Today we drove to the lovely Austrian Tyrol, to Hall in Tyrol near Innsbruck. Gorgeous blue sky for a gorgeously scenic drive. First of all we drove along the lake, West towards Lienz where we could have taken a route via Italy and the Dolomites but opted for the Austrian Alps instead. Then to Mittersil, north to Kitzbuhel and St Johann in Tyrol. Last stretch was West to Innsbruck via Worgl. We went over mountains, round mountains, through a couple and were for almost all of the day surrounded by the most stunning scenery. Mountains in every direction, snow topped often, rocky crags, fields full of wild flowers, Heidi chalets bedecked with bright flowers, waterfalls tumbling down the mountain sides, cows with bells a jangling, deep valleys, ski resorts and chair lifts, villages and towns nestling ... read more

Heading back West today and pleased to see when we got up that the sky was blue again. The first hour or so of the drive was fine and dry and we had some lovely mountain views as we went along. Last night’s rather violent storm had blown itself away over a mountain somewhere. We took the motorway for the first 40 or so miles to get well clear of Graz and over a couple of mountains the easier way, some of that meaning going through tunnels. Then we left the motorway and carried on a normal road. Not gone very far when the low cloud we had seen ahead hanging about on the mountain tops decided to lower itself even further so we had a wet drive for the last half of the trip. It ... read more

Woke to yet another lovely day. We are being very lucky especially given the frequent / daily thunderstorms which the weather forecast keeps showing. In fact not a drop of rain at all today and by mid afternoon really rather unbearably hot at 28 degrees+. Not a long drive at all and we took the scenic route for well over half way, a road which followed the motorway and often the railway and as a result went through several quite industrial towns. Bob had decided we need to use the motorway for the approach to Graz as the alternaitve road was an up and down, windy route. The motorway went through a couple of tunnels, really long ones 8 km and then a 10km. We had already prepaid a toll which allows us by number plate ... read more

Bit of a grey start to the day. We have become accustomed to waking to blue sky and I do prefer it. Makes much nicer photos for one thing. Not far to drive today, just East, half way to Graz. Bob only used the motorway for the first 10 miles to get us out of and away from Salzburg then he turned off on our cross country route. I prefer to follow the way we are going on a road atlas. Have several times been able to refuse the Tomtom’s request to take a little ratrun which would not be suitable for the Tandy. Checked the only map we had for Austria and it is a very small scale Europe map and not much use at all. Bob stopped at two Shell garages but though they ... read more

And so to Austria. Not a long drive, in fact so short that we arrived at our next campsite, in Salzburg by 10am. A pleasant drive with the mountains to the right and lovely rolling countryside. As we got close to the border Bob switched the Tomtom to allow it to take us on motorways so we could more easily navigate our way from Germany to Austria. And suddenly we had changed country, quite painless, and we were on the outskirts of Salzburg. Our campsite Camping Nord Sam is almost in the city but is green as green can be and exceedingly pleasant. Not ACSI so costs twice as much as normal but city centre sites as convenient as this are rare and this one has a pool to add to its delights. We stayed just ... read more