Monday 1-Jul-2019 (Ljubljana to Lesce (near Lake Bled))
Prior
to departing Ljubljana (theses Slavic languages do put consonants in difficult
places for us English-as-an-only-language-people!)… there was the matter of
clearing my conscience re silense on the blog.
So most of the morning was taken up with getting the above “posting” on
line (I construct in Word – then copy into the Blog software – which as
previously noted is, in-my-opinion – of not-perfect quality).
We
did have another small matter to attend too… Chemicals for the toilet! I had bought some back in Switzerland when we
stumbled upon a Dethleff dealer – but supplies were running low – and we had
not seen a shop that sells them since Florence (I am sure there were – we just
didn’t come across them!). But a search on Thetford and Slovenia revealed 3
locations near Ljubljana that would meet our requirements. We duly put the address of the closest one
into the GPS… and you guessed… it was nowhere to be found at it’s finished
point (and it had tried to take us down non-existent roads (including through a
car dealers back-yard!) to get to that non-existent location! Thank goodness
for Google Maps – got us to the right place (2 blocks away) from the GPS
location(!) and on a major road!! It was
a “big” camping shop … so we left with some foot stools , chemicals, and a
“brush” to clean Fiat.
After
that minor drama… it was a short drive to Lake Bled. Got there, went to Camping Bled… to find it
was full (no room at the Inn)…so just a small matter of then backing out… past
the vehicles that had gathered behind us while we were at “Reception”. And so back to Camping Sobec in Lesce – a few
km’s from Lake Bled. In hindsight – we
think this was a really fortuitous outcome! Camping Sobec (unlike Camping Bled) is on the Sava
Dolinka River – with its own (swimming) lake – and the “pitches” scattered
among the trees and along the river bank (you get to choose your own site) –
and Alpine themed buildings. Everything
was essentially perfect about Camping Sobec.
On
setting up… this is what we could see through Fiat’s windscreen…
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| The view from the "Living Room" at Camping Sobec. |
As
in Croatia – the water here is crystal clear, with a slight bluish/green tinge.
As
in Croatia – the water here is crystal clear, with a slight bluish/green tinge.
It
was still quite warm until about 5 pm though… then the air temperature became
very pleasant.
Tuesday 2-Jul-2019 (Lesce (near Lake Bled))
A
day to remember… for multiple reason!
We
were able to cycle to Lake Bled via a bike path and nearby village(Koritno) (a
case where the kindergarten bikes were especially good… as we needed to get
them through a turn style (as it was not possible to get anything over the
fence in which the turn style (and access to the nearby bike path) was
embedded.
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| The "Rustic" bridge at the end of the camp site... and the bike path to Bled. |
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| The hill of no-recovery (after rain)… and rider failure / education... |
Lake
Bled (and its Island) are in reality, just as exceptionally beautiful as the
brochures purport.
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| Lake Bled, its Island... and genteel form of transport... |
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| And after climbing 150 steps - for the "best view of Lake Bled"... as the sign for the Café said... |
The
water is again, crystal clear – and didn’t feel the slightest bit cold when you
walked into it… e.g. to take a photo.
Lots of swimmers, lots of fish evident…
And
yes we hired a row boat and rowed out to the Island so that we could a) row the
boat on the lake, b) visit the church on the Island, c) ring the bell, and d)
climb the clock tower.
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| I haven't forgotten how to row... |
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| Karilyn enjoyed the ride - when not slowing us down by dangling hands in the water! |
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| The requisite Castle on a Cliff, and St Martins Church on the right.. and more genteel transport arrangements, |
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| Being "awed" by Saewon's playing, and that of his wife Bokjoo. |
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| St Matins, Grand Piano, and Bokjoo Suh. |
On
arriving at St Martins – we had one of those, probably never to forget
experiences. The “Lake Bled Festival” was in progress, and at St Stevens,
Saewon and Bokjoo Suh (Violin and Piano respectively) were practicing for their
recital that night. This included piece by Bach and Mozart, but also unfamiliar
pieces by Bazzini and Sarasate. For these pieces I have not heard a Violin make
such sounds before – my words can’t describe the virtuosity of Saewon’s
playing. It was a moving experience.
Meanwhile,
outside, the sky was growing darker as the afternoon deepening convection began
to obscure the sun – and we began to experience downdrafts. Time to get back to Camping Sobec as fast as
possible – which on the Kindergarten bikes implies a top speed of 45 kph… into
the falling rain! But there was one long
(turbo assist, first gear) hill to go down.
