Alpine roads closed - Autoschleuse Tauernbahn open for business.

Zell am See, Austria is a well known ski resort.  The village was between seasons - the ski and summer seasons.  We were lucky to obtain good accommodation in the off season.

There was still some remnants of snow on the slopes but I had no idea that all the road passes were closed because of snow.  The only way to get across ( or is that through ) the Alps was the Autoschleuse Tauernbahn.

We rode our bikes onto the train carriage which was then tied down for the trip through the Alpine Tunnels.  Passengers leave the bikes and sit in a heated passenger carriage.  The trip got us from the Austrian side of the Alps to the Italian side.

The trip only takes about twenty minutes but beats battling three metres of snow on the passes.