Our visit to Austria in 1999

Austria

The next day we flew to Frankfurt and picked up a Volkswagon Golf Diesel. We drove south to Kitzingen, saw its twisty tower, fine old houses, and the river Main, and stayed at Hotel Wurzburger Hof. We continued south, bypassing Nurnburg and Munchen, and spotted white peaked Alps glistening above Kiefersfelden, the last village in Germany before the Austrian border. We arrived at Kufstein, a characteristic Tyrolean village with memories for Victor of a previous visit here with Karen in 1987. We drove west along the 'Inntal', valley of the river Inn, to Vörgl, where we found a Zimmer Frei, in a superb spot with views of snow-clad Alps on 3 sides, so we stayed here for 5 days. One day we crossed a footbridge over the Inn and climbed up through the pretty Alpine village of Angerberg, where we enjoyed Kaffee und Kuchen at the Gasthof "Blick ins Intal", on their terrace overlooking the Inn Valley. We strolled further up to Baumgarten, and wandered through idealistic "Sound of Music" meadows, to Mariastein, where there is a somewhat sinister Tower/Chapel/Pilgrimage dating back 10 centuries, full of macabre crypts and tales of miraculous cures. On Thursday 18th May, we drove through Hofgarten to Kitzbuhel, a pretty old town with characteristic painted houses and baroque churches. Then to St Johann and Gasteig for a picnic lunch, then to Grisenau, where we paid 35 schillings to enter the toll road up the valley to the snow. Brilliant white peaked WilderKaiser were to our south, and Zahmerkaiser to our North, as we arrived at the Anton-Karg Hof. We walked up right into the snow. We returned via Walchsee lake, Kufstein for dinner, to Vörgl. Next day we drove west to Kundler Klamm, a deep gorge in the mountains with a fast-flowing river. We took a lovely 15 km walk to the end of the gorge and back, and collapsed in a gasthof garden for a leisurely late lunch and Sachertorte. Next day we went to Jenbach to visit Schloss Tratzberg, for a tour guided by audio tapes and an Austrian guide. It started to rain, but we then went to Lake Achensee at Pertisau. The rain dampened our enthusiasm a bit, but we enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate at a chalet cafe by the lake.

The rain seemed destined to endure for the next several days, so we resolved to head south across the Brenner Pass into Italy and the SudTirol, hoping for sunnier weather.