Drifting

Weather is doing everything - sun, clouds the odd snow flurry and today a good strong wind.

Had to pop out at 17:30 (5:30 pm for you Brits) to quickly get some essential foodstuffs in Ottobeuren. As I drove down the drive, there was a barely visible amount of snow. Nothing on the road and I drove the first two kilometres through the forest at the maximum legal speed of 100km/h but the second I emerged out of the shelter of the forest, hit a good few centimetres of lying snow and a blizzard which reduced visibility considerably. One of those "Ohhhh" moments and not helped by someone sitting on my tail. The photo was taken a minute or two later just about to go down the steep hill into Ottobeuren.

In fact the cars here or better still the winter tyres laugh at such amounts and it's really no more than driving on wet greasy roads after weeks of no rain. Difficult is judging if there are drifts that may suddenly wrench the steering wheel in one direction.

Walking in Ottobeuren was miserable, the pavements as slippery as it is possible to be. Apart from the fact that the snow happened so quickly, salting pavements is not considered environmentally acceptable, I suspect the council doesn't use any in the town (except the roads). If they use anything, it would be fine gravel which then becomes a nightmare as it is carried into shops and businesses on shoes and in the spring, having to clear it up if it isn't blocking drains.

The drive home was from a visibility point of view much worse. Darker of course but the drifting very strong. This season/year we haven't had any significant drifting.