Wednesday morning we said Auf Wiedersehen to the wonderful Villa Honegg, and Switzerland, and headed across the border through the tiny country of Lichtenstein, then on to our next destination in Austria. It was raining hard much of the four-hour drive, but we felt like it was better to have that happening while we did the long drive, then when we were shopping or trying to take photos. We drove through some incredibly long tunnels. The longest was about nine miles long!
As we approached the end of the journey, we again climbed a big hill to the hotel. Despite the clouds and rain, the view of the valley below became quite spectacular. Once again I hoped for some clearing or sunshine while we were there, to capture the amazing view in all its glory.
The hotel couldn’t be more different than the Villa Honegg. It was massive! Nearly 300 rooms, with an absolutely huge lobby and the largest spa in Europe. When you drive into the parking garage, it feels like you’re driving right into the lobby of the hotel. Chalky White was feeling pretty special!
The view from our room was pretty great too, despite the weather.
The room was huge as well, one of the larger rooms we’ve ever stayed in. The overall decor of the place was very Alpine ski lodge, large and comfortable, with lots of wood paneling and beams. Definitely all first class, five star stuff. Several restaurants, all really big. Breakfast buffet was amazing.
A little later in the afternoon I thought I’d better go fly the drone briefly to capture that valley view I’d seen driving up the hill. The forecast called for more of the same over the next few days, so I didn’t know if it would get better or worse.
Wednesday evening we had a buffet dinner in a traditional Alpine Hut near the hotel, which was fun. There was even live music of the traditional Austrian variety.
Early Thursday morning when I woke up, I looked outside and saw this pretty view from our balcony. I could finally see the tops of the mountains across the valley.
We had a great breakfast at the enormous buffet, then prepared for a fun group event. Most of the group went to a special “Spa Infusion.” This included some very HOT time in a sauna at around 95 degrees. That didn’t sound too bad until I realized that meant Celsius. In Fahrenheit that’s over 200 degrees! It was really hot, and we were in there for around 15 minutes. The guy there kept pouring aromatic liquids over the heat source, which would momentarily steam up and make the place feel twice as hot as before. It was hard to breathe, but felt pretty therapeutic. They even gave us honey or an olive oil/salt mixture to spread all over our bodies for some sort of detoxifying effect. Finally they let us out of there and we went outside to cool off a bit.
Next we went into a steam bath, which was not quite as hot, but still pretty intense. Toward the end of that we got doused with ice water. The whole experience was certainly exhilarating!
Apparently the normal protocol in European spas is that you arrive in your robe, then discard it while in the spa. No bathing suits.
Thankfully, they made a one-time exception for our group – otherwise we’d have gotten to know all our new friends even that much better!
A little later in the day, Mrs Whip had a spa appointment for a facial, so I took a hike of a few miles nearby. It was still very gray and a bit drizzly, but it felt good to get outside for some activity.
Lots of trails and roads nearby. Thankfully I didn’t have to read the signs to find my way, as I’m not so skilled in Deutsch.
As I walked back, I snapped a few more photos of the hotel.
Thursday’s dinner at the restaurant at the hotel was quite excellent, probably the best meal of the trip so far. We had a restful night, and I made plans to get up early to see if the weather was conducive to taking a nice drive on some mountain roads I’d researched as having some potential for driving fun and photos. The forecast said no rain until after noon, but the forecasts here never seem to be correct.
When I got up Friday morning, it was still dark, but I could see it was just incredibly foggy, though dry. I decided to give it a go. I grabbed a quick breakfast, then took off in Chalky White to see if we could have a nice adventure. I had a couple of different options for destinations. If everything went perfectly with the weather, I might be able to do both and still get back in time for a nice afternoon with Mrs. Whip. The initial destination was the Kaunertal area, about an hour and a half away from the hotel. As I got closer, I kept hoping for a break in the low clouds, but they never really seemed to lift. The scenery was nice, though I knew it had to be much better if I could actually see the whole landscape.
I drove along a long, narrow reservoir, that had some nice waterfalls feeding it.
Looking at the map, I could see that just beyond the end of the reservoir was a super-twisty road. I was looking forward to that! It turned out to be incredible. I sure wish the clouds would lift, but I made the most of it for both driving and photos.
Really fun road! I kept climbing and climbing. Before long I was starting to see some snow alongside the road.
