start we were in Germany and at the end we were driving in Austria.It's so lovely, the alps, the wooden huts on the lush green fields, the woods, little streams trickling down from the mountains.We drove into Fern pass which was absolutely beautiful….we were twisting around in our seats and craning our necks trying to take in all the gorgeous views.Mum's like a kid in a lollyshop…..she just doesn't know which way to look jumping up and down like a yoyo, taking millions of photos.After going through the pass we continued on the motorway into the Tyrol and onto it's capital Innsbruck, which is famous for Swarovski crystal which also has it's headquarters here.OMG….Innsbruck is soooo picturesque.It was hard to know where to look.Unfortunately we only spent an hour here which didn't give us enough time to explore all the city had to offer, especially as l spent most of the time in the Swarovski shop.The population is 100,000 and it was host to 2 Winter Olympics.Inn is the name of the river and Bruck means bridge in German so Innsbruck means "bridge above River Inn".We continued on and went through a tunnel and came out in Italy!Awesome!!This far north of Italy is very much the same as Austria, naturally,and 2 languages are spoken, Italian and German.Also signs are written in both languages. Around 1.30 we stopped at a roadside diner for half an hour to have lunch.We sat outside and even though the temperature gauge showed 14 degrees it felt much warmer especially with the sun on our backs.Continuing our journey through the mountains.It's just so beautiful…..mum's still snapping away…l reckon she'll have a sore bum tomorrow with all the jumping up and down she's doing!We went through lots of tunnels which cuts out a lot of winding up and down the mountains.There were so many small villages nestled in the mountains, all as beautiful as the next.We made a stop in the winter sports resort of Cortina in the Dolomites.The Dolomites are imposing vertical pinnacles of naked rock which alternate with the soft lines of forests, meadows, alpine lakes and pastures.At sunrise and sunset the Dolomites are tinted with warm hues of red that pale in the midday sun.When bathed in moonlight they take on an almost supernatural appearance. They are a world natural heritage area.We didn't get time to have a look around Cortina as we only stopped for 30 minutes and all the shops were closed or at least in the area we stopped at they were.Coming out of the alps and onto the flat plains where there are lots of vineyards, we travelled eastward to Venice where we'll be staying for 2 nights.Dinner was at the hotel.We had lasagna for entrée, chicken and veg for main and a custard slice and biscuit and cream for dessert.