Europe trip 2019. Second stop: Austria

AUSTRIA
I had 10 days at home to take care of the last preparations for the trip. This included moving our personal items out of the apartment so we were able to sublet it. There were also a lot of small jobs on the to do list and I wanted to see my friends and family before continuing our adventure. I thought 10 days was going to be plenty to do all this. Boy was I wrong. The apartment took so much more time then I expected. Even though Rhys and I had packed up what we thought was most of our stuff and moved it into storage before setting off to Hungary, it seemed that stuff still came out of every cupboard or closet. Also cleaning it took a lot of time (we might have taken it a bit far with defrosting the freezer, cleaning filters, and all the detail work you normally only do when the King or Queen comes over).  Luckily my very sweet mum had donated her time and was helping  me out and we got everything ready in time. 

13 Aug 2019
I flew back to Vienna where Rhys picked me up and we were ready to continue our travels. We had 9 days before Rhys had to work again. We hadn’t planned these 9 days,  that is not really our style. Normally we just pick the country and go from there. This time we hadn’t even made a decision on the country yet. We had to make the luxury choice between spending our time in Austria or Slovakia. I think it wasn’t until we were ready to set off from Vienna to ‘somewhere’ that we made the decision and Austria won it in the end.  We were already there and Austria is full of great hiking and cycling so that was our choice, but Slovakia is definitely on what I call ‘THE list’ (of places still to visit). 

We were not in a rush to start driving immediately so we stayed for an extra day on the campground in Vienna and researched all the cool stuff in Austria and made a rough plan.

14 Augustus 2019 
One of the cool things that we researched and put on our to do list was the Grossglockner alpine road and hiking in Zell am See. To get there we had to drive west for about 500km. I also found another hike that looked really cool that lay on the route named ‘klafferkessel – a majestic tour'. We set off in the morning, super excited to continue our adventures in the van. 

On our drive towards the Grossglockner alpine road we passed Leoben, where Rhys had stayed during the race weekend. We got side tracked in Leoben by some grocery and cloth shopping that needed to happen. We lost track of time and we were never going to make it to our planned destination. Instead we looked in our camping book and found a camp spot in about an hours drive from Leoben, called Gaishorn am See. It was this tiny little village surrounded by mountains and a river (lake).
The camp spot was almost too good to be true: off the main road, only a couple of spots, on the edge of the lake, with power, toilet facilities and even a shower. And that for 13.40 per night for two people. Go Austria! 

It was already late in the afternoon when we arrived here but we were so excited to try out our mountain bikes that we decided to go for a cycle. Rhys found a route that was qualified as ‘moderate' and started close to the camp spot. It was a beautiful route, but coming from flat Netherlands I wouldn’t classify it as moderate, but as (extremely) difficult. This route led us up a mountain and it was only climbing. Climbing, climbing, climbing. I gave up after a while and was hiking up with the mountain bike in my hand. After every corner I thought: this must be the top, but no. Unfortunately we turned around before ever reaching the top.  It was too far. We were still high enough to be treated with beautiful views over the area and it was a good exercise of course. 

In the evening we were surprised by the temperature. It was mega, mega cold! I mean full pyjama- socks-extra blanket-cold. We had only taken a summer duvet thinking that would be enough for this trip. But I had to get the fleece blanket out that I thought we were only going to need in November or December. Hopefully the big temperature drop is only because of the clear sky and altitude otherwise we are making a trip to IKEA for an extra duvet.

15 Augustus 2019 
After a couple of days of cloudy and sometimes rainy weather we woke up to a cracker day. As we were in a beautiful area on a great camping spot, we stayed here for the day. We enjoyed the lake in the morning and set out for another mountain bike cycle in the afternoon. An easy one this time, along the river to the next town over and back again. 

In the evening we prepared for the hike we had found while doing our ‘Austria research’, ‘klafferkessel- a majestic tour’. According to the website it is one of the most beautiful hikes in the Schladminger Tauern mountain range. The hike is rated as ‘hard’, has a distance of 20km with a ascent and descent of 1620 m. Estimated duration of the hike is 9 hours. We plan to do the hike tomorrow. It was still an hours drive from Gaishorn am See to the starting point so we made lunch and packed our backpacks. 
With the early start in mind we make sure we have an early night. It’s again full pyjama-cold. 

