You Can’t Sit There- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch.5 - Austria

(Continued vacation story/how-to.. See “You Can’t Sit There- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch.4 - Munich” for previous)

So, in planning our vacations, we typically start high level (“what general AREA do you want to see?”), then we start to develop a vague plan as we find a few places or activities that are “musts,” then it really evolves and refines as we start looking at lodging and travel times etc. This vacation was no different.

We started just knowing we wanted to be in Europe since it’s obviously [mostly] very accessible from Milan (I say mostly because Sweden was honestly kind of a pain and expensive to go between). We ruled out just staying in Italy because it was all VERY easy for me to get to, and Matt didn’t want me to revisit a lot of places I had already seen. Then we debated a few different high level ideas- island hopping in Greece, an Eastern European tour, a road trip from Milan etc. At some point we landed on a road trip from Milan into southern Germany (honestly, neither of us can really remember EXACTLY how we decided that, but at some point we did and I ran with it because we had waited too long to plan our trip :-) ). Oh, and yes, I think we planned this entire trip AFTER I moved to Italy, so we planned and booked everything (including Matt’s flight) in let’s say 3 months.

So from there we started looking into towns in the Black Forest and mapping out a general path to see how far north we thought we could go with the timeframe we had and not kill ourselves with drive times. We found that Baden-Baden was about it, so we drew a mental horizontal line from there and made that a boundary. We decided we really wanted to see some German history while we there, and drink some good beer, so that made Munich a stop. We had been told by a few of my friends about the really neat rifugios and huts in the mountains in Switzerland and Austria and Italy, so we started researching. We found a few amazing looking rifugios in eastern Italy (more on that to come), and Matt found the area called the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland (the area south of Interlaken where we stayed). All of that gave us a framework, but then we had to decide which direction to take our loop. After looking at some availabilities, it ended up making the most sense to go clockwise. We booked an Italian Rifugio for the last 2 nights, and started booking everything else in the order we would be there. We came to Saturday night and knew we had to find somewhere to stay between Munich and our Italian rifugio for the night.

Austria is obviously, you know… there… so we decided to knock another country off the list and stay somewhere that would sit about halfway between our bookended destinations. The only question was, “Where?”

Matt did a bunch of reading on small, adorable towns in Austria. Some of them were a little out of reach, some seemed touristy, some of them seemed questionably small. We ended up choosing the town of Lienz once Matt found a road on the way called the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. We booked a room for one night (Booking.com actually has a lot of these super small town, small establishment places on their site, so definitely check there if you can’t seem to find anything through any other conventional methods!), and hoped for the best.

Short story long, we left Munich, took some backroads, and navigated to the entrance of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. We crossed into Austria annnnnddddd… nothing. Again. No one stopped us. I don’t think there was even a toll-looking station or anyone official. So we kept driving and took in the sights of Austria! Even the roads TO the Grossglockner were lovely. Mountains and valleys and flowers and waterfalls and villages…

Legitimate Maypoles!

We have fun...

The Grossglockner road is like the Skyline Parkway in North Carolina, or any other scenic road/national park kind of area. To enter the road, you pay a fee of 36 euros for a car (It is less for a motorcycle), and you are set for the day and get a free sticker!

There are stops all along the way with signs giving information on the wildlife and the mountains and the waterfalls. At a couple of the stops there is a restaurant or a gift shop or a small museum.

Or just breathtaking views.

And a few of these gigantic snow removal monster trucks on display.

It is a gorgeous, gorgeous road. AND, if you go to the one end, it takes you up close and personal with the Pasterz glacier!! The road literally dead ends at the stop, and there is a free parking garage on your right when you get up there. We parked and got out and almost ran to the railing to look out at the mountains and the glacier.

It’s honestly not all that shocking compared to pictures you see of other glaciers, but apparently it is the longest and largest in the Eastern Alps, though it has been shrinking since 1850. From this point you can also see the namesake mountain of the park- the Grossglockner Mountain. Most importantly, though, we saw marmots!!

After the glacier stop, you backtrack just a bit and then you can turn off the High Alpine road to head down into the valley which then leads you into Lienz. From the glacial parking garage, it took us just over an hour to get to our hotel.

We drove through town and realized two things:

our hotel is technically just outside the boundary of Lienz in the town of Tristach
The town seemed verrrryyyy quiet and we were quite worried about places being closed already (I think it was about 730pm)

We stayed at the Der Dolomitenhof hotel.

Here’s the skinny:

We booked through Booking.com
We got a double room with a balcony and private bathroom for about 104 euros for one night including taxes
Breakfast was included, but dinner at the hotel is extra
It’s in a quiet residential area, but at night you can see the stars and hear the wind through the mountains.
When you stand on your balcony and hear the church bells ring just 100 yards away while the rest of the world is so still, you can’t help but have part of your heart just melt away.

We arrived and were able to check in with no problem (though we did have to go find the guy). Apparently a family owns the hotel, and we realized later that the son was the one that checked us in! Our room was comfortable, the bathroom was nice- good water pressure and all that. We asked about dinner but were a little unclear whether he said if it started in 30 minutes or ended in 30 minutes or what, so we cleaned up and just drove into Lienz for dinner to avoid any awkward interactions at the hotel :-)

We actually found a parking spot pretty easily because I think they were all free for the weekend. We ended up going to the Gosser Brau im Alten Rathaus for dinner. We were of course a little awkward there too, but ended up grabbing a seat outside. I think our waiter had limited English, so our first few interactions were a little.. Anxious, but we eventually got into it. We ended up having some really good beers, and our food was truly AMAZING. I had just a really good ravioli kind of dish, but Matt got a traditional Tyrolean dish that I cannot think of the name or find, but it BLEW MY MIND (the general area where southwest Austria meets northeast Italy is called Tyrol). I was so jealous the whole dinner haha.

