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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. 

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.  

On top of Gerlitzen 1998
On top of Gerlitzen in 1998


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

 

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 


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


Austria Camping
             Austria 2006                Austria 2008

  

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