| AUSTRIA Our aim was to drive quickly across France to get to Austria as we had spent little time in Eastern Europe. We were entranced by 'Le Tarn', land of 'Bastides', walled towns largely unchanged since the Middle ages. To quote from the brochure, "colourful towns, pale yellow in the morning, cloaked with mist, flamboyant in the sunset which lights up the Tuscan ochre and the red and mauve of the bricks." This is the region of the Albigensians, a separate Christian sect that was horribly punished by the Church of Rome, but luckily spared the most wonderful cathedral of Sainte Cecile. Towns such as Bruniquel and Castelnau de Montmiral are spectacular. Every day we discovered new beauty, the Abaye d'en Calcat, and the city of Albi warranted more time that we spent there. So, after three or four days we finally made to Lake Constance, where we spent the night in a camping ground squashed up against hundreds of other (mostly German) vans and campers. The reason I have been able to write this in such detail is because I kept all the brochures and put them in plastic sleeves to be bound up as permanent records of our travels. I scanned many of the best pictures and got little headers etc. That make the photo albums more interesting. One day I'll have a go at transcribing the journals that I kept during our first visit to Europe in the 70's. When we went to Austria in 1971, it was just passing through from Italy to the French Alps, where we thought we would get some work during the winter. It was cold and snowing when we drove through Innsbruck so we didn't really get much idea about Austria. So this time we intended to spend longer there, and found our way to Salzburg. The road signs in Austria are difficult because there are so many advertising signs attached to the poles with directions and street signs. Of course it's much easier travelling on the autobahn but you must buy a (relatively expensive) daily ticket so we stuck to the little roads and deciphered the cluttered sign posts. We found a neat campground that looked over the city and was close enough so that our neighbours rode their bikes into the city centre. We drove the van in and parked inside the mountain. I think it cost more to park for a couple of hours than to stay at the campground, but what the hell, it was a facinating experience. The city is beautiful, lots af little narrow streets winding between the castles, with some of the loveliest shops. Particularly the egg shop!!! We met some kiwis whilst having coffee and they told us about the horrible cost of buying a vehicle in England. From Salzburg we drove south to the Salzkammergut region, visited Burg Hohenwerfen, took the cable car up to Eisriesenwelt ( www.eisriesenwelt.at), the world's largest ice cave and found Camping Vierthaler on the banks of a river. To get to the ice caves one takes a local bus 5km up a very steep road (although the VW could have made it), walk up a very steep path, go straight up in a cable car, then finish off with another bracing walk along the side of the mountain. When we came out of the cave the wind was blowing snow UP from the valley. Next day we visited the village of Hallstatt-Dachstein, a UNESCO site, on the edge of a picture postcard lake. We visited the Saltmine, got dressed up in funny clothes and spent a facinating hour stumbling around the underground salt lakes. The next couple of days we drove quietly through the mountains, stopping at tiny villages and camping spots. There were very few people around as the season doesn't start until June. The next week or so was spent doodling along the Northern bank of the Danube in the region known as the 'Wachau'. Lots of little villages, kilometer after kilometer of bike paths, around every corner was another castle, or another abby, all the way from Melk to Krems. Then onto Vienna. We stayed at Donaupark Camping in the suburb of Klosterneuberg (about 20km north of the CBD) on the recommendation of a Brit couple we met in a camp in the Wachau. They were driving a huge mobile home (which cost about 80,000 pounds sterling) and couldn't manouvre it around the city streets. So, every day we would catch the suberban train into the underground the get a day pass to move around the city. Austria is nearly as expensive as Germany so we didn't always validate our day passes which meant we could go on the underground for free. The very idea of not sticking to the rules would never occur to an Austrian. They are the most law abiding people we met in Europe. Never saw a nose ring, dreadlocks, beggars, indeed everyone was always neat and tidy. No one double parked, all drove sedately obeying all the traffic laws. It came as a shock to find that, after Japan, Austria has the highest suicide rate in the world. Loved Vienna, did all the touristy things, went to a Strauss concert (even the Japanese tourists were bored) visted all the museums, liked especially the Kunsthistoriche and the Spanish riding school. Ate at little restaurants and the Austrian equivalent of smorgasbord, wandered down grand boulevards and tiny alleys. We went to both the Hungarian and Czeck embassies to get visas. While we were waiting five days for visas we took a trip into the hinterland around Vienna. We didn't realise how short was the distance across the border into; HUNGARY. |