| 07-09-2010, 06:48 AM | #1 |
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Gross Glockner Pass – Hoch Strasse
Gross Glockner Pass – Hoch Strasse
I finally got to drive this wonderful road! Ever since I had first heard the word: Grossglockner Pass… I have wanted to drive this road in the clouds. Many years ago I read a story (in a British magazine: CAR) on this mountain pass road. Seems the Silver Arrow race cars use to run around these mountain roads. This was my first taste of this famous road. I have always wanted an excuse to go for a drive around those Alpine roads. Well… last weekend I finally made it possible. Just me and my TiAg 135i.  My plan was to go visit the EFA Museum in Amerang, Germany. Then continue to drive past Salzburg and down the Autobahn to Gmund (in Karten – there is another Gmund near Wein!), Austria. I wanted to go to Gmund (in Karten, near Villach) Austria because I am a huge Porsche fan. Gmund is where any P-fan will tell you the first 48 all aluminum Porsche 356 models were hand made. In near by “Zell am See” is where the Porsche family is buried and still owns a house there. For some perspective Amerang is about an hour away from Munich (Muenchen). Gmund is about two hours further South in Austria. And the Southern entrance to the Glockner Pass is another hour South of Gmund. Just so you may plan your next ED here! So, first I went to EFA (you saw my pics posted today, elsewhere on the forum) http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=406067 ….and then I drove down to Gmund to visit this small private Porsche museum there (maybe 20 cars): Automuseum Helmut Pfeifhofer. I stayed in a small village of Rennweg (Rennweg am Katschberg), at the Alt Post Hotel for the ripe ol’ sum of 35 euros per night! From Gmund I drove another 130kms south to “Heiligenblut” Austria. Heiligenblut is the Southern entrance to the Gross Glockner Pass. That is where all my fun began! What a ROAD!!! All I can say is IF you find yourself in this neck of the woods, I would highly recommend going for a drive up in the clouds: Gross Glockner! You can find more information here on the Glockner Pass: http://www.grossglockner.at/en/ The Glockner is considered a toll road open to the public. It costs 28 euros for a ONE day pass. Pretty pricey for a 48 km long road! But… it is still worth it! It is kind of a Nuerburgring in the heavens/clouds. It is really that nice. I did find myself a little scared of the drop offs. Especially since there are little to no guard rails found around the Glockner! There were A LOT of motorcycles roaming around this mountain road. And seemed like ever bike rider was scraping their leg pegs thru the many, many Alpine turns. Every turn was even numbered! lol I did not want to think why one would need to do that! But I did drive under my own limits thru the round a bouts! I never saw any speed limit signs! Just one sign at the beginning that said please drive SLOW – yea… right! And judging by how fast everyone was screaming and sliding their cars & bikes (and the occasional RV!) around the turns… no one really cared much! I never even saw any cops around!! A very different approach than say in the USA at Skyline Drive (West of Washington DC) where the Park Police sit in wait!! One cool thing about this road is that a lot of the auto companies use the downhill sections (the Northern entrance, a town called: Pusch) to test their future model brake systems. I saw a new Saab and a current VW Toran being tested. In typical German fashion they even have to label these cars as “test cars” on the back of them! I remember reading somewhere that Brembo and Continental also test here. What surprised me once I was driving around the Glockner is how much snow they still had up there! I mean it is summer time over here! We have temps in the 90’s F range right now… but up at two thousand plus meters they still had lots of snow laying around! I was also surprised to see there were MANY places to stop and eat lunch at. Or better yet, pack a picnic lunch and find a place to take in the Alpine air. There is even a museum on the Glockner’s historical past. I wish I knew about this before I went there. Ahh… maybe on my next visit there! At the highest part of the Glockner it was 2.500 meters. (7.500 feet!) And… my poor 135i felt about 60 Hp down on power too! But it still screamed from alpine turn to alpine turn. Ok, here are my pics: First a picture of my car in the picture postcard town of “GrossKirchheim” (Big Cherryhome!). I stopped here for lunch before arriving at the Southern entrance of Heiligenblut, Austria.   