Edelweißhütte - they started with the heating this morning!
The Röststation closes on Sunday at 18:30 and they wouldn't serve us anything at 18:00. Monday and Tuesday closed.
Aire for campers with electricity
The P7 parking is really convenient to visit the town and even stay overnight
Our very calm overnight stay at the Stuhlecklift in Spital am Semmering
All restaurants were closed
View all the way over to Schneeberg! With schnee this time
This is a walk-in and up pilgrim cross
A weird thing to buy in this antiquities shop
The material cable car and the structure we could always see from beneath
Visit of the Erdfunkstelle Aflenz
One of the many castles in the Steiermark
And in the gorge. Length 1400m: 115 bridges, 350 m ascent, 49 ladders and 2900 walking wooden strips
This was just the way before entering the gorge
Restaurant Zur Klammwirtin at the end of the hike
The Jausenstation "beim Guten Hirten" was very typical and nice with good food
Private aire Reisemobil-Stellplat Graz with many places to dump and take fresh water
Murinsel
The Murinsel is an artificial floating "island" in the middle of the Mur river and links the two banks on both sides. At night the blue navigation lights that surround the structure light up. This landmark of Graz was designed by New York City artist Vito Acconci on the occasion of Graz becoming the 2003 European Capital of Culture.
The Schlossberg (Castle Hill) with the clock tower (Uhrturm)
Schlossbergsteig: a master piece staircase built in the steep cliff up to the tower
Many nice restaurants at the Castle Hill
Doppelwendeltreppe/Zwillingswendeltreppe
The double spiral staircase (twin spiral staircase) was built in the years 1499 to 1500 in the reign of the German king and later Emperor Maximilian I by an unknown master builder of a medieval building in the castle of Steinmetzen.
My lovely daughter with her cute babies Mitzi and Perry
Monday 24.09.2018: Kapellen - Mürzzuschlag - Stuhleck/Spital am Semmering (alt 880 m): 17 km - 15ºC rainy, cloudy and really cold
We spent the rainy morning in the camper watching "The Americans". Drive to Mürzzuschlag where we had lunch at the Cafe-Restaurant Winkler (good lunch menu 30€). Post office, NKD, Café Wien, outdoor shop, grocery shop ... then back home and drive to the Spital am Semmering lift station Promi-Lift Stuhlecklift. Very quiet and completely dark place N47º36'16" E15º46'14"
Tuesday 25.09.2018: Stuhleck/Spital am Semmering - Semmering - Brunnalm in der Veitsch (alt 1053 m): 65km, really cold (12ºC)
Volker hike up to the Kampalp and down to Spital am Semmering while Julia walked down to Spital am Semmering. Unfortunately, there were no restaurants open, so we took the bus back up to Semmering (2,25€/pax). After this, we bought some outdoor gear at Puschi Sport2000 where a nice lady explained to us that we are now here completely out of season. Some groceries at the Billa next door and drive to Veitsch. The aire for campers was not very nice and we tried to have dinner in a restaurant but the two that were open were not nice either. So we continued to to Brunnalm in der Veitsch and we had a "magic" dinner at home (I always keep food provisions). It is very cold up here, so we had to heat (for the first time in 3 months! during the night). N47º37'54" E15º25'48"
Wednesday 26.09.2018: Brunnalm in der Veitsch: very cold 2ºC, during the day then 13ºC but sun very stron
Beautiful hike up to the Graf Meran Hütte and -only Volker- to the peak of Hohe Veitsch (1930 m, 5 hours, 11,8 km, ascent 990m). All the restaurants were closed so we had dinner with Chili con Carne at home.
Thursday 27.09.2018: Brunnalm in der Veitsch - Erdfunkstelle Aflenz - Bärenschützklamm in Mixnitz (alt 464 m): 66 km - warmer 19ºC
Drive to the Erdfunktstelle Aflenz where there was just a self-service movie (nobody there, you have to turn on to start the presentation). Today we bought some good Leberkäse and had lunch at home. Drive to Mixnitz to the Bärenschutzklam. Volker did the hike (10,4 km, 3h15, 750 m ascent) through the gorge (3,5€/pax) while Julia rested. N47º20'7" E15º22'11"
Friday 28.09.2018: Mixnitz - Graz CG (alt 347 m): 69 km, nice 17ºC cool
Today Julia woke up completely fit. So Volker did the hike through the gorge with me! We had a pre-lunch at the first Jausenstation and a lunch down near the parking at the Klammwirtin (rubbish food, unfortunately). Drive to Graz with a stop at a horse camp where nobody was there and continued our way to the Reisemobil Stellplatz Graz aire only for campers (with extraordinary -ever seen before- 4 places grey water dump, toilet dump and drinking water taps.) When we arrived there was a stand with ladies selling wine and regional specialties from "Mei Kasterl", so we took full advantage of it and bought some nice wine bottles. N47º1'28" E15º23'45"
Saturday 29.09.2018: Graz: 17ºC
Other guests of our aire gave us two all day tickets they hadn't used, so we took bus 32 from Bad Strassgang into town to Jakomini-Platz which is a central point for all public transport. And all works really well. Sightseeing with a second breakfast at the Opern Café (very nice and good) then shopping at K&Ö (Kastner & Öhler) where we bought some outdoor gear at the adjacent Gigasport. Then lunch at the Krebsenkeller (very good 35€). In the evening we went to the Schauspielhaus and saw the awesome performance of one actor, Henriette Blumenau, with "Welche Droge passt mir am besten?".
Sunday 30.09.2018: Graz: 14ºC
After a lot of packing and cleaning, we took the bus into town at 15:02 (we had to run!) and went to the Murinsel -an artificial modern boat-like construction- where we enjoyed a coffee with the feeling of sitting in a boat. Then we took the lift up to the Grazer Burg where there is the clock tower and more. This is a very nice place to be at sunset, with lots of cafés and restaurants. Back walking and to the Doppelwendeltreppe before going home.
Monday 01.10.2018: Julia flight Graz to Palma de Mallorca while Volker drives towards Portugal
Volker dropped me off at the airport and is continuing towards Italy today. We made a stop at the Hornbach to buy a new carpet, which we forgot at the Bärenschutzklamm.
Julia flight to Seville on 4.11.2018. My son came with his wife and daughter and we enjoyed a nice afternoon and evening in Seville before driving back to Faro. In the meantime, Volker drove 629 km from Graz CG to Cremona (Italy) on 01.11.2018, 590 km to Saint Martin de Grau (France), 717 km to Castellón de la Plana (Spain) and then 934 km to our home, passing through Seville just about the time I arrived!
Specific things I felt in Austria:
Fantastic beautiful country.
Enchanting sceneries
Lots of nice traditions
Everything pretty modern and working.
Not expensive.
Total of the trip: 12.658 km
