Blogs from Austria, Europe - page 9

Day #17 - Venice to Steyr, Austria We left Venice today with some heavy hearts as we loved the city so much. However, we were also filled with anticipation to meet up with a very dear friend that I met when I did the Camino de Santiago in Spain 2 years ago. In addition to meeting my friend Walter, I was also going to have the honour of meeting his wife and 2 young boys, I was both very nervous and very excited. We have been going in an out of the Alps for several days during our trip but today our drive would take us from the south side of the alps right through to the north side of them. It turned out to be a beautiful drive. The Alps are so much different that ... read more

Day 19 - Steyr, Austria Today was another great day with our Austrian friends. Today we did not meet until 2pm so it gave us a chance to sleep in as we were getting very tired. We slept in until 11 and then woke up to start our day. We had breakfast/lunch at Mcdonalds. Yes, this is not a great choice but it was too hot to eat at a cafe and McDonalds had air conditioning so that is what we chose. To be honest we were pleasently suprised with the McDonalds in Austria. Sydney and I both had the chicken couscous salad which was actually prety tasty. We also had curly fries and as it was a McCafe I had a cafe latte and Syd had a frappe. It was a very nice lunch. The ... read more

Alle verabschieden sich von mir. Wahrscheinlich nicht einfach nur aus Spaß? Ok. Irgendwie sollte mir langsam klar werden, dass ich tatsächlich nach Australien fliege... Ups. Du hast nur mehr zwei volle Tage bis zu deiner Abreise (!), mahnt mein Kopf. Es fühlt sich aber trotzdem noch immer so weit weg an... Lieber Kopf, sei so nett und mach, dass ich meinen grandiosen Hintern endlich Richtung Schrank bewege und zum Packen anfange. Wie soll ich nur den ganzen Krims-Krams in diesen kleinen Rucksack stopfen? Wie ein Hamster habe ich über Monate Überlebensnotwendiges angehäuft. Es ist eine Herausforderung sich zum Minimalismus-Dasein zu entscheiden. Zwei Hosen und drei Shirts MÜSSEN reichen. Und trotz Inkaufnahme möglicher unangenehmer Körpergerüche und unangemessener Erscheinungsbilder, erreicht der Rucksack ein Gewicht von über 20kg. Da hilft der O... read more

We got up early and drove south and west of Vienna to the mountain lake at Hallstatt. We had about 180 miles to drive and the weather, once again, was questionable. Fortunately, Heidi did her job and led us out of town without a problem. We arrived about 2pm at Hallstatt, which has been deemed a World Heritage Village. That's when our challenge began. The problem was the hotel was inside the "old town area" and was blocked off with a gate. Our guide book suggested that a guard would permit us to enter to drop our luggage. Well, that system has changed. There was no guard and no way to call the hotel. I parked about a mile away at a lot that had free hotel shuttles. That worked to get us there but the ... read more

Rain, rain go away! We had another busy and interesting day. We decided to follow a Rick Steves recommended city tour. We had our book and audio tapes with us and found them valuable to see so much in so little time. It would be easy to spend a week here visiting the museums and historical sites, not to mention all of the dining venues. The weather was overcast but not raining as we left the hotel. We started our walking tour at the Vienna Opera house. It is famous due to the various notable opera and ballet performers that have entertained there. English tour was about to start at 10am so we purchased tickets and waited inside the lobby for it. We met there another America couple with their teenage son there. They were from ... read more