One of the highlights of 2018 was visiting Europe with family twice.. The first time was with my in-laws and in the beginning of Summer where we visited the beautiful countries Austria and Slovenia 💗 The second time was with my family a few months after where we visited multiple cities in romantic France 🗼 and as both visits were filled with activities and places to visit, I'll breakdown the things we did in multiple posts so that I get to write the most I can without you getting bored 😉
Starting with our first trip which was in May and lasted around 10 days, we arrived in Munich, Germany where we met with the whole family and rented the cars. At the end of the trip we all traveled back to our countries from Munich Airport, so our trip was almost like a round trip through Austria and Slovenia then back to Munich through this route:
An important step prior to traveling, though, was to plan ahead 💡 (that's a light bulb, lol) and I mean planning everything, especially because we were traveling as a big group.. This phase took a very long time and effort from my husband and his brother-in-law who took on the mission of researching the cities we'll be visiting, the hotels we'll be staying at, the restaurants we'll be eating at, even the car we'll be renting - and we all sat down at the end and voted on what we'd like or not like to do, until we came up with the plan and schedule that would please all.. And even though it took a long time, it was absolutely worth it! And here are the best things to do and places to visit, starting with Austria:
We decided to stay in Zellberg to be able to move around and visit nearby municipalities and towns like Innsbruck, Zell am Ziller, and Zell am See. The hotel was an amazing wooden cottage with an insane view! The cottage was right next to a running river which was so relaxing, and despite us being there in May, the weather was chilly - which I loved since I love the cold!
(The photo on the left is from a restaurant we stopped at on our way to the hotel, and the photos on the left are of the hotel and its beautiful view)
In Innsbruck, we visited two places:
❄️ Hungerburgbahn designed by Zaha Hadid, which is one of the four train stops connecting the city
❄️ Innsbrucker Nordketten Bahnen (more information linked), which is an amazing cable car ride overlooking the mountain chain of Karwendel.. Everything about the ride was beautiful; the cable car ride, the view from top, and the hike upwards, especially that there was still snow on the mountain!
Before we reached Zell am See, which is a beautiful town (how many times have I used the word beautiful!!) overlooking lake Zell, we stopped by the Krimml Waterfalls and a restaurant in Kaprun (linked). Words to describe the views won't do them justice, so I'll just leave you with some photos:
The waterfall was so strong and loud, and we would be splashed by water whenever we went closer to take a photo. As for the restaurant, it took some time to get there and we had to drive up the mountain to get there; however, some of our food was salty, but the view and weather was breath-taking, and it started to rain afterwards..
The town of Zell am See was a completely different experience - it was more "tourist-y" and so filled with hotels, souvenir shops, and various restaurants and cuisines. We also got to watch a wedding ceremony, which was interesting. We had lunch at a burger shop and it was delicious, however, the place was a bit small so we kind of took over the whole top floor! We also rode a slide/roller coaster which overlooked a lot of greenery and was so thrilling.
An amazing - but pricey - activity we got to experience in Zell am See was an exciting plane ride around the lake and into the clouds! (website linked) It.was.beautiful! The scenery was amazing, and it was extraordinary how you could see the green landscape on one side and then snow on the other..
After visiting Zell am See, we drove to Bled, Slovenia, where we stayed for a couple of days.. I'll write about the things we did and places we visited in a separate post to keep this one about Austria 💖
So, after Bled, we drove back to Austria where we visited Obertraun, Hallstatt, Salzburg and Fuschl am See where we rode another slide/ roller coaster - I'm not exactly what they're called! But if you're passing by those areas, make sure to check them out because they're so much fun!
We stayed in a hotel in Salzburg and from there we visited nearby towns and sites.. We also toured the town where we passed by Mozart's birth house and had our late lunch in a delicious restaurant overlooking a lake (images above)..
We also visited Badgastein which for some reason was all closed down! We did stop by a waterfall that ran through the town to take some pictures then continued to a restaurant called خرفان فيرفن (it is actually written in Arabic on Google Maps!!) which was filled with Arabs and we got served rice, meat, and salad.. which tasted like they were prepared the Middle Eastern way, hah! If you're in the area make sure to visit that place but make sure to call and order your meal a day before - the whole area is beautiful, great for relaxing, and if you're lucky and it started to rain, you'll definitely find it magical 🌈
On our last day in Austria, we went on a segway tour in the country side very early in the morning.. It was so cold! But it was very interesting to see the country side at that time of day; it was so peaceful and quiet, the farm animals were starting to wake up, and people were getting ready to start their day..
We then went on another slide overlooking the Wolfgangsee Lake, where I almost lost my phone *insert upside-down smiling face emoji*.. The thought of losing my phone was absolutely terrifying and I was very lucky to find it - so for your own sake, make sure you put it in a secure pocket or leave it with someone you trust!!
After that, we went on board a steam train going all the way up to the top of Schafberg, which is 1,783m high! (click here to visit their website) From there you could see the lakes of Wolfgangsee, Attersee and Mondsee.. It was surprisingly warm so we bought some ice cream to eat while we were looking around, and I'll leave you photos of the views down below, because no words can describe the magnificence of the place..
To finish off the amazing day, we had lunch at the Attersee Hotel, and both the food and view were stunning!
With this I finish off my Austria visit summary.. If you're planning to go to Austria I'd really recommend visiting the places I mentioned above. A small thing to keep in mind though is that the all the towns sleep very early! Most restaurants won't serve food, supermarkets will close, and everywhere becomes dark by sunset; therefore, we made sure we bought everything we needed for dinner and the next morning through out the day. We also brought a bunch of snacks to munch on during the road trips because we'd have our breakfast early in the morning and lunch a little late, once we've finished all our activities for the day..
It was really nice going down this memory lane while writing this post ❤️ and hopefully posts about my trip to Slovenia and France will be up here soon, too..
Until then, take care.. With love,
Aya x
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