Quote:
Originally Posted by GrussGott
Wow, I just got a chance to go through your thread and it's awesome! Great pics, and those opening pics of AW should be the definitive "should I get AW?" pics. Answer: yes. you should. Stunning Welt pics! 
I"m interested to hear more about the car train though ... what was it exactly? Any pics?
THanks for taking the time to post this!
EDIT: 2nd question, did you get track insurance for SPA and if so, how much? (if not ... whoa!) |
Thanks for the kind words! The Welt is by far one of the most impressive structures I've ever seen. It seems purpose built to pour light on your car in the most beautiful way possible (though that hardly seems like an accident).
As far as the car train goes, it kinda went like this:
After Großglockner, we were continuing to make our way south through Austria. The route took us to a small town called Innsbruck, at which point, the nav software was directing us to hop on the train tracks and continue, with no further information.
Obviously that wasn't right, but I thought it was actually just faulty software or something, but then I used Google Maps and it said the same thing. So then we decided to look up what car trains were (since the nav mentioned them at the beginning of the route), then when we found out what they were, I looked up the Innsbruck timetable, at which point, I found this page:
http://www.oebb.at/en/Travelling_abr...taly/index.jsp
I wish I had more pictures or video, but it was pretty dark by that point, so little would have probably been seen. Essentially, you line up at a booth, pay a guy, then when the train comes in, you literally drive onto it. You continue driving down it, then stopping when you've reached the end, or when the person in front of you has stopped. It felt pretty narrow, and I was unaccustomed with the car by that point so that was a bit nerve wracking, but otherwise, pretty easy. You hop out of your car, then board a passenger car and hang out for 20 minutes while you cross the mountains.
One thing to note: your car is on a train, so don't arm the alarm or when you get to the other side, you'll realize the damn thing's been blaring the whole time. Also it's embarrassing
When hop back in the car, then they open the gate and you drive out. To be clear, the train has two parts where a car can get on or get off the train. We drove onto the front of the train, then drove off the back. Hope that explains well enough.
As for Spa, well... I guess I'm either brave or stupid (probably more stupid), but I didn't line up track insurance. In hindsight, I absolutely would have. I didn't realize it was going to be a regular track day. The website description led me to believe it was very touristy; more for everyone than gear heads, and thus I figured the driving would be relatively easy and light. After all, I wasn't going there to drive my car hard or anything, just to christen it. With the other drivers as aggressive as they were, I was instantly regretting my optimism.
But nothing happened, so all's well that ends well, right?