The temperature dropped to around zero (celsius), and the signs indicated I was up around 8,000 ft. The views were pretty spectacular, so I flew the drone up toward the top.
In the bottom part of those photos, you can see the big bank of foggy clouds rolling in. That’s where I needed to head back to as I descended. Although I was wishing for those to all go away to expose the entire majestic landscape, I was grateful to be getting what I was. It sure could have been worse!
I turned around and drove back down the mountain, grabbing a few shots here and there along the way as the clouds permitted.
Because the clouds and fog didn’t appear to be lifting much, just coming and going, I decided to skip going to the other mountain pass area I’d targeted, and instead be a good husband and get back to the hotel and Mrs. Whip, so we could go do some sightseeing and shopping (and more laundry) in Innsbruck.
Innsbruck was just a half hour or so away from the hotel, and had a large central area with charming old buildings, and lots and lots of shopping opportunities. It was fun to stroll around and take it all in, despite the occasional small shower of rain.
Whenever we go on a trip, we’re always looking for great chocolate shops, and we found one here that we really loved. Lots of variety, and very high quality chocolate. We even went back for more later on the walk, to take some home with us.
Of course, this window display caught our eye – a really cute Golden Retriever stuffed animal. Just a few more days until we’d be home with our dogs!
On the way home we stopped to check out the cute little resort town of Seefeld. We saw a beautiful view of the valley below as we approached our hotel, so I had to fly the drone just one more time to capture the curve and the view.
Friday night was the grand final dinner for the whole group – steak and sushi at an exclusive club in the hotel. Most of the group would be heading back to Germany on Saturday and preparing to fly home Sunday. A handful of the couples would stick around until Tuesday for one more big adventure, including us.
Just as we gathered for dinner, there was a beautiful sunset, so we grabbed a selfie. The background almost doesn’t look real – but it was! Flowers, mountains and sunset, all dreamy, just like our whole trip.
It was a lovely dinner, though sad to see our trip drawing to a close, and having to say goodbye to so many new friends. At our first dinner they encouraged all of us to share photos on a group Google Photos site, so I’ve been doing that throughout the trip, and a few others have as well. They said there would be a contest for the best photos. I’ve gotten lots of nice compliments about my photos along the way, which was really cool. At dinner they announced the winner, and the entire group said “BRIAN!” all at once, which was embarrassing, but very nice.
Saturday morning I got up early (again) and swam some laps in the pool at the Interalpen. Then Mrs. Whip and I had a nice breakfast at their amazing daily buffet. So many great choices, all excellent.
It was dry outside, with the forecast calling for rain in the afternoon, so we decided to go somewhere we’d wanted to check out – the Leutasch Gorge, or “Spirit Gorge.” It’s right on the border of Austria and Germany. I’d heard it was a nice hike with a cool gorge below. It was only about a 20 minute drive from the hotel. It was super cool! There were all these steel walkways and bridges which gave great views of the gorge below.
That’s Mrs. Whip way up there on that bridge!
Such a cool place. We crossed over the last and highest bridge, and hiked back out. On the way out, we saw all of these cool little stone stacks that people had left behind. Mrs Whip added one of her own.
The trees were just beginning their color change for fall.
Since we were just a couple of kilometers from Mittenwald, we decided to drive over and check it out. It’s a really cute little German village, known for its colorful houses and violin-making history. We strolled around and did some browsing in the stores. I got one of the best pretzels I’ve ever had in a little backerie (bakery) there. We even walked through a little cemetery which was next to a very small church. It had really elaborate headstones.
It started to rain, so we headed back toward the hotel. On the way, the rain seemed to settle down, so we detoured back over to Seefeld, and had a light lunch and did some strolling through the cute shops there.
We went back to the hotel, and decided it was time to try a new life experience. One I sure never thought I’d have. We went back to the sauna/spa area. You know what that meant.
Thankfully, no one was there from our group. That would have made things even more awkward! There were definitely a fair number of people there, both men and women, and while I won’t say it didn’t feel a little weird, it was certainly a new life experience we won’t forget. 🙂
Final dinner at the Interalpen was really nice, with our smaller group. Sunday morning it was off to the next adventure in Germany, and I must confess, I’d been looking forward to this one for a long, long time.