These next two photos I “borrowed’ from the Glockner website. It really shows(better than my pics) how sweet the Alpine Glockner roads are!   Ok, now my pics…    A very pretty water fall…  A water dam…  One of the many places to stop and get a bite to eat/drink.  Would you LOOK at that road!!! See the covered road half way up that mountain… that is where we are headed!   The cover roadway is coming…    Glockner Haus         One of the two tunnels on the pass... I wish I had a PPE!!!   Look a this SNOW!    This is how they get rid of the snow!             A prototype Saab being tested…   The VW van is also a test car…  The toll plaza at the North entrance…  Some notes for driving in Austria (Österreich). The biggest tip is you MUST PURCHASE an Autobahn decal in order to legally drive on the Austrian Autobahn. A ten day decal costs seven euros. IF the Polizei stop you with out this decal, the fine is 110 euros right there on the spot! No cash… they will drive you to an ATM! Also… when you buy the decal… you MUST apply it to the front windshield. Failure to do so… will result in an even higher fine! I think 500 euros. You will see signs near the German-Austrian border saying “VignettenVerkauf”. Vignetten is German for toll decal. Normally there will be several signs warning you of this. But normally only the very last one is written in English. By then it will be too late. :”) How do they catch you? Austria has many tolls as you drive South. It is not that uncommon to have to pay anther ten euros to pass thru a bridge heading south bound. The cops will stand and watch for cars with out any Vignette decal.   VignettenVerkauf at the German – Austrian border heading South into Austria.    You can also exit the autobahn and buy a decal at any as station too. Check out the cheap gas prices in Austria! Some 25 euro cents cheaper than in DE!  And this is what the decal looks like…  The speed limit during the day(in Austria) for cars is 130 kph unless otherwise posted. AT night the speed limit is 110 kph. But most of the autobahns are posted at 100 kph. Don’t speed… bc the Austrian Autobahn Polizei are watching. Also… the Autobahn Polizei cars do not really look like typical Polizei cars. The Austrian tend to like to use small vans with yellow and blue lights. These are in fact real cops! Also do not tail gate… there are some places where the autobahn is specially marked to catch you tail gating! Also… the cop who gives you a speeding ticket doesn’t have to be the one who zaps you with a radar or laser gun. I have seen on German tv where they sit way on the side of the autobahn, on a bridge, or even in the woods, and zap the cars as they go past. Gmund, Austria… The old saw mill factory where Porsche built it’s first 51 cars…     Gmund castle in background… you just keep driving out of town to get to the old saw mill factory…  The private Porsche Museum…       The Austrian autobahn just outside of Gmund…  There are still many saw mill factories in this area of Austria…  IF you would like to see more pics of the Gmund Porsche Museum, you can see my pics here: http://s764.photobucket.com/albums/x...sche%20Museum/ I feel kind of funny posting car pics of other automobile maker’s other than a BMW’s on a BMW car fan site! Thanks for indulging me. |
| 07-10-2010, 03:52 PM | #3 | |
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Quote:
Having good roads with great drivers IS the best part of living over here! but in order to get that done... a driver's lic costs $2K USd and they tax the crap out of car stuff. ie: gas, oil, tires, registration fees. |
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| 08-14-2017, 05:47 PM | #5 |
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Thanks for the bump on this thread.....
Wahoo..... Can't wait! Just a few more weeks & I'll be there. 
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| 08-14-2017, 06:02 PM | #6 |
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We have been on the Grossglockner 2,5 years ago in the winter. While fully packed and 5 persons in it and snowconditions, our X5 diesel was the right car for the job.
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| 08-29-2017, 03:01 AM | #8 |
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Großglockner High Alpine Road is fantastic.
How about adding our last years featured thread? Driving the Grossglockner High Alpine Road with BMW Enthusiasts... |
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