After we ate we couldn’t decide if we wanted to find a spot for a drink or not, so we wandered town a little to see if anything jumped out at us. Lienz is definitely not a big city, but there is a decent number of bars and restaurants, and a good size river running next to the center of town. That said, by 11pm or so on a Saturday when we were wandering, it still did not feel like many places were open. In fact, when we made the decision to just get some wine or Schnapps (typical of Austria!) and go back to the hotel, we couldn’t even find a place open to buy any. So what did we do? We looked up gas stations that were open and found ONE nearby that was still open haha.

We went back to the car to head to said gas station, and following the google navigation, some of the roads in town are…. Less than obvious as roads to an American. So. We had a few moments of “OH MY GOD I’M DRIVING ON A SIDEWALK,” but then got back to a main road and were ok hahaha. Seriously one of the biggest moments of panic and tension in the trip..

The dialogue in the car went something like,

“Oh my god we’re not supposed to be driving here”

“It’s Fine”

“Oh my god this is not good, this is not good”

“Ok, ok, well, Google thinks its a road”

“Those girls on the bikes just looked at us like, ‘WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING??’ We’re going to get arrested, I can’t get arrested in Austria”

“Ok, FINE, FINE, it’s going to be ok, just keep going and we’ll get off”

“WE HAVE TO GET OFF THIS ROAD”

“IT’S FINE, TURN HERE”

**main road appears**

“Ok we’re fine, glad I didn’t freak out there”

You tell me which is me and which is Matt hahaha.

Anyway. Made it to the gas station, picked up our liquor fix for the night haha, and headed back to the hotel. We spent the next hour or so just sitting at the small table on our balcony drinking Prosecco (duh), listening to the wind, and talking about the amazing trip we had had so far.

Perfect moment.

We overslept just a bit Sunday morning, so of course missed our free breakfast at the hotel. We knew we needed to get on the road at a reasonable time in order to drive ANOTHER beautiful road Matt had found and make it to our next destination on time. The plan was to stop in Lienz again for a quick breakfast then get going. That was the plan.

First, we drove past the church to get into town and heard live music drifting out through the open windows (I know live music is not the proper way to talk about church musicians, but I don’t know what is…).

Then we went to park in the same spot we had parked in the night before, but it was full. So we drove around a bit and found a parking lot that again I think was free for the weekend. Honestly, my anxiety kicked in about this time. It was already after 10am, we had a lot of driving to do that day, we couldn’t find parking, we didn’t know where we were headed for breakfast… sheesh.

We walked back towards the main drag we had walked the night before, and we saw what looked like a few cafes and a surprise flea market! We did a walk by the full situation to get a feel for what was available and where we should go. We knew something was a little odd because of all the people we saw sitting outside at the cafes, almost 90% of them were eating ice cream. I mean, I felt like we were already behind on our day, but still, it was only 10 or 1030am people. Ice cream? You confuse me, but I like your style Austria.

Anyway, the first place we go, we sit down, look at a menu, and we literally cannot find a single breakfast-looking item. Next place, we look at a menu before sitting down, but same thing. Now I am hungry, stressed, and mad that all we can find is ice cream. Can a girl just get a croissant? C’mon!

Eventually we just sit at a place called Cafe Central and decide we are going to make it work. We order cappuccinos, and it takes us about 20 minutes of sitting with our anxiety and perusing the 2 page menu to FINALLY find something that said it was breakfast. Goodness freaking gracious. I didn’t even care that it ended up just being lunch meat and some odd spreads on a dinner roll haha. After I got some food in me I was a little less of a child.

After we ate we HAD to walk through the flea market before leaving. I mean, how many times am I going to get a chance to buy something from what was essentially an Austrian yard sale?? It was really neat- I think we ended up spending an hour wandering the stands because we kept eyeing this piece or that. I really wanted an Austrian manual coffee grinder, but I knew I didn’t need to buy anymore big, heavy things to transport back to the states haha.

We finally tore ourselves away, and it was after noon. I realize the time, and I am immediately a ball of stress again. I’d been PRETTY good all trip, but for some reason this moment was really sticking with me. And for anyone with anxiety, you know that when your anxiety is affecting someone else’s life you then get anxious about THAT and it snowballs pretty quickly.

Anyway, I tell you all of this because I was essentially unable to fully enjoy the beautiful drive we did that day. We left Lienz and hit the High Pustertaler Road. I flipped between “Oooh... aaaahh” and “This road is crazy and we need to get where we are going so let’s just go!” Regardless, it was beautiful and wound through these super small, gorgeous Austrian villages, each with their own quaint church and perfect houses.

The destination to which we were navigating was Monte Piana (more next post) which was not too far over the border back in Italy. We finally cross over annnnddd. .. yep. You guessed it again. No one. Not a soul to give a crap. Well alright then.

Again, being totally honest with you, I felt a small weight come back to my shoulders when we crossed over. It was as if the struggles and frustrations I have had with the country and the people in it made the whole idea of being back in Italy, after being so free and welcomed in other countries, just… heavy. And hard. And daunting. Actually looking back on the feeling now I am more intrigued by the phenomenon… More thought to be put to that one.

But that was Austria! I think Matt and I both agreed it was a surprise joy for both of us and are very glad we made the stop/trip through. We started making our way to Monte Piana, and you will be blown away at what we saw when we got there...

Getting closer...

See you soon!!