Smurfy Woche Dreizehn: Austria

Getting the Hell out of Croatia & Austria

After a few false starts we were finally on our way and hopefully out of Croatia. Don't get us wrong, we loved it. Just not with engine troubles and Croatian mechanics. With the week of hell behind us we drove up the coastal road for the last time. Got back into the Smurf groove after a little food shopping. Even managed to rescue our foot mat from the camping ground we used on our way back to Zadar. It was the simple things that put a smile on our face. The fact that it was still there after a week (I guess it was pretty manky to be stealing it!) speaking of the simple things we also got into making amazing omelets, so simple but so good!

We even got back into being a tourist and saw the famous Slovenian Postojna caves to mingle with fellow tourists. The caves were cool but too many tourists for my liking. We parked up at a campsite a few kilometers up the road in a lovely forest setting. Summer had officially ended when the heater came out. But we enjoyed our porridge for the first time this trip and hot coffees even more.

Smurf drove over the Slovenian / Austrian border and we celebrated with a sausage and a visit to a camping store to refill our gas bottle - the most expensive refill ever! We paid for the motorway autobahn and cashed in on the free WiFi when we pulled into a Marché petrol resting area and used their free services. Managed to get one more slice of Bled custard cake too! With all the stress behind us we soon realized we hadn't planned the return journey! and we were back to our single guide 'Europe on a shoe string' as all the other books had retired to the library at the back of Smurf. We headed for a tiny town in a mountainous valley called Hallstatt, which was and still is used for mining salt. The drive was gorgeous with all the multi autumn colours of oranges, reds and yellows littering the hillsides. We just slipped in on time a few days before the campsite was going to close for the season which was a relief! We didn't want to freeze to death.

With it being autumn, there wasn't many other people around which created a tranquil town on a lake for us. The houses built up on the hillsides were very cute and had very interesting architecture which we couldn't pinpoint to one country, Swiss, Austrian or even a little Japanese. We took a light stroll up the old mining & tree lodging path to the mouth of the salt mines but didn't fancy another tourist ride and settled for a stunning view with hot goulash and a Weiss bier at the top.

Smurf got a home cooked meal as well with a range of sausages we had bought to try, one even came out served like haggis - very strange! We also conclude that you didn't need a blender to make yummy soup either (a masher will suffice).

As we had our brief birthday getaway a week before we had already seen Vienna so we be-lined it to Salzburg with the Sound of Music blearing from the speakers, it did get a little embarrassing when we were stationary in traffic.

As we reached the city we followed a few TomTom campsite directions and both were already closed for the year! But we had one last option to try which we spotted on the motorway into the city. Panorama Campsite was still open! And had heated bathrooms with amazing shower rooms, we had a feeling the Austrian's knew a thing or two about camping in the winter.

We were about 5km out of town but we followed a lovely stream to the river which doubled as a great bike path and walked into town in the afternoon and briefly wandered around and bought a few warm supplies to keep us going for the oncoming weeks. When we packed (if you call throwing random summer clothes into four Argos draws in a fit of excitement and speed packing) we were a little oblivious to the fact it would get cold at the other end of the trip and it wouldn't remain summer forever. To our defense our trip had extended by three weeks into late October but ill prepared we were! It remained cloudy the whole time we were in Salzburg so we never got to see the mountain terrain in the backdrop but what we remembered was we finally felt like we were back in civilization with cobbled streets, clothing stores we recognised and good restaurants.

We wandered past Mozart's house and square with gluvine in hand and on through St Peter's abby and the cemetery grounds which I think were used in The Sound of Music. Didn't see Maria but the tunes were engraved in the mind. Tom got a hat which suited him too well and kept his head warm. We left as it was getting dark and took the hour walk back to our blue home and enjoyed a few Edelweiss bier with dinner.

The next day didn't really start until late afternoon as we clothed and gloved up to hit the cycle path to town with padding. AKA it was cold. The cycle was lovely and somewhat faster than walking. We bought tickets to our Mozart recital for that evening and enjoyed an early dinner of goulash, calf lights and beer. The concert was good but the pianist portrayed facial expressions of a fish out of water which was a little off putting.

We finished the night with Apfelstrudel and melange coffee at the tacky but tasty Mozart cafe.

G