After a while you are either really impressed or very relaxed by the amazing mountains.
Germany - April 2001 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the road to Füssen
While I was rushing to get in and out of Garmisch-Partenkirchen it was becoming like a game of old. Home many km could I cover starting out the morning from Konstanz and going on to my destination near Fussen. If something interested me I stopped but if the scenery, fresh air, music, and melody of the driving urged me on I kept on going.
Photo - Typical high mountain lake
After a while you are either really impressed or very relaxed by the amazing
mountains.
The one thing that I was starting to pay attention to as the sun played hide-and-seek with the mountains was the temperature and the barometric pressure. It was mid-spring and the mountains were still cold. I felt that it would either rain or turn to snow. The later it got and the more that I drove around the region simply wandering from country road to country road, the more that I began to feel that the weather was closing in.
Photo - worsening weather
Yet sometimes when you drove into a town the weather cleared and you were left to wonder if it was going to get bad again over the next mountain line. Since I was driving in a car I wasn't really worried about getting wet, but I was thinking more along the lines of if I was going to come back and ride, how would I prepare myself for such rapidly changing weather. And, since I wasn't really planning my route, I was wondering if the weather turned really bad where would I plan to stay or would certain roads be closed because of snow.
Photo - Typical small town
This was a typical town with one central road leading through it
and on to the next mountain pass road down to the next town.
Photo - Hay Truck
Expected road hazards include large hay trucks parked by the side of the road
along a blind curve. These seemed to be everywhere in the Alps.
Photo - Alpine scenery
Finally, as it got to be late afternoon/early evening it was clear that a major powerful storm system was settling in over the whole region. Even in the Mercedes E420 you could feel the air pressure change significantly and the winds whip up and hit the ground with force. Soon the car was being moved on the road and I didn't know if we could even possibly see a tornado or two (it was that strong).
As you can see from this picture there was quick a big difference between where the storm cell was and where the clearing was. It got very dark almost like night even though it was only 5pm in the afternoon. I was on some small transit roads mostly unmarked and just navigating by compass.
When it got to be fairly violent I stopped to take some pictures and record some video which you can see below. If you look at all of them you can see how quickly the storm progressed and how strong it was. While I wouldn't have minded being on a bike, this one was so strong that I might have sat it out for a bit if I was riding and not in a hurry.
Video - Rainy Drive 1 Real MPEG
Video - Rainy Drive 2 Real MPEG
