It was still raining the next morning as we drove back towards Friedrichshafen
where I visited the Dorniermuseum at the small airport. Unfortunately it was too wet for the
airships to be operating but I enjoyed looking at the many unusual
Dornier aircraft designs especially the early
multi-engined airliners.
After a wet night at a campsite near Lindau we decided to head east and
followed the Deutsche Alpenstrasse signs but saw none of the scenery
due to the
low clouds. Stopping at the "TopPlatz" at Nesselwang the brake pad light
came on continuously so the next morning we headed to the larger town of
Kempten where with typical German efficiency we had the front pads
checked and replaced that afternoon at a Euromaster garage. Back on the
road we
decided to stay on the autobahn around Fussen where we have stayed
previously. Taking heed of the signs as we crossed into Austria
through a short tunnel we pulled into a busy service station to
buy a 10 day vignette just to drive on a short stretch of autobahn. Suddenly
the main road was very busy as far as Lermoos where we took the road back
into Germany and spent a couple of nights at an ACSI discount site at Grainau
near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We visited the attractive town
centre with traditional painted buildings and also drove to Eibsee
where the rack railway takes you to the peak of Germany's highest
mountain of Zugspitze but not that day as it
was shrouded in mist.
Good views in good weather!
It
was a dry morning but still in low cloud as we set off
so we took the main road to Walchensee and on to Bad Tolz where the
stellplatz was nearly full in the late morning as there was a
garden
festival in the local park. Luckily we found a place and
walked
across the bridge to the town centre with its attractive wide main
street lined with large decorated buildings. We then spent a couple of
hours at the garden festival which had many stalls selling interesting
plants, garden products and typical German ornaments. We couldn't
resist buying a wire mesh duck. Heading south-east towards the Bavarian
Alps we turned
off the main road to stop overnight at the small peaceful lake of
Spitzingsee where we had stayed a few years ago.
Peaceful Spitzingsee
As it was still wet and misty we continued on the Deutsche Alpenstrasse
to Oberdorf then crossed into Austria and through the crowded centre of
Kufstein and on busy main roads to St Johann im Tirol. Taking a quieter
route through pretty villages and failing to find a listed stellplatz at Hochfilzen (a
hotel had been built on the site) we headed for an ACSI campsite at
Maishofen for the night. We decided we had had enough wet weather so
headed over the Alps in sleet via the 5 kilometre Felbertauern toll
tunnel to be greeted by a steep diversion due to a landslide but now in
sunshine! Passing through Lienz we took the road through a flat valley
to the small village of Oberdrauberg and pulled in to the pleasant
campsite (unusually all touring pitches) at the municipal swimming pool
and stayed for a couple of nights enjoying pleasant strolls
on level
tracks along the river and to a nearby waterfall. We then headed to the
Carinthian lakes reaching a campsite at Dellach on Millstatersee after
a stroll around the town of Millstat with its old monastery and
lakeside gardens.
Taking the road over low forested hills to Feldkirchen we headed for
Sankt Viet an der Glan where despite being a Saturday morning
we
easily parked on the roadside near the rather deserted town square. We
strolled around the Hauptplatz and old town walls and then found the
amazing brightly
decorated modern hotel built in 1998 which looked somewhat out of place
in a rather austere town. We noticed a nearby viewpoint marked on our
road atlas at Magdalensburg so climbed up a narrow
winding road to the summit where there was a chapel and hotel with
terrific views in all directions. Returning to the main road we got
tangled up on a poorly signed ring road around Klagenfurt to reach our
destination at a pleasant ACSI campsite on the southern shore of the
small lake of Keutschachersee.
Now
with warm sunshine a non-driving day was needed so we took a walk
around the lake and then enjoyed a lazy sunny afternoon
planning
our route to Venice. The Minimundus Park was nearby so we visited it
the next morning to look at the excellently laid out gardens with
highly detailed models of famous buildings from around the world,
although Britain was only represented by the Tower of London and a
waterwheel on the Isle of Man.