When we were roughly planning our trip around Europe at no point did Annie and I talk about or even consider going to Austria. When we wanted to leave the expensive land of Liechtenstein asap we made a run for the nearest border which happened to be… Austria! 30 minutes drive and a world away from the expense of Liechtenstein, we found a campsite in a town called Feldkirch. The campsite had the added bonus of a large joining pool complex, which we dipped into on the second day. We took this time to do a bit of laundry and hung our laundry all around our awning, completely surrounding Fran with pretty much every item of clothing we own, this sight amused some of our fellow campers and there were a few laughs here and there at our makeshift laundry camp.
We then cycled into the town and we were delighted by how romantic and historic this medieval city is, and how friendly and cheerful the inhabitants are. The town was so well preserved, the cobblestoned main street now full of shops and cafes but yet the buildings themselves looked like they had not changed much since the 1500s when the city walls were rebuilt. It truly looks like something out of a fairytale and to make it even better, this little gem seems to be largely undiscovered so it felt like we were the only tourists there. We wandered around the town, visited a couple of stores including a lovely spice store where we gleefully purchased some Asian spices we haven’t been able to find since leaving Australia. We then walked up a small hill to Schattenburg Castle, which turned out to be one of the best preserved and most interesting castle type museums that we have seen to date. The keep was built in 1265 and the three wings built in the 15th century. Many of the floors were original (turns out the floorboards weren’t even a little bit flat back then) and it was filled to the brim with artefacts that were not encased behind any plexiglass but rather set up to show how the rooms might have looked originally, so you could really get up close and personal. The inner walkways overlooking the courtyard and low, darkened beams and felt like something straight out of Game of Thrones. We also had the added bonus of being the only people in the whole place, so it felt like we had stepped back in time and were just poking around the Castle while the inhabitants had stepped out. Not a bad find given we had no knowledge of Feldkirch or Schattenburg prior to our arrival.
The next destination on our unplanned tour of the state Tirol in Austria was Rinn. We picked this town as it was a short bus ride into Innsbruck (the state capital). Nestled in amongst the ski side mountains Rinn is a simple and adorable little village. Much of the land is being used for dairy cattle which we said hello to on our walks to and from the village centre. The campsite was overlooked by a little church and surrounded by fields, which was all very picturesque including the bells that faithfully clanged and woke us up on the hour, on the half hour and every quarter hour!
On our second day we took a bus into Innsbruck, had lunch and tried some delicious Tyrolese delicacies such as; a beef broth with dumpling, a potato, meat and egg fry up and a dessert that tasted like a very eggy pancake served with apple and cranberry sauce. While there we went on a very average walking tour organised through the tourism office. How one man can make such a historic and interesting city sound so dull we will never know. We did however get to see Innsbruck’s Victory arch, its famous Golden Roof, the Hofkirche with it’s amazing collection of 28 slightly larger then life bronze statues and a cenotaph (empty tomb) built for Emperor Maximilian I.
We also explored the Tyrolese Museum of Folk Art until we were told that they were closing up for the day, once again finding ourselves the only people in the museum. The next day we set off for Germany after our unexpected but delightful time in Austria.
2 ladies travel 