Karilyn was behind me, and two thirds of the way down the hill (travelling
at a rather slow speed) – I hear the sound of Karilyn taking a tumble on the
slippery steep slope (the first picture above for this day - yeas we know it looks innocuous). So in my
urgency to stop and get back up the hill to check on her… I did the same – byt
breaking too hard…). As it turns out,
Karilyn fell into the bank when the back wheel proceeded to b e further down
the hill than the front wheel, whereas I simply fell sideways. I lost some
skin, Karilyn got a dent in her helmet, and bruise on her arm. So nothing but a
few bruises and hurt pride to show from that adventure. By the time we got back to the campsite – we
were entirely soaked – but happy.
That
evening Camping Sobec was putting on its own musical event – with a local folk
band… so we added the music of a piano accordion, cello like “bass” and guitar
to the day. A nice bout of toe tapping to end the day.
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| And entertainment of a different kind at Camping Sobec (the "b" in the backdrop is missing!) |
Wednesday 3-Jul-2019 (Lesce to Soca)
On
departing – at the “Camper Service” our ears picked up another familiar accent
– a couple and their three children from Taranaki – as always nice to exchange
notes. They had previously lived in Europe (husband was a New Zealander, wife
was from Scotland)… and it was their opinion that Slovenia was their favourite
European country. We will come back to this point...; later.
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| Fiat departing Camping Sobec... |
While
doing background planning for this trip back in 2017, I came across a reference
to a road over the Vršič pass – where the blogger was of the opinion that this was the best drive he had ever done. So
it had always been on our list of roads to travel. Thunderstorms were forecast but the time was now…
so first stop was Kranjska Gora on the north east side of the pass.
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| Enroute to Kranjska Gora.... Julian Alps |
The
road over this pass was constructed during WW-I by 10,000 Russian POWs – in
order to support the front in the Soca Valley. Today it is also called the
Russian Road – and it really is spectacular… and steep (at least 14% for much of the way)– with 50 hairpin
bends, and on the eastern side each corner is cobbled (but on the western side
normal seal is used on the corners).
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| Starting up the Russian Road... before the rain... |
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| The Russian Church |
It
is a two-way road… and tour-size busses travel over it – but on the straight
sections we filled our lane completely…. and in the corners, if you met another
car it was either stop and manoeuvre … or “breath in”… There is a small church
part way up the pass – built by the prisoners to commemorate 100 who died in an
avalanche during construction. Soon
after our lunch stop at the Russian Church – the forecast convective downpour
set in… and torrential rain was delivered.
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| The windscreen wipers could not keep up with the amount of rain coming off Fiat's roof (and there is something wrong with the sequence order of this photo - for the reader to figure out!) |
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| A bit wet as we got near the top... another Camper in front - so you can judge the width of this two-lane road that also accommodates tourist buses... |
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| At the top of the pass... there be sheep... |
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| Just to give you a sense of the route... and its occasional change in direction |
It
was all that it had been made out to be… - just a small pity about the
rain! But as the evening drew on – the
sun came out and illuminated the mountains at our (beautiful) camp site on the
Soca River (Camp Soca).
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| After the rain... evening light at Camp Soca |
Thursday 4-Jul-2019 (Soca (Slovenia) to Fisching (Austria))
We
had made an arrangement with Dethleff’s to be near Graz on Friday – so that a
dealer there could resolve some of the issues we had identified to date.
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| Same place - the following morning... |
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| Along the Soca River |
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| A reminder that war has recently touched this region again... |
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| Passing through Log pod Mangartom |
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| One of the ornamented houses along this road... |
This
part of the world is very lovely – and in some respects feels a it like NZ.
Upon reflection, I think that we too, would agree with the assessment of the
NZer’s we met on departing Camping Sobec. Of the countries we have visited to date
(understandably quite small), Slovenia has a lot going for it. The countryside is beautiful, everything
works well, the people are friendly and helpful, and for us dumb one-language
folks… English is spoken well, by nearly all.
This seems all the more surprising – given that Slovenia has only been
independent for such a short time, following their declaration of independence
on 25 June 1991, and the ensuing 10 day war against the forces of the Yugoslav
People’s Defence.
