Austria

Nassereith to  Camping Oberland, Otztal, Austria.  Tuesday 11th October 

We wake around 7am and as we are surrounded by mountains Lisa turns to the bottom of the bed to open the blind and see if there is anything around.

Beyond the fence that lines the car park she can see a few shapes that may be deer?  Alastair who has turned around now to join her keeps saying they are goats.  Lisa isn't convinced and goes to get the binoculars.  It's so cold that every time she looks through them they mist up, Alastair is being less than helpful.   He's seen goats before! 

Warming the binoculars up in bed eventually Lisa gets a decent view.   They have horns and stripes on their face like a badger.   They are furrier than deer and have unusual shaped hind legs.   Now Alastair is interested and opens the other blind which scares them and they run to the tree line.

We look them up: Chamois, a first for us! 

After breakfast a car pulls up and several men in camouflage fatigues get out.   The German Army on manoeuvre!

This has been an amazingly beautiful quiet spot for us; our kind of place.  Now we have to get some washing done and drive to the nearest campsite.

We arrive within half an hour and, apart from a couple packing up, we are the only people here.  It should cost €17 but we didn't realise there is a 5€ tax in Austria, thankfully the owner just asks for €20.  And washing?  Oh yes, €1 for 30degrees, €2 for 50 etc.   Easy!

There are 4 different makes of washing machines.  No simple instructions.   Nothing.

We get the first load in and it uses €4 of tokens before we can get it out.  We try a second machine which proceeds to just spin the clothes, it doesn't even introduce water.   Eventually Alastair works out how to make it wash but when it finishes he opens the door and water spills out onto the floor, how can it be so complicated?

We eventually manage two washes and two tumble dries for 11€.  And a few extra grey hairs.  Now Lisa has clothes again and A has a few pairs of fresh knickers to wear.

The rest of the day is taken up with cleaning H and doing our blog

Early bed- knackered again. It is cold up here in the Alps (around 4 degrees at night) and we need the heating on for just the second time.

Clothes washing block to the right- a bit overclouded to see the snowy peaks.

Although we feel far more at home up here, we know we need warmer weather just to survive so we know we need to get further south to Italy.

Nassereith, Austria.  Monday 10th October. 

Autumn;  the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.  Well we certainly have mist and its right cold. About 4 degrees C. 

Alastair is on some kind of mission today.   Lisa can tell because he is up and dressed and in the drivers seat before she has even cleaned her teeth.  Lisa sensing the urgency is soon ready for action. As Alastair starts to drive she reminds him he wants to empty the loo here in the hope of another free night.  

Already somewhere else in his head Alastair remembers that was his plan and drives to the service point.  Lisa says Ok I am just going to nip for a wee first.   Mid wee Alastair pulls the cassette out!!!! Apparently he didn't make the connection between the:  "I'm going for a wee" and the need for the toilet cassette to remain within H.

Lisa has a horrible feeling we will have done Austria and be in Italy by teatime!

As we drive the houses are starting to look more Alpine and there are pretty cows wearing bells; the scenery is even beginning to become a little hilly.

We have to shop as we are low on all of our supplies.  We drive past Fussen which is packed with tourists and find a supermarket that thankfully recycles our bottles as there are no Sky supermarkets down here.

The supermarket shelves looked as if a herd of locusts had visited.  So we took a long time to find some of the things we needed.    When we came to pay the machine wouldn't accept either of our credit cards.   Thankfully Alastair has just enough cash to cover the bill!

We sit for a long time in the car park planning what next.   Unusually we had both had awful nights sleep and Lisa suggests we stay in Germany, near by,  to plan ahead for our Austria visit.   Alastair doesn't like the cold and wants to move on.

The only options we can find for less than a fiver are virtually back where we came from.  Eventually we find a free spot about 30 minutes South of us.  We set off and the crowds clear slightly so we know we are surrounded by mountains.  Alastair is gutted as he thought we would drive through the Alps with a clear view of them.  No Chance.

View of the Alps

Within 10 minutes we see a sign saying we are in Austria.  So now we are here Alastair wants to get petrol (it is the cheapest country for petrol so far) as we are driving so far we are burning it up and he starts fretting about getting a toll pass.   We find a huge petrol station but luckily Alastair spots a sign before putting diesel in a Hamish.  No credit cards accepted!  Obviously we have no cash so we drive on.

We miss our turn which is a blessing as we find another huge petrol station that does accept cards and Alastair buys an 8 day Austrian toll pass, which we must display in our window.   Lisa wonders what use the other 7 days will be?

As we drive we get tantalising glimpses of mountains which starts to get very exciting.   We find our first planned spot around 1pm but it's underneath a flyover and next to railway line.  We get lunch and rethink.   Around 4pm we arrive in a near empty car park near a village surrounded by fields and vertiginous mountain cliffs, fabalass!  Think 'lonely goatherd'- we are now in the Austrian Tyrol!

Fabalass!

We go for a walk to get cash from the bank.  The walk takes us through a wood at the bottom of a cliff where there is a via Ferrata.  We walk past a lake which is a ridiculously pretty clear greeny blue colour and into the alpine village.  

Lake and Nazarreith in background.

We poke our heads into the church which is beautiful.  There is a nun in there with the priest and a couple of young people intently practicing something so we leave them to it.

We begin to walk back to our car park.  We pass a statue of Baby Jesus on the cross with darts sticking out of him, then three shrines to him, then another one with two chairs inside.  Maybe this place's name has something to do with it?

Austrian Gasthaus!

As we walk past the Alpine houses with dark wooden verandas and window baskets full of flowers we can hear the tinkling of goats bells.  (lonely goatherd? yodelayooo?)  We know it will be cold here but somehow in the mountains it feels much more right for us.

What they do when a new baby arrives.

A lovely setting with great noises of birds and cows and horses and bells and constant water splashing because next to H is a water feature constantly flowing.

They paint pretend window-frames and stone work and pictures!

In Hamish we snuggle down with blankets and slippers to watch our DVD.  We are watching series 6 of 24.  We have not seen series 1 - 5 but we imagine we are getting the dregs.  It keeps us entertained but some of the writing is awful and we laugh out loud at all the wrong moments.