Austria

Salzburg – long on my list and always reinforced in my annual viewing, usually at Christmas, of The Sound of Music.

Another beautiful city where I spent 2 nights at Camping Aigen. Along with almost all the campsites visited this trip, I would stay again. It’s about 5k very pleasant cycle ride along the river Salz to the city centre with lots of space, lovely setting and with a bustling cafe/restaurant which is used by many locals.

After my arrival I decided to cycle in to get my overview knowing that thunderstorms were in the offing. My tiredness from a bad night’s sleep, the drive, albeit not too long, and a change in the weather affected my enthusiasm, but the Mirabell Gardens, scenes for some of musical, were host to young people from the States in choirs and bands performing a variety of music with great positivity despite the threatening weather.

I love coming across live music unexpectedly and it was just what I needed to sit and listen for a while before deciding to head back to the site and leave the proper visit till the following day. I was disappointed that my chosen bit of culture I wanted to pay for – The Sound of Music performance by the Marionetten Theatre, in preference to a avery close second of a live performance of some of Mozart’s music, Salzburg being his birthplace – was only on the day after my departure. This couldn’t be postponed given that I was now on a timetable for driving a long way to reach my ferry reservation at the Hook of Holland, it would have to wait for another visit in the future. I just about beat the thunderstorm which lasted most of the evening and through the night.

I woke up to a resumption of the beautiful weather, and decided to get on a walking tour, which was fantastic and like the ones in Spain well worth doing. 1.5 hours of potted history from enthusiastic qualified guides. What was interesting to me, was that similar to Verona, the previous day my lack of enthusiasm had not been mitigated as I missed discovering the existence of the stunning old town squares and streets, overlooked by the fortress on the opposite side of the river to the Mirabell Gardens. The walking tour of course focussed on this area. Two visits to a city are always better, particularly when the first is after a taxing drive. I had a coffee afterwards with fellow tour attendee Mia from Glasgow, visiting her partner who had just transferred to the Red Bull headquarters there for work. That was a really nice meet-up. I then spent the next 2-3 hours walking up to the fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg, and then around the green space up there taking in the views over the other side of the city to the mountains, to the Museum of Modern Art, before heading back down and enjoying the river area in the heat.

Once again, a small city for living – well-used cycling provision, lots of green space, open-air swimming pools, and of course with the mountains close by. I was sorry to move on as there’s more to see and do there and I recommend for a city visit. Hopefully I will return sometime.

The journey to Cologne was a minimum of 720km so I decided to have a 2-night stopover to visit the university city of Wurzburg, on the Main river, about 120k southeast of Frankfurt. As I only drive around 60mph I expected this to be about 4 – 5 hours of driving which, as I have learnt, is more than enough for me when I don’t need to push it. It’s certainly great to have air-conditioning as it was in the 30s when I arrived at my selected site.  This was a 17eu a night, including electricity at a village boating centre on the river.  Although tired from the driving, I felt that using the cycle path along the river to the city – some 10km – would be good after sitting for so long and used the Brompton.  The cycle path was great, and it was good to see how the river is used along the way for swimming etc.  But due to the heat and underestimating the distance, I’d had enough just short of the main part of the town, so returned to the site knowing I could try again the next day.

Although the site was a really nice setting and perfect in terms of what it offered for the fee, and I did feel comfortable there, overnight the reviews accorded with my experience in terms of intrusive noise from the nearby rail, river and the main road traffic. So I considered moving on the next morning to Cologne or to an official motorhome car park offered by the city right on the river opposite the centre which had good reviews. The latter was a good decision and is where I am now sitting, along with some 30 or so other vans watching the river traffic, having spent the morning and earlier part of the afternoon exploring this pleasant place, again full of lovely cafes, streets and squares.  Not quite in the league of Verona, Lucca, Salzburg or Maastricht, but worth a stop nontheless. The towns/cities that I have enjoyed on this trip all seem to be around the population size of 125,000 and have a university.

Tomorrow I continue the journey north to spend 3 nights in Cologne. I am seeing my eldest son and partner and their new rented apartment together which they have just moved into this week in a central part of the city, but will be keeping out of their upheaval’s way, staying at the city’s campsite a 3.5km cycle ride along the river.

I will be leaving the continent this time on the ferry from the Hook of Holland to Harwich on Monday.