Motorhomers on Tour : Farewell Slovakia, hello Austria!

In the last month and a half, we have crossed 5 borders travelling into Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and now into Austria. We are at Donaupark Camping Klosterneuburg, 14kms outside Vienna (N48.31129 E16.32898). It’s our first campsite since leaving Croatia and feels a little bit strange. Sonny, the motorhome has had to encounter all sorts of different road rules as he has crossed the many borders and has struggled mastering any of the languages!

Sonny, the motorhome with a view of Klosterneuburg Monastery peeking through the trees

Leaving Bratislava the day before yesterday, we travelled our shortest journey to date – 8 miles (13kms) down the road to Devin Castle and parked up the night below Devin Castle (N48.17595, E16.97962).

The rain was stop and start all day, but we managed a walk up to the top of the old castle, which is built on a high rock at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers. Oldest traces of settlement date back to the 5^th century BC. Cyril and Methodius (credited for inventing the Cyrillic alphabet) started their mission here in 863 and developed the first alphabet to be used for Slavonic manuscripts.

The Watchtower below (known as the Maiden Tower

The top of the castle has been closed for restoration work since 2008 and due to open next year - that's a long time of restoration work! I don’t envy the workmen who have to climb up these steep ladders.

There is a small museum at the top, with artefacts dating back from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age and beyond, with information boards giving you a flavour of the history. Apart from that there wasn’t much of interest to see, other than the lovely views over the Danube and Morava that gives you the sense of why the site was so important. There were a few pieces of modern art scattered around the castle that Mel was trying to get his head around – not really our thing modern art!

Mmm, now let me see what can this be?

Wet through, we walked down to the bottom of the castle where a lady was selling Gluewein for only €1 – two large cups later we were nice and warm but still very wet!

The day was spent with the heating blasting on and off, reading and a bit of planning.

Oh yes, and more drinking of the wine! We almost forgot to put the Slovakia sticker on our motorhome map!

We have enjoyed our 3 days in Slovakia, and Bratislava is a lovely city, but it has rained everyday and we have gone from enjoying temperatures in their 20s to temperatures as low as 9°C. We haven't experienced temperatures this low since leaving the UK - Brrrr. Can’t grumble though, we have had some fantastic weather over the last 10 months since setting off.

We crossed over the border into Austria yesterday, well I say border the only signs were 2 old concrete buildings either side of the road, a police car parked a bit further down the road and a ‘welcome to Austria’ sign. What a difference from the Slovakia side though – lovely smooth roads, no sign of communist high-rise buildings and an alpine feel all around us.

We stopped off at a Lidl just across the border at Hainburg to stock up and were surprised that given we were in Austria, how cheap it was. We ended up driving through the old walled town; we weren’t sure until we got right up to the walled gate if Sonny would fit through it!

It looked a nice town and wished we had stopped longer to have a good look around. However, we carried on to the campsite and once parked up, electric plugged in, brew made and drunk we had a mooch around the site. There are only about 15 of us on the site, mostly motorhomes/campervans with a couple of caravans. We are the only Brits, there's a couple of Dutch and Austrians, one Italian, one Spanish and the rest Germans. It is the most motorhomes we have seen since leaving Croatia!

With the rain still coming down, we left it until today before going up into the town of Klosterneuburg and a walk around the 12^th century monastery and courtyard.

We even got to watch some filming – not sure what era the film was set in but by the look of the costumes they were wearing it was going to be an oldy!