Villach, Austria

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May 30, 2008

Villach, Austria

Today we drove the 3 hours or so through Slovenia to Villach, Austria. This is a very nice drive through some beautiful country side and across some passes in the Slovenian / Austrian Alps into Austria. Lots of skiing here.

The freeways are great ( Tolls ) and it is a very easy drive. The drive into Austria reminded us of traveling into the mountains from Calgary and to Canmore and Banff. Still lots of snow on the tops of some very high peaks. We were amazed again with the amount of tunneling used to straighten out the roads in Europe. These guys have it right !! The longest one today was 7800 meters ( meters for everyone in the world except Americans.) ( For you it's about 4.85 Miles ) .

When I think what these kinds of tunnels would do to the trip from Calgary to Vancouver -------. Say no more. Of course it is completely unimaginable that we would have to “User Pay” with tolls for something like this in Canada !!!

Slovenia is a nice place with some great farmland and a lot of pine forest. There must be a rule about not using too many vowels as some of the city and town names are a little complicated. ( Ljubljana )

Villach, Austria is a nice small city with some very old history ( and buildings ). Our Hotel ( Hotel Post ) is a heritage buiding over 500 years old. Nice place and completely modernized and very comfortable in the dead center of all the action. Easy walking distance to some interesting sights. We would reccommend it as a great place to stay. Only drawback -- No air-conditioning in the rooms. Windows do open.

Tomorrow we will drive through Austria to Munich , Germany for a short stay and some castle hunting.

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