A run-away car in an endless winter
Firstly the winter- it may never end, so far this winter has been without doubt the best of the last decade and today I was in the Arlberg and a couple of days before April there is still 2+metres of snow on the roofs of Stuben am Arlberg. Quite incredible and more set to come over the next few days – Finbar and family (our ineedsnow.com ski holiday prize winners) arrived today in Stuben and won’t need the SPF 30 for a few days.
The car made its 20m and 45 minute journey through Stuben, sans driver like a docking manoeuvre with the ISS - image © ineedsnow.com
So I popped into the wonderful Hotel Mondschein today to meet with Markus the owner and upon leaving my hire car had disappeared from out of the front of the hotel. I thought it had been towed or else I had parked it another spot. I clicked the remote locking and saw it some 20m down the road, parked up at another hotel. Basically during my 45 minute meeting at the Mondschein, the car had slipped of its hand brake and gradually made its way through Stuben. I secured the car then checked around for damage, not a mark – for anyone who does not know the main street in Stuben, it is about 5 m wide and lined with historic, upmarket hotels. How the car managed to avoid what is basically a historic monument of a village is beyond me. One of the more bizarre moments this winter, I am sure it would have looked pretty strange to those who witnessed it as well.
Conditions in the Alrberg today, not typical spring skiing that is for sure – low cloud and snow:
how many schnaps did you have at the meeting with the hotel mondschein? are you sure the car was initially parked right in front of the hotel?
Mate saying the handbrake slipped off & forgetting to put it on are two different things entirely, but had anything serious happened, I’m sure you would have blagged it with the local fuzz.
So far then 2 explicit votes of confidence. When I walked out of the hotel with Markus the owner and expressed my alarm at the missing car he also asked if I had had vodka and not tap water during our meeting. I felt almost drunk with euphoria when I walked around the car to see it looking like a 9000km old car. How the car managed to navigate its way down one of the narrower main streets in the Alps is beyond me! All I can say that it was amazing good fortune and fortune being something I saved by it not hitting one of the historic hotels that lines the main road of Stuben.
John, I would hardly say I have the most reliable memory but the handbrake was definitely engaged when I retrieved the car. Whether it a ‘miracle’ according to Jules or as Vincent saw it ‘a freak occurrence’, it was a piece of good fortune that I will long reflect on.
Didn’t happen to slip next to a pub then ???
sounds like the car has a mind of its own. as for the endless winter…i like the sound of that!!!
John, unfortunately not although there are some great hotel bars in Stuben and a couple of popular terraces. I took a photo of the route the car took yesterday afternoon and when I stood there I was still in a state of complete disbelief – I have to side with Jules – it really was a miracle! Losing the camera was a tough one to take as there was some great film of the powder skiing there on Tuesday, but things really do even up in life, the events were a couple of days apart in Stuben and I have to say I would accept they way my cards fell overall.
Hey Cherie….not according to John it seems. The mind of a John-car would have taken to the point of maximum convenience for a cold beer. Sadly all I can report is that I found it 10cm from immovable stones steps, 1m from a parked car and about half a metre from the wall of a historic hotel – so all in all it was a pretty good fortune.
Oh my goodness … the years of actualy imagining you could one day have a car as fully functional as K I T have possibly come to fruition . All those nights away from Michelle up at the Skiigloo ( K I T HQ ) obviously paid off. You always looked up to the Hoff and now you are in charge of Austro K I T . Does she/he pick up kebabs and beer for you ? I am feeling a little jealous….
Hey Ben, well read above, John seems to value the spacial awareness of a lone automobile in different ways than I do. Lucky, lucky, lucky ……..