Scootering round the Austrian Tyrol.

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Weather has cooled down, just a few degrees, but to a more manageable temperature after a bit of a storm in the night. Lots of flashing over the mountains to the south but it only rained for a few minutes so we quickly shut the windows and went back to sleep. All cleared up again in the morning though we’ve expected rain on and off all day but it didn’t materialise.



We scootered down the hill toward Ruette and stopped for coffee at a rather delightful spot by lake Haldensee. Bob thought he had seen a road we could use to scooter round but it proved to be just a walking trail so we stopped for a drink at the handily located café instead. Wished I’d taken my swimming things as I would have loved to swim in the lake and would have but knew we needed to do some shopping on the way back and no room for that and towels in Kisbee’s boxes. The lake looked most inviting and there were a few people swimming even if only briefly as it was chilly but lovely for paddling.



We scootered on down the mountain with a few hairpin bends, a lovely road but not much looking right or left on the turns as Bob has warned me against swinging my helmeted head too much as it unbalances him. We crossed the river Lech and rode to Reutte along a tree-lined road instead of the main road which has quite a lot of traffic. It also has a lot of motorbikes as the area abounds with them.



We stopped in Reutte and with difficulty found the town centre, such as it was. Not impressed. After all the gorgeous buildings we have seen on this trip, those in the centre which were decorated seemed to be falsely so. Think we have become accustomed to too many lovely historic centres and Reutte doesn’t have one. If it has, apologies to the town, but we didn’t find it.

Back on Kisbee we set off back but using the main road which is prettier as as soon as we left the town the buildings were all traditionally and genuinely decorated again and a delight to see.

We turned off to visit the village of Nesselwanger just because we liked its name and it was pretty but we failed to find anyone Wanging Nessels which was a bit of a disappointment !

Back to the lovely Haller village and Haldensee but at the other end of the lake this time. Another fortuitously positioned café on the water’s edge, perfect for apfelstrudel mit eis und schlagsahne (lots of that), Yum. I’ll miss that when get home. Apple Strudel in England is a completely different creature and not a patch on the original German / Austrian variety.



We stopped at the supermarket at the bottom of the ride up to Gran. This was an Mpries and Bob declared it was the worst supermarket he’d ever had the misfortune to visit. A combination of Aldi / Lidl and Safeway all rolled into one and taking the worst elements of each. Couldn’t get across to the other side of each aisle as there were ‘things’ down the middle, everything badly squashed up / displayed and nothing where you would expect to find it, needed potatoes but the bag of new ones I picked up was leaking yukky liquid ..etc…. and then we queued for 10 minutes just because they were exceedingly slow. Fortunately we won’t need to shop there again.



Back to Tandy for a read then a swim. Thunder started rattling away over the mountains again and it went really grey so Bob put the outdoor stuff away. The sky then of course cleared and went blue and we had a pretty sunset but that was of course to be expected. The promised thunderstorm has not stormed yet.



We ate at the campsite restaurant as it seems a shame not to make use of it. Food good but the most enormous portions that neither of us could clear the plate and thank goodness we hadn’t also ordered starter or desert.

All packed up now ready to move on tomorrow heading up the Bodensee (Lake Constance to those on the other side) to the top.

We will be sorry to leave this place. The peace and quiet is amazing. 200 pitches on the site and most of the time all you can hear is the sound of bird song and cow bells and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. I call it a little slice of paradise and have every intention of returning.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Stunning beauty
Story book photo

[BobsJoy]

The Tyrol
Thank you. I was after the Heidi look !