How not to navigate across Europe

It is harder than I would have thought to keep this up to date. What to discuss? I am back in Paris again after driving back from Vienna via Innsbruck and Strasbourg. Innsbruck was a marvel after so long staying in bustling cities for the past few weeks. Soaring snow-covered mountains, blue glacial rivers, green pastures and wood-beam houses make Innsbruck one of the more scenic places I've ever been. On Sunday morning I was out exploring and came across a sort of parade next to the Hofburg (Palace). Everyone was in traditional garb, and there was a band and a small militia marched up in their lederhosen with rifles at the ready. There was a small ceremony, the anthem was played and the militia fired a salute. Then the whole parade marched off into town, flags waving. Most curious.

One other curiousity is that I did not see any livestock anywhere in Austria. Miles of green pastureland, but not one cow, sheep, not even a horse. Perhaps they were hiding behind the large barriers along the highway? As soon as we entered Switzerland, there were cows grazing where you'd expect them (see photo below). Given the amount of meat on offer in the restaurants in Austria, they must have a few cows somewhere. Although they do seem to eat a lot of veal, so perhaps most of the cows never make it to pasture?

After Innsbruck we made the decision to not stop in Switzerland, but rather push on to Strasbourg, France for a night so we could arrive back home in Paris a day early. We did stop in Liechtenstein for lunch (and drove across the country in about 20 minutes) and breezed through Switzerland on our way back to France. Cat & I had been to Switzerland on a previous holiday, so we didn't feel bad about skipping our way through. It did mean that we did a classic tour of Europe with four countries in one day (Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and France) .

Strasbourg, France is another connundrum to me. It is a relic of a town, by which I mean the centre is practically undisturbed from the medieval period. It is quite incredible. All these old wood-frame, lopsided and drooping houses with doorways about 5 feet tall, lining the canals that separate the city centre from the rest of the city. The Strasbourg Cathedral of Notre Dame, with it's gothic spire, imposes itself over the town, and must have served well to put the fear of God into the local inhabitants. According to Wiki, it was the tallest building in world from 1647 to 1874 - and is still the 4th tallest church. This fact was of much use to Cat and I as we did not have a city map for the city when arriving, but I knew that our hotel was near the cathedral. We navigated in by the church spire like two pilgrims. I might add a comment now, that if you find yourself driving around Europe, you might want to pick up a map with a bit more detail than the map of Europe that we were using to get around.

The route back to Paris was pretty straightforward, so we thought it might be nice to stop in Champagne on the way to sample some local product. It turns out that the grape-growing region in Champagne is much smaller than one would think, and we ended up driving down 50km of back country roads before laying an eye on a grape vine. At this point we were navigating off of a tiny map in my Lonely Planet France book. Having been on the wine route in BC, California, and Ontario I think were were expecting a little more local guidance to be available in the way of tourist information and signage. We did finally find the Champagne Route signs, but every place we drove through looked like the sidewalks had been rolled up for winter. I guess a Monday afternoon in April is not the best time to go wine shopping in Champagne. So back onto the highway we went, with no champagne. We declined to purchase the champagne on offer at the local Shell station (which is also where we ended up having lunch). I guess we should have read the Lonely Planet and actually gonr straight to Epernay as they suggest instead of trying to discover something for ourselves.

It feels good to back in Paris where I have a good city map and can now find my way without getting too lost.