AUSTRIA
We first travelled to Austria in our Renault Trafic based Holdsworth HTL Super hightop
campervan in August 1998. We entered Austria at Bregenz on Bodensee and
travelled through the Tirol and crossed the Alps through the Felbertauern
tunnel to Carinthia and the southern lakes.
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Austria has beautiful mountain scenery and good roads.
For an excellent all round view drive up the road to Gerlitzen near Ossiachersee in
Carinthia. The toll road to the very top becomes a rough track and is a very
long descent (our brakes overheated!). There is a easier road up from the
lakeside to the hotel and car-park near the top.
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On top of Gerlitzen in 1998
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Bregenz is a city with a large auditorium on the edge
of the lake where a huge set is built over the water for operatic
productions during the arts festival each August. The year we were
there it was Porgy and Bess
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We passed through
Austria again in 2006 on our way to
Slovenia. The northern lakwes were very wet but we enjoyed a few days of
good weather in Carinthia where we came across a Speckfest (speck is dried
ham) at Hermagor - really an excuse for the whole village to spend a day
drinking and have a good time.
Details of the places we visited here
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In 2008 we spent several days in northern
Austria entering from the Czech Republic to Linz on the Danube, a pleasant
city with a smartened centre in preparation for its role as European City of
Culture in 2009. From there we travelled east along the Danube Valley
initially flat and fairly industrial but from Melk to Krems very
attractive through wooded hills. This area is known as the Wachau region
and is a wine growing area. The jewel is the village of Durnstein, a
favourite stop-off the the many large cruise boats and a ruined castle
linked to Richard the Lionheart.
We also visited the flatter region around
Neusiedlersee a very large shallow lake on the border with Hungary with
extensive reed beds where the town of Rust was interesting with many
storks nests on the rooftops.
On our return journey we travelled
through Steiermark bypassing Graz and crossing low mountains to Judenburg,
then up the pleasant Murau valley and over another fairly low mountain
pass over the Obertauern avoiding the toll tunnel this time and after a
night near Radstatt took the autobahn passing Salzburg to Bavaria
Details of places we visited to follow soon
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Austria Camping
Austria 2006
Austria 2008
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