Monday July 29, Freistadt
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| Sunflowers and vines as we left Krems |
The weather has certainly changed
and after a really impressive thunderstorm last night, we have had the whole
gamut today. Felt sad leaving camp this morning as we have enjoyed it so much,
it has been a little like a mini-holiday. After doing the emptying and
refilling rituals we headed off to Krems and enjoyed spotting places we had
seen yesterday from our bikes. Badly needed to replenish the cupboards with a
big shop at Lidl in Krems. I know you don’t get the variety but we can always
guarantee a parking spot and the quality is good. It was late morning when we
were finished packing it all in the van and the weather was feeling very steamy.
The general direction we are
heading is towards Passau in Germany. We could have taken a route through the
Czech Republic, but we would have needed to get a toll “box” like we have for
Austria and felt that it wasn’t worth it for a few days. Sorted out a good lesser road that took us
north from Krems to Altenburg following a river. The area around Krems is
almost solid with vineyards, continuing on from where we cycled yesterday.
Stopped for lunch near the river
and it was really sunny and very humid. Quite different architecture in many
towns with rows of rather plain plastered houses, often painted in vibrant
colours which gives them a boost.
Took HW 38 through Zweetl and
then the heaven’s opened, the rain was torrential and it lowered the
temperature considerably. Even had to pull over for a while until it stopped.
Then Jilly advised us that we had a road closure ahead and needed to detour,
didn’t really believe her until we saw the signs that we interpreted to be
exactly that. And it was a major long detour on some rather minor roads with many
large trucks for quite some distance as well as cars. We climbed up to almost
1000 metres by which time we were in the clouds and visibility was really bad.
Certainly not easy driving conditions, and disappointing missing some wonderful
scenery. The temperatures had dropped to 16 degrees. We crawled along and
finally arrived at the end of the detour at Freistadt, very pleased to be at
the campground. Planning to visit the old medieval walled town tomorrow which
is a short distance from here.
…a group of five vintage tractors
towing wee caravans has just pulled into camp. We have seen these convoys on
the roads, obviously a local pastime. But at 25kms maximum speed would take a
while to get far…and not easy for those following!
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| Typical of the local architecture. |
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A rather large wood pile for you Ed, a bit blurry though.   adding a bit of character to the camp. |
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