16 Augustus 2019 
The alarm goes at 6.30 and we are supposed to get up and start driving straight away so we have enough time to do the hike we planned to do. But for some reason we both have a bad feeling about it, something tells us this is not our hike. Not sure if it’s the weather conditions, the length of the hike or the massive ascent and decent, but we turn the alarm off and try to continue sleeping. 
Now that the planning of today is wide open again we continue our trip to Zell am See. It is a couple of hours drive and we arrive there mid afternoon. It’s a beautiful place, but mega touristy. Driving through town and trying to find a park is a nightmare. While Rhys parks somewhere illegally and stays with the van I run to the tourist centre to get some information on cycling and hiking routes. I get two booklets with all the information I need. Together we have a look at the hiking routes and pick one that we can still do today. It involves taking a gondola up to the second highest peak of the mountain called ‘schmittenhöhe'. 
The gondola ride is not cheap, but we are here now and I am so glad we paid the money. The ride up the mountain was fun of course but the view from the top is absolutely mind blowing. There is a 360 degree view on other mountain ranges and it’s just incredible. I have seen my share of beautiful places in the world, but this is overwhelming and actually makes me tear up. That has never happened before. 

On the top there is also this super cute little church, I was thinking this would be the coolest and most romantic place to get married if you wanted to do it in Austria. (No this is not where we will be getting married)

I could have spent all day at the top just taking in the views, but its almost 4 PM and we still had a 2,5 – 3 hour hike ahead of us that would get us down this mountain. It’s a really cool hike, all down hill. Somewhere halfway we come across some cows with a bell around their neck and it’s the ultimate Austrian picture: cows in the green grass, blue sky and surrounded by mountains.
Even before we had finished the hike I could tell I was going to have sore legs tomorrow. Doing a three hour down hill hike untrained is going to come at a price. 

It’s almost 7 pm when we make it back at the van. We cook a nice meal in the parking lot and after dinner we drive out of Zell am See in search of a parking place where we can wild camp. We are fully self contained with our little van so we do not need a campground every night. However, finding a spot is more difficult than we thought. Austria is prepared for wild campers and have placed ‘no overnight stay’ signs everywhere. After some driving around we spot a rural road that is undergoing road works and is only open for driving to one of the businesses further down the road. Tomorrow is Saturday so we are not expecting the road workers to show up. Also there shouldn't be much traffic as the stores should be closed by now. We drive maybe 100 m down the road and park on the side. We are pretty content with this spot we found and make the van ready for the night. 

There is a lot more traffic on the road than you would expect for a semi closed road. This should maybe have given us a clue but it was late and we wanted to get to sleep. So we went ahead with getting the van ready for the night and went to bed. We had almost drifted to sleep when I heard a car approach us and then stop. Just as I got Rhys his attention we get half blinded by the flashing lights. It’s the police. Shit. They knock on the van and we open the side door. Rhys got dressed but I am still sitting in bed in my pyjama. Charming. There are four police agents checking out the van in the light of their massive flash lights. One of the police officers tells us we cannot stay here for the night and have to drive away. I would have been happy with that, I was afraid we would get a fine. But the police officer that clearly was the boss of the four was in a good mood and said we could stay the night as long as we promised to drive away first thing in the morning. Maybe he wild camps in his spare time too. The officer that wanted us to drive away tried to change the boss's mind but that wasn’t happening.  Pfeeew that was lucky for us, that could have gone a lot different. 
So we stay where we are for the night. It takes quite some time before I fall a sleep after the police encounter. With their blessing you would think you could sleep well, but I had a terrible night. I guess with our trip we had signed up for adventure, well this was it.  

17 August 2019 
From Zell am See it’s only a stone throw away to the start of the Grossglockner alpine road. For those of you who are not familiar with Grossglockner: this is the highest mountain in Austria, with 3798 m above sea level. The alpine road goes straight across the Hohe Tauern National Park, is 48km long and has 36 turns with the highest point at 2500m. It’s a famous alpine road, especially for motorbike riders, cyclist and sports cars. But we think the van can do it also, so we set off to the start of the road. 

It is still early but the road is already packed with cars and so many cyclists. We take it easy and climb the road very slowly, but still when we pass the cyclists we nearly suffocate them with the black smoke the van is spewing out. We are not doing them or the environment any favours at the moment. 

For people in sports cars the road seems to transform into their own private race track where they want to test the limits of their car. It seems like every second car treats the road like an audition to be the  newest presenter for Topgear. They are flying down the road. Until they get stuck behind an old , beat up van that is slowly crawling up the mountain. We stop in some of the stopping bays to let the faster cars pass and to take pictures of course. The view gets more and more impressive each meter we climb and each turn we take. 

