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Freitag, 28. August 2015

Travelling Austria - a tour through the west

Hello lovely people, long time, no blog.
Austria had to suffer from an immense heat wave these last few weeks. During the day the temperatures rose to 39 degrees and it didn't really cool down in the night. We don't have air conditioning in our office, so I sweated day and night and wasn't really able to sit in front of my laptop and type up a post. 

But now it finally cooled down and I am able to take you to our trip through the western part of Austria, that my man and I took last week - prepare for a photo-heavy post!

When I was little, my parents always travelled to Tyrolia with my brother and me and I loved our week long holidays. My man and I decided to spend our  summer holiday in our own country this year and it was an amazing trip. 

We started by travelling by train (with our borrowed motorcycle on the back of the train - his Harley had to be repared so we had to borrow another motorcycle for this holiday) from the very east of Austria - where we live and where everything is flat as a pancake - to the most western city in this country. It took us all night to get there. It was the first time that I spend a night on the train and I loved it. I commute by train to work everyday, so I'm used to the motion and the sounds. Slept like a baby. 

the borrowed motorcycle. Not very cool or fast - but really comfortable!
On Monday we arrived in Feldkirch at 8 a.m. We took the motorcycle from the train an started to drive to the next big city, Bregenz. Bregenz is located at the Bodensee and shares a border with Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It's famous for it's annual opera performance where the stage is built into the lake. This is what it looks like this year: 

the beautiful stage

lots and lots of terracotta warriors
After a nice cup of coffee we decided to drive a little more this day. We stopped when we felt like it, for example at this refreshing river. It felt amazing to just sit there and tip your toes into the icy water, breathe in the air and look at the cows on the mountains. Being in the nature always calms me down and because the West looks so different to my home it's easy for me to stop thinking about work or other problems at home. So I really was able to get in the holiday mood. It was extremely relaxing!

isn't this beautiful?

We took a little detour through the North of Italy, to have our lunch. The North of Italy is called "Southern Tyrolia" as it belonged to Austria before WW1. The people there see themselves still as Austrian citizens and they all speak German there. It's a beautiful landscape. Just across the border we came across the Reschensee. It's an artifical lake - with a church tower in the middle of it! You can read a little about it here.

the church tower in the middle of the Reschensee

It was really important for me to visit the Krimml Waterfalls. These are the highest waterfalls in Europe. I've visited them with my parents two times before (though that was a long time ago) and remember that I was really impressed. We hiked 400 metres uphill - and hiked them down again. That may not seem much but we're really not used to it! It was really amazing and even my man, who didn't want to go hiking was impressed and talked about future hiking trips on various Austrian mountains!

part of the waterfall

a rare picture of me! ;-)

the proof that we hiked up to 1.400 metres!

tested the black and white option at our camera. I should use it more often!

the sun looked so beautiful!

constant rainbow, caused by the fine droplets of water that splash from the waterfall.
Speaking of Austrian mountains: Here's a picture of Austrian's highes mountain: The Großglockner. It's a glacier and it's 3.798 meters high. There is a street called "Großglockner Hochalpenstraße" which leads 48 kilometres around the mountain. A MUST for every motorcycle rider! But it was really great and you had such a nice view! Again - extremely impressive!

driving up...

that peak in the middle is the Großglockner.
We spend the weekend at my sister in law. Her little lady, now two months old, got baptised on Sunday and we were invited. We had three really nice days with them and all their kids (she has two boys, now aged 7 and 8!) and it was a nice round-up to a nearly perfect holiday. Though I'm back at work I still feel relaxed and calm and happy.

happy nephew!
But as we always suffer from wanderlust we're already planning our next trip. We're thinking about visiting Thailand in February. But that's for another story.

Where did you go for your summer holiday? Do you prefer holidays in your own country or do you love to go abroad and explore new countries and new cultures?

4 Kommentare:

  1. What wonderful places you have been to!! So beautiful! xx

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  2. I think I have to visit Austria someday to see all these wonderful places! I have only been in Vienna but there seem so many nice places!

    We will travel to Australia this December but I am already making plans for next year... There are many, many places on this earth I want to see!

    Take care
    Anne
    Crochet Between Worlds

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    1. oh yes, you really should! Austria is such a beautiful country!

      I've been to Australia during my travels around the world. We drove a campervan from Darwin to Perth. Amazing memories, though I wasn't that fascinated by Australia, to be honest. Way too expensive... but you're right. There are so many places around the world that we want to visit...

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