We
traversed another high pass (Passo di Predil), 1156 m, on our way north (we
were tempted to go back over the Russian Road!) – which was similarly lovely
(and in sunshine) – but there were few places to stop and take photographs –
more a case of the phone-camera through
the windscreen (of which you will already have experienced quite a few in previous posts).
Enroute
we passed the Klause Fort – in it’s current form, built in 1881 – but the
original fort on this site dates back to the 15th century (to defend
against the Turks). Napoleon Bonaparte passed here too – fighting the Austrians
– and it was on the Isonzo Front overlooking the 70m Koritnica Gorge at this
point.
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| Klause Fort - on the Isonzo Front... |
It
is hard to believe it now – but this road
along the Soca and Koritnica rivers saw some of the bloodiest fighting
in WW-I. This was the Isonzo front
(Isonzo is the Italian name for the Soca River), and 1.7 million
soldiers lost their lives along this front (and this puts the role of the
Russian Road into context).
In
passing into Italy… the roads changed (we have spoken about these before!) –
but the scenery continued – and during our lunch stop… (at Lago del Predil) I
got to see my first snake up close… he was happy to swim to get away from me…
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| Lago del Predil (Italy) |
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| Black(?) snake... on the run.. |
And
shortly after that we passed into Austria… and onto the Austrian Motorway
system… as we had some way go to get to our next camp site: 50plus Camping
Fisching(!) west of Graz. I kid you not
-that is the name of the camp site… and it was ranked 95th out of
Europe’s top 100 campsites by “visitors”… needless to say – it got quite a low
ranking (in our CamperContract App) for child friendliness! Not sure how it got such a high ranking –
very much “life in a grid” – and you are in site 11 (no opportunity to choose). Curiously it had a Swimming Pond… for which
you were required to shower before entering. But upon entering – your feet
would have been invisible once you had passed the third run of the entry
stairs! We gave it a miss.
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| Lots of trees in this region of Austria = lots of timber processing plants... they seemed to come just one after another as we drove along! |
Fisching
is very “agricultural”… and small… and has a well defined odour from the dairy
across the road (and the attendant) flies… but the cows are clearly well looked
after -they even have automatic back / neck scratchers (a rotating brush on a
gimble)!
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| Buy your tools at the supermarket... along with your coffee... and bread... and milk. |
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| Cow neck and back scratcher... |
Friday
05-Jul-2019 (Fisching to Graz)
The
main purpose of today – was to visit the Detheleffs Dealler Davad Farrar in
Passail (north of Graz) – to see if a few issues that we had identified could
be resolved (i.e. a) make adjustments to the engine cover so that it would be
noise free (i.e. replace my interim solution), b) see if the reason the pump
pulses can be resolved, c) check the Alde heating system (we didn’t seem to
have heating at the back of Fiat), and d) add a filler cap to the Windscreen
washer reservoir). As we got closer to the
proposed destination – we did begin to wonder if we had the right address… we
were far out in the countryside…
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| The scenery around Passail |
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| Typical of many roundabouts in Austria, Germany and Switzerland (in particular) - all with different themes - and evidently well cared for... |
But low and behold, around a corner, our destination hove
into sight… Unlike the situations in Florence, Syracuse and Ljubljana – it was
easy to find this business – and the GPS actually got us to it – without any
sillyness either!
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| Fiat being attended to at Robert Harrer... |
This
was a good experience, and although English was in short supply, everyone was really
helpful. Considering the list above, a) was quickly resolved by adding the
missing part and making adjustments to the position of the engine cover on its
mounts, c) not sure what was done – but covers came off, and various parts of
the system were examined... and after testing, we had demonstrable heat at the
back of Fiat, and d) after a trip to town to pick up apart – we have a solution
for that too. As regards b) the pump
problem… when we attempted to demonstrate the problem… it wasn’t there – it worked
perfectly (sigh!)! … but there is more to this story…
David
Farrar also had a “car/mobile home washing facility” – so we now had an opportunity
to clean Fiat – without concern as to whether we were allowed to or not! The washing
“program” had four steps… high pressure water, soap dispensing brush, rinse,
and spray on (hot!) wax. After this treatment
it looked the best it has ever looked (as when we picked it up in Isny – it was
quite grimy – as, to quote the folks their… “the water used in the high
pressure spray is not very clean”(?).
