On the road with Mike & Till ... Where are we?

June 2024. On the road in Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Italy (South Tyrol).

Winterthur

On Saturday 22 June 2024 we set off from Winterthur, Switzerland in our VW California headed for Salzburg, Austria. This was the first day of a 12 day round trip which will take us from Winterthur right across Austria to Vienna, stopping in Innsbruck, Salzburg and Linz along the way. Then it's on to Bratislava in Slovakia, then back into Austria and down to Graz and Klagenfurt am Wörtersee. Then we'll cross over into Italy and drive through South Tyrol stopping in Bolsano and Merano and eventually back to Switzerland and on to Winterthur.

Innsbruck

On our way to Salzburg we made a quick stop in Innsbruck and had a slow walk around the old city, admired the beautiful buildings and had a cup of coffee by the river. Innsbruck is the home of Swarovski (actually Watten is the home but it’s very close) and they’ve held the Winter Olympics here five times. Unfortunately in the short time we were there we didn’t see any Swarovski chrystals or any Olympians. 

Salzburg

We arrived in Salzburg late in the afternoon and found our pitch at the Nord-Sam camping ground on the outskirts of the city. Feeling already quite exhausted after our long drive from Winterthur (455 km) we decided to go to the local Pizzeria up the road for dinner. After dinner we watched a football match (European Championships) on the laptop then we settled in for a good nights sleep. Mike in the back of the van and Till in the pop-up roof.

Refreshed and ready for the day we headed into the city of Salzburg - the birth place of Mozart. The old city of Salzburg is a World Heritage Site and it’s easy to understand why. Beautiful old houses line the narrow winding streets and the imposing Fortress Hohensalzburg looks down on the city. And there are the magnificent gardens of the Mirabell Palace where some of the scenes in The Sound of Music were filmed. And of course there’s Hotel Sacher, the home of the Sachertorte (or is that Vienna?)

Linz

After enjoying some Sachertorte in Hotel Sacher in Salzburg, we thought why not try Linzertorte in Linz. Linz is the third largest city in Austria and is roughly halfway between Salzburg and Vienna. I’m sure there are many reasons to visit Linz, but we only went there to visit the Jindrak Pastry Shop. The home of the original Linzertorte. 

Vienna

Late in the afternoon of the third day of our road trip and about 720 kilometres from home, we arrived in Vienna, the home of the Wiener Schnitzel. Of course there are many more reasons to visit Vienna than just to eat Wiener Schnitzel - such as visiting the Schönbrunn Palace, seeing the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele at the Belvedere Palace, strolling through the Kunsthistorisches Museum, visiting the Hundertwasserhaus, seeing the Prunksaal at the Austrian National Library, taking a walk around the streets of Vienna’s old city and seeing St. Stephen’s Cathedral - all of which we did, and more. But there’s one more thing we just had to do while we were in Vienna - try the Wiener Schnitzel. 

Three nights in Vienna - three different schnitzels in three different restaurants - Das Griechenbeisl, Figlmüller, and Zum Schwarzen Kameel. Each restaurant prepared their schnitzels a little differently, but all were served with Erdäpfel-Vogerlsalat und Preiselbeeren (Potato and Lamb’s Lettuce Salad and Cranberries). And, of course, they were all delicious! 

Bratislava

Bratislava is only 80 kilometres from Vienna so it’s only very short drive to the capital of Slovakia. We were looking forward to meeting up with my good friends Ivana, Katarina and Alena and spending some time with them in their home city. We arrived before lunch and after checking into our hotel we met up with Ivana who took us up to the Bratislava Castle which looks over the city.  An old school friend of Ivan’s (Ivana’s partner) gave us a brilliant tour of the castle and Till & I were amazed at just how interesting the history of the castle and the history of Bratislava is.

