Hello to everyone!
I just returned from my vacation in the alps. The plan was to go there on a motorcycle, but plans changed. I went there with my 400E, so I can post a short story how it went. For the whole trip, I drove more than 1600miles and fuel mileage was around 22mpg. I think it's the highest I got in a long time.
So here is how the journey went.
The first day was just going near the Slovakian border, where we stopped for the night. We visited Kraków along the way there.




I parked the car in good company there. I think everyone can guess what was hiding under the car cover.
After quick sightseeing, we went straight to our accommodation for the night. The last 1km was a little bit stressful because the road was just some rocks and rather steep downhill ride. Not a good combination while having lowered suspension. The room that we rented for the night was great, and the views were amazing.



The next day was riding straight to the alps in Austria, where we would spend the next 5 days. Views were getting better and better along the way.




On the third day we just ride the cable card to the top of the nearby mountains.
On the fourth day we drove grossglockner hochalpenstrasse. The highest alpine road in Austria. It was a nice 48km drive up and down the mountain. The highest viewing point is located 2571m (8.435 feet) above sea level. There's even a parking spot there so you can drive there.




Another stop was at the grossglockner viewing point. Only, 2369m (7.772 feet) this time. There we could see what was left of the glacier and the Grossglockner mountain, but there was one surprise that I didn't even expect. A car museum made as a celebration for the 50 years of Porsche Turbo!











After staring at the cars for far too long, we went down the hill and took a ride back on the train. No, I didn't leave my car behind. This train will transport you and your car through the long tunnel to the other side of the mountain. I really couldn't miss this experience.
A quick note here. You can drive this mountain road with almost anything. My mind was blown when I saw a group of 10 or more tractors driving there.
Another day we visited Salzburg, where apparently there is still spring and flowers are still blooming. The grass is also greener there.
There was also a Red Bull hangar-7 that we visited, and to our surprise, the entry was free of charge.





When driving back on the highway that day, we saw a big black smoke in the distance that turned out to be burning W211 or W210. I was really hard to tell. Really sad view.
One last trip on this journey was to the Eisriesenwelt. The biggest ice cave in the world. It's 42km (26miles) long. Only the first 1km is open to the visitors, but even this short section is really impressive. Only one picture form the inside because it was dark in there, obviously.




Return trip, we did without stopping for the night. 13h and 1200km (745miles) later we arrived back. Absolutely zero issues with the car for the whole trip. Just stopping for fuel and driving.
My final thoughts on this journey are. First, the alps are beautiful and I highly recommend everyone to visit them especially if you live nerby. Second: People in Austria really freaking love Porsche. I never saw that many of them on the road in my life. Third: I would love to return there, but on a bike as soon as possible. Fourth: Manually selecting gears on mountain roads is almost essential in this car. This explains now why, when I got it 10 years ago, the shift knob was basically thrashed. The first owner lived in Switzerland.
Thanks for reading through all of this, and I hope it was a little bit entertaining.