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| And receiving a much needed wash, scrub and polish! (the roof is very slippery when wet and soapy... and it feels quite high up!) |
Next
stop, Graz – at a Mobile Home “parking platz” right in the city (south-west
side)… which had a truly different (public) swimming pool. It was very large, essentially
1.8m deep except for the first metre or so around the edges, and no concrete.
The walls were stainless steel, and the bottom was entirely covered in pebble,
water filtration was via sand – and there was very little chlorine… and it was
very refreshing on a hot day.
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| How's that for a swimming pool - complete with ducks to keep you company |
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| The view when you look straight down! |
As
we went back to register, we were approached by a couple who had seen us drive
in with both our New Zealand and Icthus bumper stickers. They were fellow
Christians (Glen and Marnie) from Sydney (with their) two children… who were
also doing a 6 month motor home tour of Europe – during which they hoped that
they too would figure out what they were to do “next”. It was great to exchange experiences and
plans.
Saturday
06-Jul-2019 (Graz)
Sam
(from NIWA) had previously espoused how nice Graz was… so we were expecting
great things! It sees itself as a cultural capital to (it was recognised as the
European Capital of Culture in 2003) but I do wonder what the folks in Wein
think about that(?), and is considered to have the best preserved city centre in
central Europe. It is delightful…. But the
overhead power lines for the trams do provide a lot of visual clutter(!)… and while
we were there, they were busy with jack-hammers removing some of the tram line
in the main thoroughfare - Herren gasse… so acoustically, it was quite
cluttered too! We did the “walking tour”
circuit…
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| Looking down Herren gasse... |
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| The Murinsel… in the River Mur... what do you think it looks like... the designers think it looks like a "floating shell"... |
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| A window on Graz Cathedral |
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| Graz has a glockenspiel too.. and after seeing / hearing the one in Munich we were expecting great things... but it turned out to be an "is that all there is" moment... |
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| A section from one of the stain glass windows in the Parish Church (on Herren gasse)… note who is lurking in the bottom right pane... none other than Hitler and Mussolini.... |
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| One of Graz's treasures... a double helix staircase - constructed in 1499 (each side of the helix joins up on each level - they are not independent) |
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| Little remains of the original Fortress (it had withstood Napoleon's siege - so when he finally got eh right leverage to have them surrender (by threatening to destroy Vienna... he had it torn down.... except for a few ransomed sections of which the clock tower is the most important - well that is how I believe the story goes... |
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| The old... and the new... showing such sympathy with the spaces in which they reside... |
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| The Café in the Mursinil |
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| The optically active men's loo in the Murinsil... |
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| Graz Sunday Farmer's market - we bought pumpkinseed oil... supposedly delicious.. |
I
think it would be fair comment to say that there is some “tension” between the
old and new architectures on display (at least there is in my mind!)… with the
Kunsthaus on the banks of the Mur looking more like an ugly slug that crawled out
of the river…. Then there is the
Murinsel… another piece of curious architecture that sits in the middle of the
Mur, is a café, and a display area. We had “lunch” there… The environment
looked to have a touch of the avante garde to it… but the loos were really
disorientating (and for those who may be using the facility while slightly
inebriated – downright confusing I would expect!). Composed of mirrored walls
in a mix of concave shapes in a somewhat circular space, it was hard to find the
door, to get out… and to recover one’s sense of spatial orientation (and it was
only about 1.5 x 1 m in size)… and we were not inebriated!
One
further self-inflicted spatially disorienting experience was still in the pipeline… Graz has “the Schlossberg Slide” – the highest
underground slide in the world at 64m high – and 175m long spiral descent –
with alternating bends. I should have read the “alternating bends” bit before
paying over €6
to take the lift up and the slide down. Its also mostly in the dark, and at the
end feels a bit like a free fall. Not
sure I would do that again… but my time to get to the bottom was 36.5s- which implies
an average speed of 4.8m/s.
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| Lunch in the Murinsel - quite full of "flavour"... |
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| The lower section of the spiral... down which one slides... |
Now
about “European bread(s)”… it is time to make some comment – which I suspect
will almost certainly “offend” some of my continental friends and colleagues
(should they have struggled through the text to this point – tis an endurance
test!). From a business point of view… the bread business looks like it offers
a very profitable future for the baker (even if the hours are not so good)…. Everyone
has to buy their bread daily - so there
are lot and lots of opportunities to set up a small business. Why daily, well
because it is invariably stale by lunchtime (or soon thereafter) – unless it
comes “pre hardened” out of the oven – what we would call stale from the
beginning! But in the most part – these breads
are excellent for improving the muscles of the jaw, and testing the sharpness
of one’s teeth. Also there is some need for homogenisation of definitions… as
it is clear that a panini in one part of Italy, can be very different from the
same named object in another part of Italy (I would have thought that Brussels
would have sorted this out long ago…).
