so took a road trip from mittersil (central) Austria (between innsbruck and salzburg) down the famous glossglockner highway. you pay a toll to go through it but that's a no brainer.

if you've done tail of the dragon in tennessee / n. carolina you know about a crazy twisty road, but to me that one's kinda ridiculous with endless hairpins.

this glossglockner road goes up and down the alps (with a short steep side road to a look out point at the highest mountain in austria, grossglockner itself).

if you love cars (or motorcycles), love great scenery, you'd love this drive.

the 'guide':




it was partially sunny to overcast on the trip and the range of temp is significant because the high point is 12000 feet or so i think so yeah, loads of snow, but the roads were perfectly cleared by beasts like this:




so, took the rental mercedes c-class. not knowing the roads of if they were slippery, and the certainly not being like a porsche, i didn't drive too fast, but the drive itself was AWESOME.

early stopping point:




ok that looks challenging and that's just the first bit:



old (60 yrs) bmw bike rider stopped to let cool down (he put snow on the engine!)



going on up...



stops and turns are numbered with clear signs



yup, even electric charge points at rest stops (which are all immaculate with spotless restrooms, food, souvenirs, etc)



i mean... wow



rest stop



of course:



onward



and onward:





i think this was on the side road at the top overlook point to the grossglockner mountain, which we couldn't see because it was in the clouds:



endless numbers of camouflaged test vehicles going up and down... caught one eventually:



notice this small side road has a paver like finish for more traction, the rest of the road was just perfect asphalt.



of course getting near the bottom there's a car meet.



last shot, nothing to do with cars, was right across the street from that car meet... there's endless numbers of churches like this:



hope you enjoy half as much as i did.

 

Looks like an awesome place to drive! Thanks for sharing, have another place to add to the bucket list

 

Just simply amazing pictures

 

awesome post, thanks for sharing! austria and salzburg is on my bucket list (big sound of music fan - not ashamed).

wonder what vehicles they are testing out there? they look like mercs.

 

Nice post, bit.

Many older mountain roads are like that, which were first done (and paved over) in the days before modern earth-moving equipment became available to straighten out sharp curves/steep grades or to tunnel through the mountains. Here is another classic example in the Alps...the famous St. Gotthard Pass.

 

Our own Pikes' Peak Highway, in Colorado, is like that......with no guard rails.




yup, even electric charge points at rest stops (which are all immaculate with spotless restrooms, food, souvenirs, etc)



+1.

Now THAT's what we need a LOT more of in this country (and a lot more generating capacity) if we are going to make the mass-switch to BEVs.

 

did a guided walking tour of salzburg... saw both places mozart lived.

didn't do sound of music tour - probably would have been great too.

scenes like this pic i took made me think of julie andrews' iconic scene

 

Amazing photos, I really miss those mountain drives south of the border, but your experience is simply beyond words, priceless.

 

glad you like them. this by the way is the view just from the airbnb balcony 'above' mittersil.
just the drives into town are fun!

 

more info on that road here:

https://www.grossglockner.at/gg/en/t...highalpineroad

 

thought this might be useful to anyone considering this. did the drive in a 'circuit'. the grossglockner road is on the right side of this circuit from fusch south.
rather than come back the same way, went around clockwise and boy am i glad... amazing scenery all around and around "9 o'clock" on this circuit there's a toll tunnel / road that is out of this world.

 

Looks like an incredible drive! FUN!! Enjoy your trip!

 

So cool! Thanks for sharing. Did you see any cyclists? I've always wanted to do a ride on something like this, like the Stelvio Pass in Italy.

 

absolutely loads. many i thought were insane for cycling up such steep and LONG mountain roads.
came this time of year though so it was less crowded. i'm sure in the summer it's mad busy.

 

Where is the thumb up function?
I need it for the pictures.