oberdrauburg + lake millstätter see + weidegg. kärnten, AT

well, we need 7 hours from pula (istria, croatia, HR) back home to munich by car. the fastest road leads via ljubljana, SLO. anyway, this time we've decided to take the shorter + cheaper, but 30-60 minutes slower road via kitzbühel + felberntauern, AT and udine + trieste, IT. so what about a stopover #2 in oberdrauburg, kärnten, austria, AT? why not, even if we liked our 4-5h stopover in slovenia (piran, istria), SI a lot, too. 

well, we came late at night and our hotel was closed. but not since few minutes or an hour. it was closed since 2 weeks due to company holidays 😇. the reservation system was shut down, but our agoda booking site didn't care. we got the reservation and booking confirmation in no time. well, the boss waited for us and we were sooo thankful to her. it was after 9 p.m. and everything near & far closed in this sleepy AT-IT border mountain area ... we were the only guests out there, got a key and all the hotel belonged to us. we could sleep in any room as all of them were open, nothing to eat or drink in the whole area and yes, it was a really strange feeling to be there all alone 😰

enjoy few pictures from kärnten (carinthia), AT and few from tirol, AT later on. just to make your worldview complete, there will be a picture from the italian alps, too. it would be not much different if i would show ya a picture from slovenian / german / french or swiss alps either => the nature does not know any man made borders, you see?

 ruins of castle oberdrauburg, kärnten, austria, AT

two of us

our hotel gasthof post in the center of oberdrauburg, kärnten, österreich, AT

welcome to a closed hotel at 9 p.m. in that sleepy mountain area :-O)

 upper drau river at oberdrauburg, kärnten

oberdrauburg, kärnten, österreich, AT

 

kärnten, austria, AT

 ruins of castle oberdrauburg, kärnten, austria, AT

beautiful alps in tirol, austria at our way to istria, croatia

pass plöckenpass, the man made AT - IT border

beautiful alps in italy, IT right 'behind' the plöckenpass (passo monte croce carnico)

tirol, austria. lunch break in a ski center in the kitzbühel area

kufstein, tirol, the man made DE - AT border. almost at home in bavaria, BY

addendum august 2022: 

our next stop-over in kärnten at our trip home from bosnia to munich was in seeboden at the lake millstätter see, 12.-13.08.2022. even if the weather was not nice for the middle of summer, it was still fair enough to take a bath in the hot lake and to enjoy a good dinner at a seeside restaurant stranhotel pichler inside the building as it was really too cold at its beautiful terrace 😇

a tasty dinner at the stranhotel pichler, but it was too cold to sit outside at the lake

we can highly recommend the pension lindner in seeboden, dear friends

my former 'real' visit to austria was in 2020 to the gutensteiner alps. 

addendum may 2023: our next stop-over in kärnten at our way from natz (south tirol) to kranjska gora (slovenia) was the village of weidegg in the gailtal valley.

hotel + restaurant + brewery weidegger wirt in weidegg

more pictures from kärnten + east tirol here.

piran, istria, slovenia, SI

piran (pirano), istria, slovenia, SI was our beautiful stopover at our trip from croatian istria back home to munich. i must admit, we even didn't know there is such a gem of a city at the short slovenian adriatic coast. we knew already the industrial koper and heard about the slovenian montecarlo 'casino' city of portoroz (portorose), but piran? well, we have met a nice slovenian-german couple in fazana, spoke a lot about travel and history and got the idea to visit the cities of groznjan / CRO and piran / SLO. nice 😄

enjoy few pictures:

portoroz (portorose)

piran (pirano)

more pictures here.