The 79th Episode : Passing over the Northeast Alps
[June, 1997 Germany => Austria]
A man came into the office, when our meeting was going to be over. He was our another customer, drove from Innsbruck, Austria. He said in advance ‘I’ll pick you up at Prien, that is not so far from Innsbruck and also there’s Autobahn is well controlled.’ After the meeting with German customer, I headed for Innsbruck by his car.
It was my first cross-border on the land route. No experience available in Japan. In south of Prien there was the Northeast Alps that is the border between Germany and Austria, which we were to pass over. At the border there was a gate like the railways crossing and a fat line was drawn. But it was kept opened as people were already allowed to go abroad freely within EU. The officer wouldn’t require us to stop, unless something unexpected happened.
But as to me, I wanted a stamp as it was a border at countries so far from Japan. A country visitor!? The officer smiled and provided kindly.