We drove through rain, I mean RAIN most all the way on Sunday, which was about a seven hour drive. We were on the Autobahn quite a bit, and of course I wanted to drive like a madman, but Mrs. Whip wasn’t thinking that driving 150 MPH + was a good idea in the rain on wet roads. I had to admit she was right (I hate when that happens), so we kept it around 110 MPH or so most of the way when there was no speed limit.
Throughout the trip I was pretty impressed with the drivers in Europe. They stay out of the left lane unless they are passing, almost without exception. They seem more attentive overall than US drivers, and when the speed limit changes (as it does frequently over there), they adjust to the new speeds quickly. In Switzerland they almost never speed, as apparently there is zero tolerance in that country. I’m sure hoping I never got popped by the ubiquitous speed cameras in all the countries we visited (fingers crossed). The only complaint I had about the drivers is they really like to tailgate when they want to go faster than you.
On the way to our final Sunday destination, we stopped about halfway in Stuttgart at the Porsche Museum, right next to the factory.
Wow! What a cool place. The building itself was really interesting, and on the inside, there was a continuous looping ramp from the bottom to the top, which traced the evolution of their designs and vehicles.
That was really fun, and I’m sure glad we got a chance to visit. So many cool cars, many of them WAY ahead of their time.
A few more hours of driving, and the weather started to clear up toward the end. Then, we were THERE. The gearhead mecca I’d been waiting for!
I couldn’t believe it. This was finally going to happen. Not just visiting there, but actually DRIVING this masterpiece of a circuit.
This wasn’t part of the original trip offered. Wasn’t even on my radar, despite the fact that we’d be in Germany (not a small country). However, a few months ago, the organizers of the trip (Mark and Tina of Autobahn Adventures), emailed all of us who had signed up, and said if we wanted to stay a couple of extra days (and spend a few more $$$), we could have the chance to go drive the Nurburgring, with rental cars they offered there. At first I thought, although this would be incredible, I was already taking too much time away from the business, and spending too much money. Maybe some other time. But when I thought about it more, and had strong encouragement from Mrs. Whip and friends, I decided I really needed to do this! Who knows when or if we’ll ever be this close to the Nurburgring again? So, I booked it, as did a few other couples on the trip. I WAS SO EXCITED!
Sunday night we walked around the village, seeing tons of cool cars. I’ve never seen that many GT3s in one place. It was unreal. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant owned by the family of the legend Sabine Schmitz, who passed away earlier this year, way too soon. The walls were filled with memorabilia, as were the walls and ceilings of a bar we visited up the road called The Cockpit.
This weekend was unique at the track, as it was a three-day holiday weekend, and the final opportunity of the season for drivers to use the large (13 mile!) circuit. Also, it rained over the weekend, so Monday would be incredibly busy on the track. This type of trackday, what they call a Touristenfahrten, enables virtually anyone, in any type of vehicle, to drive on the track. Show up in whatever you’ve got, whether it’s a minivan or a Lamborghini race car, pay your per-lap fee, and off you go. It’s nuts, but so cool! And there were hundreds of cars there, and even more people. At certain places around the track, there were many spectators lining the fences, watching friends or hoping to see cool cars and crashes. Seriously!
Shockingly, I slept pretty well Sunday night, probably because I was tired from driving seven hours in the rain. To say I was excited when I woke up Monday morning would be a huge understatement. We had breakfast and headed over to the rental place, where we signed the lengthy waivers and had an orientation, which was filled with lots of videos showing crashes and mishaps on the track, so we’d be sure to take this very seriously. I was!
The car I chose to rent was one I’d read great reviews about. A little hot hatch that way outpunches its weight. It’s a Hyundai i30N. The N designation actually stands for “Nurburgring.” Hyundai has a huge facility at the track, and the car was pretty much designed for this. 270+ horsepower, full manual transmission, with great handling and very good brakes. I figured (and had also been told) that at your first time at this amazingly complex track, it would be silly to spend huge money renting a supercar, and that made sense, especially after driving the circuit.
One option I chose was to be accompanied by an expert instructor on the first lap, who sat in the passenger seat and gave tips through every corner and every section of the track. He put his own rear view mirror up with a suction cup on the windshield, as cars come SCREAMING up behind you on track, and that way he could advise me on when I needed to move over to get out of the way, in addition to my own constant checking of my mirrors. It was a nice way to get my feet wet out in that insane environment, though the chances of remembering any of it when I was out there on my own were zero. There were just way too many corners, blind entries, elevation changes, surprises, and technical sections to memorize. That process would truly take hundreds of laps. Seriously.
