Our Big Adventure

AUSTRIA

VIENNA

Baroque mansions dominate the inner city, while a short distance from the centre grand summer palaces, like the Schönbrunn with it’s 1400 rooms and gardens complete with fountains, statues and it’s own zoo are magnificent.

The city centre is a mix of old and new and with lovely walled gardens, and the most grandiose coffee houses that are a place to linger and absorb the atmosphere rather than grab a quick coffee to go. We had coffee at one just behind the Town Hall and the walls were papered with photographs, politicians we didn’t recognize as well as some actors we did. At a couple of the tables sat elderly men and women, reading the paper whilst having a coffee, they had that look of comfort and ease with the place, as though they had been coming here for years.

A visit to the Spanish Riding School was a must for us. Every morning there are morning exercises where the beautiful Lipizzaners practice their special steps accompanied by classical music by Mozart and Strauss, with their riders wearing double breasted waistcoats, buckskin jodhpurs and sideways sitting hats. The Lipizzaners are a special breed created by crossing Arabian, Berber and Spanish horses and are generally white or light grey in colour. The two hours flew by with so much to see, watching the horses as they leapt, danced sideways and on the spot. As well as taking in the beautiful surroundings of the school, the crystal chandeliers and decorative mouldings fit to be an any palace and built by King Karl IV in 1729 just for the Lipizzaners.

With our 72hour public transit pass we had plenty of time to see the sights as well as go to a Autumn Fair held in Grinzing, a pretty little village on the outskirts of Vienna. It was also our first chance to try ‘Sturm’ the new wine that had just been produced in this area. It’s a little bubbly and slightly cloudy and comes in red and white varieties, and it is delicious.

Vienna was nothing short of stunning, and would a place we would like to return to someday.

TIROL

We couldn’t miss the opportunity of seeing the Austrian mountains so we travel from the beauty of Palaces of Vienna, to the picture perfect Austrian Alps.

The place easily captures quintessential Alpine scenery, with majestic snow capped mountains dominating the view. We spend a few day’s near Kitzbühel and make use of a great free bus, museum and ski life ticket given out at the camp ground.

The gondola ride to the top of Wiedersbergerhornbahn (1850m) at Alpbach was great, the view over the high alpine pasture was like a post card. But the single chair lift at Sonnwendjochbahn to just over 2000m at Kramsach, skimming over the towering pines with only a plastic chair beneath you and a flimsy bar in front, that ran uphill for at least 5km bought back great memories of the ski areas in Western Canada for me. There was also a Museum of Tyrolean farmsteads included and only a short walk from our campsite. We have seen these lovely old homesteads throughout this area and it was terrific to be able to go inside, some where even furnished with the original furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries. It would be wonderful to come back here in winter and ski, maybe one day we will.

posted by Brian and Julie @ 4:58:00 AM