Just before the highest point of the road at 2500m, we park the van so we can enjoy the magnificent view. We made it! It didn’t do our van any favours, but our old beasty has done it. It is also lunch time and we enjoy a little break here. 
We do still want to reach the highest point, which is a small and short loop road starting 100 m from where we are parked. We get in the van to drive the last section, but when I go to disable the immobiliser with the little remote, nothing happens. For those who are unfamiliar with an immobiliser system: its a safety system that stops the engine from starting without the immobiliser being disabled by the remote. It makes it harder for thieves to steal the van, but also real hard for us to get down this mountain again if it doesn’t work. Maybe I have upset it and it just needs a moment to reset itself. We wait patiently for a minute or so and still nothing has changed. The red immobiliser light keeps blinking real furiously at us, in a different rhythm than we are used to. I am starting to get worried. This is literally the most impractical place to get stuck. Except for a restaurant there is nothing here. We have no road side rescue insurance (‘why have this insurance if you can fix anything yourself?’ This is Rhys his opinion on the insurance) and I bet getting help up here would be insanely expensive. The road side rescue insurance started to sound pretty good to me right about now. 

You are probably wondering why we are not trying to disable the immobiliser with the spare remote. Going on such a long trip, surely you have a spare immobiliser remote. I can assure you we do, but the buttons have fallen out of it (this is no joke) so obviously it doesn’t work anymore. (Photo of spare remote below)

The remote was still our saving grace though. After unsuccessful attempts of disconnecting the car battery in the hope of resetting the immobiliser, Rhys came with the idea of swapping the batteries of the immobiliser remotes. And sure enough, the immobiliser light stops blinking at us and turning the key roars up the engine. You see, who needs the road side rescue insurance? All you need is kiwi ingenuity! 

So we set off to the loop road to get us to the highest point. We are not the only ones who don't want to miss out on it and we hit a traffic jam. The parking lot at the top is full and we don’t move until someone has left. The line for the parking lot is really long and it takes ages before we move. It is too late to turn  back, the road is too narrow to turn. The road is really steep so your hill start skills need to be excellent. A skill not everyone in the line has mastered. A car on Hungarian plates is struggling. The husband is doing his best but rolls back more metres than he makes up the mountain. His wife is now outside the car direction people behind him to keep distance. Their excuse was that the car wasn’t an automatic. When he did manage to make a few meters forward it was with a screaming engine and a slipping clutch. The Hungarians were creating a traffic jam within the traffic jam. It seems like common sense tells you not to drive up a 2500m mountain if you cannot control the clutch, but apparently not for this couple. Although who am I to judge, we go on a 4 month trip without road side rescue insurance and a spare immobiliser. 
When we finally make it to the parking lot at the top it was worth the wait! 360 degree view over the Hohe national park. We don’t stay for too long because we are still freaking out over the immobiliser not working and have left the key in the ignition so we don’t have to disable it again. 

Rhys was quite jealous of the cyclists on the road saying it would be so cool to do, so I suggest he cycles down while I drive the van down. At the restaurant one parking lot down we get the mountain bike out and Rhys starts cycling. I follow him, but at a uphill section I pass him. A couple kilometres further on I wait for him on the side of the road. It doesn’t take him long to catch up with me, he is hustling. So far it’s going well. I drive ahead again and wait for Rhys to catch up. The next section is a lot more challenging for the van, it’s a steep downhill bit that just keeps going and going. Rhys has already passed me and is flying down the mountain. I go as slow as I can and let the engine do most of the breaking but it is so steep that I keep accelerating and need to break for the sharp turns. It doesn’t take long and I can start smelling the brakes. What a terrible smell, I know this is not good. I realise now I may have underestimated going down this alpine road in the van by myself and decide not to go further down and pull into a stopping bay. I phone Rhys who luckily hears the phone after a couple tries and the poor thing has to cycle kilometres back up the road to get to me because he was already so far ahead. At least it’s a good exercise. 

At this point this is enough adventure for me to have in one day and I am looking forward having settled in at a campground somewhere. I don’t have to wait long as the rest of the decent goes smoothly and we find a really nice campground at the foot of the national park. 

18 August 2019 
After all the adventures of yesterday we have a more relaxing day today. The campground is really good and the area beautiful so we stay another day. In the morning we Skype with family, enjoy the sun and do research on hikes in this area. There is plenty to choose from. We choose one that gets good rating, but to get to the start of the hike we have to either cycle there or take the van. We decide to cycle there. As we cycle we get onto this really cool path next to the river. We are having so much fun cycling that we skip the hike and keep cycling this path. It leads all the way to Heiligenblut, this cute little Austrian mountains village where the alpine road starts/ends.

