Austrian Countryside

We left Vienna with the first episode of ‘bad weather’ on this trip. I woke up to the sound of rain, stoked because I love rain! Then I realized it was a moving day, and we were all going to have to haul our luggage through the rain a few blocks to the bus. It wasn’t as bad as I feared, and we actually left within ten minutes of our goal for the first time! The rain persisted as we drove out through the Austrian countryside. We stopped at Melk Abby, a ridiculously Baroque building. We went on a tour of the abbey, and had a delicious lunch. The weather stayed just about the same throughout the afternoon, with only a few dry patches. 

Erica and I outside the chapel at Melk Abbey

We left the abbey and continued our journey towards the Austrian Alps. Our driver turn on the heater as soon as we got on the coach, and it got stuck on full blast. Within 20 minutes we were shedding clothes, and sweating. We opened the emergency doors on the roof, and eventually our driver just took a screwdriver to the heater and turned it off manually. 

Cooling off after the emergency sunroof was opened

The rain grew worse as we slowly gained altitude. We could see the snow on the mountains drawing nearer and nearer every mile. We turned a corner and everyone started yelling… SNOW! The ground was covered in it. We drove through a few small villages and it was so beautiful.

I realized we were starting to go downhill, and soon we were below snow level. We were only disappointed for a moment, then we turned another corner and saw or new residence… our castle: Schloss Mittersill. It’s a medieval castle on a hill that looks over the tiny town of Mittersill, and we have it all to ourselves for an entire week!!

Schloss Mittersill