Germany Debacle #1

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On our way from Wurzburg to Leipzig, it started snowing.  Just as we were approaching the tunnel through the mountain pass, the police kicked us off the autobahn and into the surrounding villages.  Gretchen, our GPS, kept telling us to make a u-turn and get back on the closed autobahn.  So I victoriously followed my nose through a few towns in the direction where I thought the autobahn would be, only to discover it was hundreds of feet above our heads with no entry or exit in sight. Every time we thought we found a new way, there were  non-English speaking fire fighters turning us away from the only road through the mountains.  

Defeated, we bought a map and drove in circles in the middle of the night on mountain roads with 6" of snow through little German villages.   The snow got deeper and the road steeper until we arrived in Oberhof and discovered it was a ski area at the top of the mountain the autobahn had tunneled under.  2 hours later we emerged from the back country and made it safely to Leipzig, only slightly worse for the wear.   It's a bit embarassing to get this lost, but I would at least like to complement myself for not swearing during this particular episode.