It was promised to be another very hot weekend so we were looking for a cool place – and there is no cooler place in Austria than Lunz am See.
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| Lake at “Lunz am See” |
We took a scenic route over the Semmering, where we stopped and enjoyed the already fresher air up at the pass with 980 masl. Our route took us further into Styria to Mürzzuschlag and then up the river Mürz. It was getting late and when we saw a place next to the river in the middle of nowhere we stopped for the night.
We did’t expect the river to be that noisy as it cascaded over many rocks just next to us, but we slept well and didn’t hear any passing cars instead. The temperatures had dropped already in the evening, but in the morning we had amazing 10 degrees, which was very low for a summer with 34 degrees during the day in most areas.
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| Traditional Austrian home |
The next day we drove through the beautiful Halltal before we reached Mariazell, which is the most important centre of pilgrimage in Central Europe with its beautiful basilica. Also the surrounding area has a lot to offer with beautiful mountains and lakes.
We stopped for breakfast at the Erlaufsee, wich is very close, but usually also very cold. Cordys sister awaited us in Lunz am See so we continued for another half an hour until we reached our destination at the Ötscherland Camping next to the river Ois.
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| View from the lido |
It is just a 1 km walk from the camping to the lake. We spent the afternoon at the lido there, which was pretty crowded on a hot summer weekend, but the lake with its highest temperature ever we would guess, had 24 degrees and was great for a swim.
The next day we went there early in the morning and rented an electric boat to glide over the lake.
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| Electric boat cruise after sunrise |
After a family lunch we visited the historic Amon house where a weaver market was held and we admired interesting fabrics and products.
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| “Amonhaus” in Lunz am See |
The rest of the day was spent at the river next to our caravan – luckily this river wasn’t very noisy, just freezing cold.
The next day we went for a hike around the lake which is about 4 km long. We passed a garden where a tree had to be cut and was now getting turned into art.
When we left Lunz, we passed Gaming with its famous charterhouse and slowly descended the mountains until we reached the Schallaburg Castle. This castle was build 1000 years ago and renovated during the last centuries. Every year it holds an exhibition, this year on Byzantium & the West.
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| Schallaburg castle |
After our guided tour we were loaded with information we had to digest during the drive back to Vienna.