Wed, 10 Sep 2003

author Tim	location St. Sebastian, Steiermark, Österreich
posted 10:07 CEST 11/09/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Osterreich/Osterreich 1 ( all photos )

Wien Again, Wachau, South up the Mountains ( 22 photos )
Remembering this time to take my camera, we set into town once again for a bit more of wander. Our time was limited as we had to leave the caravan park.
First was a walk around the north-section of the Ring, starting at Schottenring U-Bahn and walking anti-clockwise past various attractive buildings. This took in Schottentor, then down the most interesting Western section. All the way the incessant rain didn't leave us, but the city still looked passable.
We walked past the University, then the Rathaus and its accompanying leafy Rathasplatz. On from there to the huge Parliament buildnig with statues and flags waving proudly. Perhaps the most pretty part was suprisingly the Museum of Fine Arts and its grounds with sculptured rounded trees, known as Maria Theresien Platz.
We walked around the grounds of the Hofburg before re-tracing some our steps from the previous day for photographs. We had hoped the weather would be a bit better but no matter - some of the best parts were undercover, while others a bit of juggling the umbrella, guidebooks and camera gave the desired results. Yes, we look totally like tourists wherever we go.
Back through Michaelerplatz, into Stephensplatz and then it was time to get back. Wien is a city we could have spent a month in, but that is not to be this trip. There's so much more to see, and you seem to have to have quite a lot of money to spend to do the big things such as Vienna Boys Choir or classical music performances.
Getting on the road, we found our way back out of the city, heading around the A21 and then along the A1. Despite the horrible weather, we decided to detour up one of the most popular sections of the Danube in the Wachau valley between Melk and Krems. We have plans to get back to some sections of Österreich at a later date (notably Saltzburg), but this would be a bit far and the weather most probably would not be much better anyway.
The drive was nice if not amazingly spectacular (it's going to be tough to match Norway's fjords), and at the end after a little asking around, we found our Holy Grail - a Campingaz 907 cylinder!! For so long we have eaten out, cooked barbeques in silly places, but generally spent too much money, and now we could be self-sufficient again! The excitement was such that Liz was actually jumping up and down in the van when I returned triumphant. We didn't even care that it cost significantly more than it really should have.
Back down the otherside, we were on a much smaller road, all lined with vineards, grape vines and fruit trees everywhere. The tiny villages were all along the banks of the river, bringing the 100km/h traffic down to 30km/h through tiny little gaps in the houses we just fit through.
Not being one to be boring, I picked us a path well and truly off the motorways through to our next target - Graz. Of course this meant much slower going, but we really didn't mind. We heard on the weather report (BBC World Service gets through here and there) that there was going to be snow above 1700 metres, and although we didn't get quite that high, we certainly burrowed through clouds as we wound up and up along the backroads of the 25, 28, 20 and then no number at all roads.
This journey didn't get us far at all towards Graz, but we didn't care - the scenery was amazing with lots of little villages with their old buildings and spires all surrounded by mist and fog. We got thoroughly stared at in a place called St. Anthony - perhaps the locals thought we were lost as they surely don't get much passing trade. Most people are sane and boring and take the motorways.
Probably the best stop was at a village called Puchenstuben, perched atop a ridge, overlooking the misty valley. Magical.
We ended up stopping for the night north of Mariazella at Camping Erlaufsee, in St. Sebastian. The place is surrounded by forest, quite a way even off our un-beaten track we were following. After a fight with the gas fittings (the regulator valve screw fitting was giving me grief), we had a working stove once again!
Dinner followed swiftly, strangely happy to cook boring pasta and sauce which went down well after the long day. I'm sure the novely will wear off pretty quickly.

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