We checked the eternal snow together and carefully following Grumpy Old Man's advice we stayed away from yellow snow... Far I guess...

@Robert, no gluhwein for me... I had to drive back to the hotel and even sober I already made the following mistake:

We stopped on our way back from the mountain at a little well. I turned of the engine of the car but left the radio on. We filled our bottles with the miniral water from the spring and stepped back in the car.
So... I put it in D, and release the handbrake. The car begins to drive and everything was OK... untill the first roadcurve. Braking was very hard, steering even harder. To slow down I pulled the handbrake and we stopped with screaming tires. I check the dashboard what could be wrong. Nothing... no warning lights what so ever...
Uh... no lights at all???
Shoot!!!
I forget to turn on the engine!!!
Because of the radio and the car driving on 'gravity' I asumed the engine was still on...
Braking- and steeringsystems are down when engine is on... darn modern cars!!!

So, that's me sober... Imagine me with gluhwine...

Here's a picture of us at about 3000 metres high:

Paul (and Ruben)

:-) :-) You need a pre-drive check list, like the pilots use....
1. start car
2. make sure engine is running
:-) :-)
Great photo, really breath-taking scenery. (did I spell that right??) :-) :-)

Oh Paul! Thank god you are still with us! What did the radio play? Heavy Metal! I'm sure this will never happen to me. Ooops! Maybe I shouldn't have said that!

But when you think about it... the Netherlands are flat, so this couldn't have happened to you in your homeland!

Anyway, I'm happy we still have our "Campaign junkie" at Armorama!

Jean-Luc

Very similar experience in 1971. We were stationed in Germany & took leave to Austria -- at time I was driving a 1969 Camaro, 4-on-floor & all that.

Spent night or two in Vienna, then headed south. Stopped to take picture in mountains & while I put handbrake on, I didn't put car in gear -- looked around & it was about to roll off the mountain. I ran for car, jerked open door & got in & stopped car -- about six feet from edge !!!!

Rest of trip was uneventful & we spent a wonderful 4 days in the Dachstein mountains, GrossGlockner & all that. I have no idea what the area is like now, but in my memory, it's one of the top 5 places I've ever been ....

John

Hey guys, thanks for all the nice comments.
Jean-Luc, you are right: I'm used to flat country so I don't aspect a car to drive without the engine roaring.
So my instinct tells me: when it moves, the engine must be running

Worst thing is SWMBO will remind me of this story for the rest of my life... But that's my penalty for reminding her to keep take care of the front wheels hup caps when parking the car... ( I bought new ones and she puts her 'sinature' over it the same day :-)... But luckely, I don't care that much about my bumby car )

@ John, don't now about Dachstein but the GrossGlockner area is still a beauty! Not suprisingly in a country were you can get very expensive tickets for littering. Wish we had that law in my country to for 2 reasons: 1st. my country would be cleaner after a few years, and 2. we double our state treasury in the first 2 years that law is enforced :-)

Paul

Paul:

IIRC, the Dachsteins are to the north(east?) of GrossGlockner.

In my post I implied they were the same thing, but are not -- sorry, old memory problem ...

We camped in the Dachsteins for 3-4 days. We had folks from half-dozen countries around us & most spoke 2 langauges, but not the same ones. So we'd sit around at night & talk -- if I wanted to talk with the Italian, I'd have to find someone who spoke German or English (my 2 languages) and Italian -- or some chain of folks who could do that. And so on. You can imagine the opportunity for totally fouled up conversation, but we managed to survive without anyones national or personal honor being insulted. Of course, the beer & wine helped ...

John