After a hearty English breakfast at our hotel on our second day in Bratislava, Ivana & Ivan took us to a village close to Bratislava to meet her parents and to see her dad’s wonderful vegetable garden. It was a very hot day so cold beers were offered and accepted, and a couple of shots of schnapps were also enjoyed. That night we met up with Katarina and we all had pizzas for dinner.

The next day Till & I visited the UFO tower built on top of the main bridge that crosses the Danube. The lookout platform on the top of the restaurant (shaped a bit like a UFO) built on top of the tower offers great views of the city so we could admire the castle again from afar. In the afternoon we visited the National Gallery of Slovakia and thoroughly enjoying viewing the various collections they had there.

In the evening we once again travelled to a village outside Bratislava where we all met up with Alena and her partner and we had a barbie in their back yard. Lots of beer, lots of meat and salads and lots of fun. We listened to music from the sixties in about four different languages, we played a musical quiz game, we played darts and we even tried our hands at archery. All in all a great night and a lovely way to end  our visit to Bratislava.

Graz

Bratislava to Graz is only 244 kilometers, which is under 3 hours driving, so we decided to stop in Graz for lunch. Graz is the second largest city in Austria and has a population of just over 300,000 and the historic city centre is a Unesco World Heritage Site. We didn’t get to see much in the short time we were there but we did manage to stroll around the Old City and appreciate some of the lovely narrow streets and beautiful old buldings. After staying six nights in hotels in Vienna & Bratislava we were ready for more "vanlife" so we left Graz and headed south towards Klagenfurt to find a nice camping site.

Keutschbach am See

It was only about a two hour drive down to Keutschbacher See, which is a very small lake just south of Klagenfurt and the much larger Wörthersee. Camping Brückler was a perfect spot for us to park the van, pop up the roof, get the table & chairs out and sit back and have a nice cold beer. The Camping Ground had a nice restaurant overlooking the lake, so we had dinner and then enjoyed some very relaxing time sitting by the very idyllic lake. The only distubance was the occaisonal shout from the football fans enjoying the European Cup football match between England and Slovakia.

Merano

After a relaxing night in the van we packed up again and headed for Italy. We crossed over into South Tyrol, made a quick stop in Bolzano for lunch then moved on to Merano where we managed to get a great camping pitch in the middle of the city at the very luxurious Campeggio Merano. Swimming pool, sauna, fancy bar, free public transport and bathrooms that you would find in a 5 star hotel. Very nice indeed, but of course very expensive as well.

Merano is well known for its spa resorts, hiking trails, art nouveau buildings, wineries and fruit orchards and has long been a holiday resort for Italians, Austrians and Germans. Sisi of Austria had her holidays here as did Franz Kafka, and Günther Steiner of F1 fame was born here. Around half the population is Italian speaking and the other half German. But probably most of them are at least partially bi-lingual. The food is a mix of Italian, Austrian and German so Till and I dined very well in the two days we were here.

On the second day we took a long hike along the Tappeinerweg Trail which runs along the mountain side and looks down on the city below and further to the Merano Valley Basin. It was an easy hike but we still thought we deserved the cold beers and the meat & cheese platter in the little cafe at the end of the trail.

And so after twelve days touring through Austria, Slovakia and South Tyrol our tour came to an end. We packed up the van and headed back to Switzerland via the Ofen Pass (2,149m) and the Flüela Pass (2,384m). We did a total of 1,880 kilometres and the van ran like a dream.

We travelled through four countries, visited nine cities and a few small towns. We had Sachertorte in Salzburg, Linzertorte in Linz, three Wiener Schnitzels in Vienna, and a barbie in Bratislava. We saw beautiful buildings and city monuments, narrow winding streets in beautiful old cities. We visited wonderful art galleries with magnificent paintings, and we saw majestic mountains and spectacular lakes. We stayed in nice hotels and cool camping grounds and we slept like babies in the back of van and we loved every minute of being on the road. And most of all, we did it together and we had a wonderful time while we were doing it.