Day 1 – Saturday, December 19, 2009 – Drive from Kortrijk to Salzburg

We are scheduled to depart today for the nine hour drive to Salzburg, Austria.  We desired to leave the house by 8:00 am.  Of course, we get on the road by noon.  We get a good five hours in, although we took an alternate course.  Unfortunately, the maps that we had in hand for this trip were difficult to understand.

Google Maps Recommended Path  (1020 km; 9 hours 1 minute)

Smith Family Path  (1034 km; 9 hours 20 minutes)

Our path seems more direct. We win, google maps!  We win.

The temperature quickly dropped to -16 degrees Celsius (3 degrees F).  We passed some beautiful vineyards near Schwitzengen.

We saw many “Alsfahrts” signs and shared many laughs. The temperature made this a difficult trip. Even the antifreeze was freezing on the windshield, which made visibility tough. The Germans really like to work on their highways, and they don’t like street lights, or using reflective paint on the roads. We arrived safely at the hotel at midnight. Great day of traveling. Wonderful fun had by all.  Katie thinks that it is one of the hardest drives we have ever done. I didn’t mind it (other than the adverse driving conditions) because everything was new, so I didn’t feel bored.

We also saw many wind-mills. Good thing the government is subsidizing all of this with the taxes they are bringing in from the people!  The kids did great.  We stopped at gas stations; and we also saw bathrooms that you had to pay for to go in and use.  50 EU cents… and it was worth every penny.  We did later find out that we can turn those “vouchers” in if we buy something and receive the credit.  Pretty cool.  Toilets were self cleaning.  At first, I thought it was conforming to fit a large person’s rear.  They weren’t quite that cool… Katie says that she wants one of these self-cleaning toilets in our addition.