Into Austria, Italy, Austria

July 6, 1963

The border out of this horrible country was really quite nice. We began to climb up into the Tyrolean Alps and as we got near the border we followed a stream up a Valley. We got through the customs quite effortlessly and then had to climb about 1000 feet up the hill to go to the Austrian border. We climbed something like the road from Buena Vista to the school but paved and finally the car couldn’t make it so we girls hopped out. John had hives and had thrown up so he and Bobby rode with daddy. It was about a mile up and the most beautiful view down into Yugoslavia behind us, lots of lovely wildflowers all around and thin mountain air. At the top we discovered it had been a 35% grade so our little car was justified in having trouble. This was the Little Loible pass.

Little Loibel Pass

We started down the Austria side which was just as steep, through lovely woods, hairpin turns. We stopped in a little meadow by an ice cold rushing stream for lunch. John still felt very sick and I was not feeling well either. It was gorgeous there with the Alps rearing their craigy heads all around us. The air so cool and the sun bright. We drove on through darling, quaint little villages with adorable gabled houses on real good roads. We were getting the impression that Austria is just a huge lawn with fairy houses and breathtaking mountains ringing it. We stopped in Klagenfurt to ask about a VW garage but it was Saturday and things were closed for the afternoon. We followed the Drave River up its valley to Lientz where we asked about the Grossglockner Pass at a gas station. A nice attendant listened to the car engine and said “Grosseglockner  nicht. Brenner goot.”   We turned into the camping marked at Lienz and called it a day.

The road from Yugoslavia to Innsbruk via Brenner Pass.

The camp was behind a restaurant and hotel. There was a swimming pool but it was a freezing day. We parked under a cherry tree, there were other fruit trees all over the yard. Pear and apples espallied  to the wall, trained flat like vines with fruit hanging on in abundance. Very clean lovely bathrooms but icy water only. We cleaned up and ate in the restaurant, delicious food, pretty waitress. I made friends with two boys who were drunk and got very unpleasant after a while. John was finally feeling better.

July 7, 1963

We woke to the lovely tolling of all the church bells as it was Sunday also, also cannon or firecrackers. We had a hard time getting out of the camp as we were parked in the far corner next to a hedge and no one else was ready to leave when we were. So the cute little old man who owned the site cut down the hedge so we could drive out! Daddy went up on the roof and took a picture of the Alps.

Northern Italy

We were headed for the Brenner Pass which meant a little foray into Italy it was a very easy pass and we were in Italy part of the morning. We passed a fascinating shoe store by the side of the road, everything spread out on tables and were tempted but they looked pretty shoddy so we pass them up. I got a lovely white straw flowerpot hat and we bought John some stamps.  trappings. We saw part of the procession coming across the fields from a Saint’s statute. The flowers, the quaint houses, blue sky, green pastures and feels, cool crisp air and the beautiful friendly people made a lovely picture. Everyone was going to church. We passed dear old ladies in black or purple with aprons to match, hats set square accompanied by long-stockinged, braided hair, little granddaughters.

At one village we passed a procession going into church, everyone dressed up in old-fashioned costumes. There were about 20 little girls in white making their first communion. All the married women had black aprons over a flowered dress, pink rose patterned material. They also had little black laced bodices and looked very fresh, pink cheeked and pretty. The priests and attendance were a riot of color too with red, purple, blue, gold, etc. stoles and scarves. There were banners and all sorts of

There was a huge tie up of trucks and cars at the Pass which is the border. We had no trouble and were waved on without a stop but we counted 385 cars waiting to cross into Italy and more were coming, we did not bother to count. We stopped in a valley on the little wooden platform covering a foaming stream for lunch that had to retreat our car as it began to rain. We came down the mountains quite quickly, passed a huge railway bridge at one place with lots of excursion buses coming out bringing people to see it. We drove into the heart of Innsbruck

looking for a VW garage but everything was closed on Sunday we drove a little way out of town to a camp and left our luggage and went swimming. The pool and dressing room were lovely and there were lots of people there. It began to sprinkle by the time we started back to the camp. Heavy clouds and looked dreadful.

We decided to try to find a “Zimmer” or rooms and a home. At one place, some nice little ladies came out to talk but each had only room for two so we went on into town and found a lovely little pension, the Bambi. It was practically brand-new, fiberglass steps, delightful clean little rooms beautifully furnished and with lovely feather comforters and everything nice your heart could desire. We went for dinner to a dark paneled interesting place and had scrambled eggs and bread. We drove around the wet streets a bit looking at the shop windows and then went to bed and are snug little pension.