However – the Croatians and Slovenians – have got it about right… the
breads have a similar texture and taste to those at home. Lastly… there has to
be some opportunity for introducing some additional types – beyond white! (which
seems to be what the majority of breads are!).
That
night… (after our second swim in the “big pool”) – it rained … deep convection,
with light and sound show included, making Fiat’s clean exterior a little less
pristine! And the temperature falso ell
below 20C overnight.
Lastly
– about that pump issue that we mention above – where, pathologically, the problem seems to go away whenever we present
at a Dethleffs dealer/ Of course, as soon as we were set up in Graz (mains
attached, Fiat levelled), the problem returned! At which point Karilyn wondered….
Is it because we are on mains, while I had been wondering if it related to Fiat
being “level”? Karilyn’s idea was the easiest
hypothesis to test – so I disconnected the mains… and low and behold – the pump
functioned as it should! So it was not a
pathological problem related to nearness to a technician that could “fix” it
after all! [However – when we had the
first problem in Florence… the pump did not function correctly when not on
mains power.]
Sunday
07-Jul-2019 (Graz to Hallstatt)
At
this point – we have become a little looser (if that is possible) with our
travel planning… we have a general plan worked out for the next week or so… but
not a specific set of routes. But we
loved Hallstatt last time we were here (in 2013) so decided to make that our
destination for the day… taking the scenic route – via Vordenberg, the Prabichl
Pass (1227m), Eisenerz, the Gesause National Park, Admont, Liezen, Bad Mittendorf,
Bad Aussee and finally to Hallstatt… and
very little motorway travel (i.e. ka-ching(ing)). So a simple test for the GPS
system’s routing algorithm… but it did not start well! On leaving Graz the first way point was Bruck
an der Mur – a little way up Route 35 – an apparently major road (based on our
map). But the GPS was insisting on a much more circuitous route – even when we were
halfway to the way point (Rt 35 turned
out to be a 4 lane (i.e. divided highway) with charging – so think “major road”.
So at this point we decided on an experiment,
we changed the configuration settings so that it thought Fiat was a 3.5 tonne
motorhome, instead of a 3.5 to 7 tonne
vehicle. With this stroke of the settings – the routes all started to become
sensible! So it is my judgement that the
Zenec routing algorithm for 3.5 to 7 tonne vehicles needs a bit of work!! I wonder if this change might not have saved
us a lot of grief in Italy?
Anyhow
– it was a very pleasant drive… and as we passed by the (very large) steel mill
at St Peter-Freienstein, the scenery started to look familiar – the more so
when we saw the mountain that they were slowly removing and turning into steel…
We passed this way in 2013 on our way to Admont!
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| The ore mountain above Eisenerz. |
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| Eisenerz… way down in the valley (below the mountain)... |
The
ore-mountain – has been mined since the 12th Century… and during
WW-II, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp was located in/near(?)Eisenerz
– providing slave labour for local industry.
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| Outside the Gesause National Park headquarters... |
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| A small side streem in the Geasuse National Park... just give a sense of the flora... |
And
we have fond memories of staying in the Schloss on the hills above Admont back
in 2013 (Admont Abbey has the largest monastic library in the world).
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| Our hotel in 2013 - when we visited here - now called the JUFA Hotel Schloss Rothelstein/Admont***. |
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| And the view 180 degrees from that above... |
The only other point of interst on our way into Hallsatt was
passing the No 3.5 tonne vehicles allowed sign, followed by the 24% gradient
desent into Obertraun…
Our campsite in Hallstatt, Camping Klassner-Holl is almost in
the centre of Halstatt – so an easy loation for a leisurely stroll around the
town… its just a pity that it has started raining again… and for the first time
on more than a month, we have had to wear more than one layer of clothing! Overnight Fiat’s heating system even came on…
when the temperature dipped below 20C! A
pleasant surprise to be in a temperate climate again (temperate by our
definition, that is).
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