I had four laps total in the rental car. Unfortunately, in all but one of the laps, there were multiple yellow flags due to incidents where cars had crashed. That meant slow down, no passing, until you got past the incident. Most of each lap was still incredibly fun, unbelievably intense. I was going as fast as I was comfortable, looking ahead to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together and not think a corner was fast when it was really slow, or vice versa, while constantly watching the mirror, seeing guys in race cars with tons of experience on the track come screaming up behind, and having to move to the right to get out of their way. Super fun, and super scary. At one point I passed a VW bus out there. 😆
For almost the whole duration of laps two and three, I was able to follow a couple of cars that were quite fast, who obviously knew the track well, and stay right on their tail. That was the perfect scenario I was hoping for. So much fun! There are sections of the track that have these amazing rolling hills that are wide open throttle, that just go on forever. I was being cautious, but still was managing to get well over 200 kph, with a max around 235 (nearly 150 MPH). Plenty fast for my first time there!
Late in my third lap, they threw the red flag, apparently due to a very serious incident. The track was closed for well over an hour, with hundreds of people waiting around to get back out there. I had just one lap to go, but I sure didn’t want to lose it! Thankfully the track went green again, and I was able to get back out there quickly. For the first time, that lap had zero yellow flags, and it was crazy fun. As the lap drew to a close, I was laughing and shouting about how much fun it had been.
The fun wasn’t quite done, though. I had also signed up for a “taxi” ride. This is where you go around the track as a passenger with a pro driver, in just the type of car you want to experience it in. I chose a Porsche GT3 RS, which is a near-perfect track weapon.
In the orientation they had warned us about being a passenger, and how the intensity and roller-coaster effect of certain parts of the track could cause motion sickness. They even put air sickness bags in the cars! I wasn’t worried. Just before it was my turn, the car came back in and the passenger who got out (younger Asian guy) looked completely shaken. 😂 I still wasn’t too worried. I knew that it was important to just shut off the normal thought process of fear of crashing or flipping or accident or death or dismemberment while out there, and just trust the driver (and God) to keep me safe. Just sit back and enjoy it, like it was a video game or something. It worked! I had so much fun!
They secured my four-point harness snugly (I really need this in the GT3 for trackdays!), and off we went. The driver was a Brit, friendly but not really talkative, and he could drive!
They give the passengers a flash drive at the end of the lap which has video of the experience. Check this out:
Insane, am I right? About halfway through the lap there was a slowdown, with a long line of cars who apparently thought there was a yellow flag. We never saw it, so we finally got by them and took off again.
The driver was really, really good. As a trackday driver, and former motorcycle racer, I really appreciated how he sliced through traffic, and made the most of the car, sliding the rear here and there to get the lines just right. The car was magnificent. Fierce! Instant power, phenomenal braking, glorious sound, outstanding cornering capability. Lots of similarities to my GT3, but definitely that much stiffer and brutal, in a good way. Don’t think I’d want it as a street car, but for the track, it’s an absolute weapon.
What an experience. Everything I hoped for and more. Kind of like this whole trip!
Finally it was time to pick up a couple of souvenirs and leave this amazing track. I sure hope to get back there sometime for a whole bunch more laps. Maybe not on a national holiday at the end of the season, but still!
We took one last drive in Chalky White, to our final destination, Weisbaden. Yet another lovely and elegant hotel in a charming city. We walked around a bit, but couldn’t do much shopping as the shops were closed for the holiday. Good, my credit card had been through enough by that point! 🙂
High five from Mrs. Whip!
We had one final excellent dinner with our hosts and the three other couples for our final evening, which was really nice. Everyone very grateful and enriched by their experiences.
I can’t begin to say enough about what an unforgettable, amazing trip this was. Mark and Tina were perfect hosts, and I sure would love to go on another one of their amazing adventures. All of the people in the group were super nice and friendly, and it was remarkable how quickly we all felt like good friends. There would be no way to pick a favorite location or experience, as they were all completely delightful, interesting, exciting, and fun. We’ve never had a vacation quite like this one. It was just what we dreamed of, and so much more. We’re so very grateful. Now it’s time to get home and see our dogs!
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