After 30 min cycling we pass a little cafe and there is also a short hike here that leads up to a waterfall called Jungfernsprung. At the entrance there was a sign that got our attention. It described the story of this waterfall. It’s a bit long but this is what it said: 
“Once upon a time, an extremely beautiful alpine dairymaid lived in a meadow near the Jungfernsprung. All the young men in the district tried to win her love, but she wasn’t interested in any of them. Then one day the Devil himself, dressed as a handsome stranger, followed her filled with burning desire. She, however, recognized the Devil and fled to preserve her virtue. In her flight, the dairymaid came nearer and nearer to the cliff until, seeing no other way of escaping her pursuer, she jumped more than 130 metres down to the bottom of the Jungfernsprung rock face. Miraculously, the young maiden survived  the leap unhurt – and ever since, a beautiful waterfall has flowered there, and the spot is now called Jungfernsprung (Maiden’s Leap)”
After reading such an interesting story we have to see this waterfall for ourselves. We make it to the waterfall fairly quickly and enjoy the sight of it while we are having our lunch.

After lunch we continue our cycle towards Heiligenblut. It is not an official cycle path that we are on so we have to improvise a little bit and take a gamble every now and then on which path to take. Some sections are really steep and I have to walk. But most of it is doable. When we are about 2/3 on our way to Heiligenblut we find a really nice section of the river that is calling our name for a swim. The water comes from the mountain so it is ice and ice cold! We have a swim, although it’s more a dive in and rush out situation. While we are here more people stop and think they can swim also. We have quite some fun watching them squeal when they realise how cold it is. Most people don’t go in. 

With our bathing suits drying on the steer of the mountain bikes, we continue our little cycle adventure. Its not far from here to the town centre of Heiligenblut. We pass this incredible looking church with a really sharp and high peak. In the town centre we park our bikes and have a look around. Except for a supermarket, an inter sport, souvenirs shops and cafes/restaurants and hotels there is nothing here. We do see a beautiful and unique fountain on the town square that has massive crystals on it. I think it was found in the area.

We get some groceries at the supermarket and then head back to the campground the same way we came. Its mostly downhill from here so we are almost flying back to the campground. 

I absolutely loved every minute of today. The relaxed morning, having lunch at the waterfall, our swim in the river, our cycle adventure. Definitely another highlight on this trip. 

19 August 2019
The forecast is for rain this afternoon, and you can see the weather change in the sky. To make the most of the sun while we can, we set off on a hike ‘early' in the morning. (Early for us means 10.30). We practically cycled the route of the hike we had researched yesterday, so we have chosen a different one. 

We start hiking straight from the campground and head towards Dollach. It is again a path next to the river, just going the other way now. Straight away in the beginning we miss the entrance to the chosen hike and even though we think we can link up with it later, we cannot. The lack of a good (hiking) map of the area doesn’t help. We just wing it and make up our own route, which is still a beautiful one, but it would have probably been better to hike back and link up with the route we wanted to take. 
We walk for kilometres up a hill which turns out to be a dead end. And just as we are at the top of the hill it starts raining, about 2 hours earlier than expected. We do find another route that we recognise from our research but at this point it is already raining and we just want to make it back to the campground. 

Every now and then we stop and find shelter from the rain when it is too heavy. One of our places to hide from the rain is the local supermarket. We meet a German couple who have just come over the Grossglockner alpine road on a tandem bicycle. It took them four hours which according to the girl was slow. Plus they did it in terrible weather. I thought our camping trip was #relationshipgoals, but what they do is a whole other level. Also, they didn’t check into one of the campgrounds but instead put some more kilometres on the clock for that day and continued in the rain. These Germans are tough! 
We enjoy our afternoon a little differently: reading our books in our cosy van while we wait till the rain passes. 

20 August 2019
Our trip is not all fun and games, some of us still have to work. This is Rhys, not me luckily. Tomorrow he is flying to England while I stay with the van in Bled, Slovenia. When planning this part of the trip, I chose to spend the time in Slovenia because we were here two years ago on our summer holiday, also with the van of course, and I loved the place. Bled especially because it has an incredible, almost magical lake with an island in the middle that has a church on it. The water of the lake is clear blue and has nice swimming and picnicking spots all around it. 

Rhys will be gone for 6 days, and during this time I will be by myself. Because I know the area a little bit I think there will be plenty to do to keep myself busy during these days. I have made a reservation for ‘Camping Bled’, the campground we have stayed at 2 years ago which is right on the lake. Today we are making our way down there. Which, from where we are, is a super easy 2 hour drive. 

Starting our drive towards Slovenia I realise I am going to miss Austria. It has really surprised me in a lot of ways e.g. cheap diesel (the cheapest we have had in years), cheap food and excellent campgrounds. People are also super nice. It has put the bar very high for the rest of the trip. Austria, with your majestic mountains, iconic houses with flower baskets hanging from the balconies, stunning scenery and friendly police officers that let us wild camp. Austria, you have stolen a piece of our hearts and we will back! 

Love, 
Lucia and Rhys 

Ps. Photos from our Austria adventure are in a separate album. 
Ps 2. I will tell you about all the Slovenian adventures in my next blog!