July 13, 2017
Lake Bled is close to the three-way border where Slovenia, Austria, and Italy meet, so we decided to pop up to Villach, the nearest Austrian city. Upon arrival, we noticed banners announcing "Villach on Fire," which we thought was a great name for a rock festival. The city had even positioned fire trucks in the main square to go along with the theme.
As we ate lunch outside and observed the passersby, we realized the Austrians were a bit more literal than we: "Villach on Fire" was a gathering of teams of fire fighters from various European countries to participate in competitions. That also explains the tents set up in the main plaza selling fire-resistant safety boots and the large number of beer tents; fighting fires is thirsty work. Judging by our observations, Team Sweden and the Team Portugal department were the most color-coordinated teams.
After lunch, we noticed people boarding a boat in the river, so we did too. The boat went down and back up the Drau river for two hours, dropping off and picking up passengers at various informal ramps along the way. There were at least two dozen guys from the Porto, Portugal fire department on board with us (1). They seemed to enjoy shouting out encouragement to canoers on the river.
There was a shortage of rooms available in Villach (presumably due to Villach on Fire), so we hopped on a local train to Hermagor, about an hour west of Villach, up the steep-sided Gail River Valley.
We walked about a mile from the station to a campground that had a barrel available for us to sleep in. As we registered, the attendant inquired about our reason for visiting Austria. I said (half jokingly) that we came to try the Sacher Torte, a rich Austrian chocolate cake. He looked rather concerned and said he did not think the on-site restaurant had any (2). I assued him that I already had some at lunch.
The campground was filled with Austrians and Germans with camping trailers on summer vacation. There were indoor and outdoor pools and a spa (no incremental cost) with three different kinds of saunuas. I have never understood the point of saunas, but pictures showed what to do and in what order. Now I fully understand the point of a sauna.
(1) I hope no major fires broke out in Porto as the entire fire department seemed to be in Villach.
(2) While they did not have Sacher Torte, the apple strudel was quite tasty.
No comments:
Post a Comment