2017 Tour of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy
Beginning the last week of April and ending the first week of July, and like previous years we took the Channel tunnel due to it being less stressful for Cassie. After leaving Calais we stayed for two nights near St. Omer in France again before making our way eastwards through Germany and down its border with the Czec Republic, we had intended to explore the CR but it just didn't happen, maybe another time. We only travelled about 100 miles each day with 2-3 days on sites giving a little time to explore our surroundings.
After 2 weeks or so we were entering Austria and Vienna was our first major goal, a site at St.Polten about 25 miles west of Vienna seemed a good idea. From there we took the high speed train into Vienna and enjoyed its abundance of architectural buildings on view. We stayed at this site for 9 days as St. Polten and its area had a lot to offer such as cycling and walking, not to mention the Austrian 'Ironman' event. It was here that Carol contracted a 'Streptococcal' infection in her ear canal that necessitated a visit to the hospital, they wanted to keep her in and put her on a drip but she opted for strong antibiotics and it cleared up after 10 days, free treatment with thanks to the European health card and being a member of the EU.
Time came to unpitch and travel down to Maribor, Slovenia where we found a great site with nearby gondola rides up to the mountain areas where scenic views and walking was on offer.
From Maribor we headed towards Lake Bohinj and our favourite site of the tour, Camping Danica. This was a gem of a place with spacious pitching, restaurant, glacier river for Cassie to cool each day, adjacent cycle track and consistent hot weather, we spent a week here before moving to two more sites in Slovenia. On leaving our last Slovenian site the weather forecast was persistent rain for many areas in Austria but hot and dry for Italy's Adriatic coast, so we took a left instead of a right and headed for Aquileia near Grado on the coast. Unknown to us at the time Aquileia was a very important Roman city and port, and had many, many historic remains to see from that era and to top it all there was a Roman festival on the same weekend we were there.
From the Adriatic coast we travelled towards Austria and Innsbruck, where we took the wrong road and went over the Dolomites via a narrow alpine road into Austria. Could well be the first car with caravan to have travelled this route :) We decided to re-enter Italy via another road for our planned few days at 'Toblacher See', all went well and we were only a couple of hours later than scheduled, this was a gem of a place also (see pics). Moving on after 3 days towards Innsbruck we were stopped by blues and two's for missing a sign that said 'trailers prohibited' on another road, very very nice Austrian policeman, but still relieved me of 25 euro.
Stayed at Nattersee a favourite of ours and as our last Innsbruck visit was in torrential rain, we decided with the good weather to visit again. Carol took the free bus from the site in the morning whilst I lazed outside the caravan with Cassie, and on her return I did the same.
Onward after a week to another site bordering Austria and Germany driving through the Fern Pass, this site afforded us to visit and walk the highest and longest pedestrian Tibetan style footbridge in the world, the 'Highline179'. Also a visit to King Ludwigs 'Neuschwanstein' castle near Fussen.
By now we only had about 10 days left so a couple of more sites took us eventually back to St. Omar for a two day stop before the tunnel home,10 weeks and 3,400 trouble free miles.
PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTO FOR A LARGER PICTURE AND LOCATION
Beginning the last week of April and ending the first week of July, and like previous years we took the Channel tunnel due to it being less stressful for Cassie. After leaving Calais we stayed for two nights near St. Omer in France again before making our way eastwards through Germany and down its border with the Czec Republic, we had intended to explore the CR but it just didn't happen, maybe another time. We only travelled about 100 miles each day with 2-3 days on sites giving a little time to explore our surroundings.
After 2 weeks or so we were entering Austria and Vienna was our first major goal, a site at St.Polten about 25 miles west of Vienna seemed a good idea. From there we took the high speed train into Vienna and enjoyed its abundance of architectural buildings on view. We stayed at this site for 9 days as St. Polten and its area had a lot to offer such as cycling and walking, not to mention the Austrian 'Ironman' event. It was here that Carol contracted a 'Streptococcal' infection in her ear canal that necessitated a visit to the hospital, they wanted to keep her in and put her on a drip but she opted for strong antibiotics and it cleared up after 10 days, free treatment with thanks to the European health card and being a member of the EU.
Time came to unpitch and travel down to Maribor, Slovenia where we found a great site with nearby gondola rides up to the mountain areas where scenic views and walking was on offer.
From Maribor we headed towards Lake Bohinj and our favourite site of the tour, Camping Danica. This was a gem of a place with spacious pitching, restaurant, glacier river for Cassie to cool each day, adjacent cycle track and consistent hot weather, we spent a week here before moving to two more sites in Slovenia. On leaving our last Slovenian site the weather forecast was persistent rain for many areas in Austria but hot and dry for Italy's Adriatic coast, so we took a left instead of a right and headed for Aquileia near Grado on the coast. Unknown to us at the time Aquileia was a very important Roman city and port, and had many, many historic remains to see from that era and to top it all there was a Roman festival on the same weekend we were there.
From the Adriatic coast we travelled towards Austria and Innsbruck, where we took the wrong road and went over the Dolomites via a narrow alpine road into Austria. Could well be the first car with caravan to have travelled this route :) We decided to re-enter Italy via another road for our planned few days at 'Toblacher See', all went well and we were only a couple of hours later than scheduled, this was a gem of a place also (see pics). Moving on after 3 days towards Innsbruck we were stopped by blues and two's for missing a sign that said 'trailers prohibited' on another road, very very nice Austrian policeman, but still relieved me of 25 euro.
Stayed at Nattersee a favourite of ours and as our last Innsbruck visit was in torrential rain, we decided with the good weather to visit again. Carol took the free bus from the site in the morning whilst I lazed outside the caravan with Cassie, and on her return I did the same.
Onward after a week to another site bordering Austria and Germany driving through the Fern Pass, this site afforded us to visit and walk the highest and longest pedestrian Tibetan style footbridge in the world, the 'Highline179'. Also a visit to King Ludwigs 'Neuschwanstein' castle near Fussen.
By now we only had about 10 days left so a couple of more sites took us eventually back to St. Omar for a two day stop before the tunnel home,10 weeks and 3,400 trouble free miles.
PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTO FOR A LARGER PICTURE AND LOCATION