Austria is a central European landlocked country with around 8.8 million inhabitants. The country is bordered by the Bohemian massif and the Thaya in the north, the Karawanken and the Styrian hill country in the south, the Pannonian lowlands in the east and the Rhine and Lake Constance in the west. More than 62 percent of its territory is made up of alpine high mountains.
Austria and its mountains play an important role for active holidaymakers both in winter and summer for mountain hikes, mountaineering and skiing. The highest mountains in Austria are three-thousand meter peaks and are located in the Eastern Alps. At 3,798 m, the Großglockner (Tyrol/Carinthia) is the highest mountain. Austria has numerous refuges and hiking trails that are operated by Alpine clubs and tourist associations.
Bathing tourism is particularly important on Lake Neusiedl, in the Salzkammergut and Salzburg lake areas and in the Carinthian lake area.
In general, tourism is one of the most important sectors in the Austrian economy. Tourism regions are Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna.
Tourism is one of the most important economic sectors in Austria. In 2013, direct added value of 16.94 billion euros was achieved from tourism, which corresponds to 5.3% of the gross domestic product. Tourism is evenly distributed between the summer and winter seasons, although an east-west divide is visible, with the east attracting more summer tourism and the west more winter tourism. Important sectors also include cultural and city tourism as well as spa, wellness and conference tourism.
Walmendinger Horn - Once settled at the Vorderboden campsite in Kleinwalsertal, we set out on our first exploratory tour of Mittelberg, which is the main village of the functional exclave Kleinwalsertal alongside Baad and Riesler.
Kleinwalsertal - After a problem-free tour from Regensburg, we arrived at the Vorderboden campsite in the Kleinwalsertal, which is at least 1194 meters above sea level.
Breitachklamm - Similar to the day before, we were getting up again by the first daylight that penetrated the caravan through the skylight, as well as by the noise appearing from Breitach creek next to the campsite.
Walser Costume - The day before we noticed the first activities of the local fire brigade, which were busy building a huge canopy next to the Walserhaus: the village festival was being prepared, the first stands were being set up.
Not just because of the wonderful summer weather, the next diving expedition is planned to be a trip to the Blindsee, a mountain lake at 1093 meters above sea level, which is located below the Fernpass in Tyrol in Austria.
Central Cemetery - Every city, like every country, has its own bizarre peculiarities, so we were more than surprised about the central cemetery in Vienna during a conversation when we found out that the cemetery is also used as a park and green area by the Viennese.
Vienna - With its 6.3 kilometres, Halterbach is the 2nd longest stream in Vienna, which flows through the suburb of Hütteldorf in which the Camping Wien West is located, too.
Schönbrunn - Those who drive through the city center of Vienna during Advent will encounter astonishing lines of visitors in the early morning already, which despite cold and light snow fall hike towards Schönbrunn Palace.
Hofburg - Once again we took the tram into the city center of Vienna, leaving the tram at Vienna State Opera. This time, our exploration tour was to include the Vienna Hofburg and the museums housed in it, where our special interest was directed to the Ephesus Museum.
Precious Metal - In our first blog reports we had already written about the coin findings from the Roman period in Brunn am Gebirge, which are today located in the exhibition at the Heritage House.
Vienna Woods - In his work, created around the middle of the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy calls the mountains between Pannonia and Norikum "Ketion oros".
Scheiblingstein - The Wienerwald has also been populated by people since time immemorial. Neolithic residential pits, which were discovered in 1914 when trenches were dug, were found on the Simonsberg in the Weidlingbach municipality as early from the Neo-Gothic era (2200-1800 BC).
Ottakring - If you want to enjoy the ultimate, almost oriental market experience in Vienna, you should visit the Brunnenmarkt in Ottakring, which we were able to do thanks to our city guide Gernot.
Freemasonry - The visit to the Central Cemetery in Vienna, which was quite wet and cold but extremely interesting, had not just led us to the grave and memorial of the artist Falco, which had established itself a real visitor magnet over the years, the visit once again showed a different way of dealing with Death here in Vienna or at least here at the central cemetery.
Danube Island - Within continuing of our project work on the development of camping tourism on the Balkans as well as the creation of intermediate stations on the way to the south, our tour planning first integrated the locations of Vienna and Budapest before moving on to Belgrade.
Mödling - At the end of our tour through Mödling, Robert introduced us to the local museum, which gives an insight view into the history of the town as well as into the surroundings places and into the past too, when the area was connected to an ocean.
Mödling - Robert's name has long been a synonym for our readers, often we have reported on his activities in Vienna and its surroundings, be it his Roman festival with the legendary Egyptian blue or his salt crystal model, which is now part of a UNESCO exhibition and within this will travel to India.
Vienna - The palace and its park form an inseparable ensemble. The center of the park is the Great Parterre, which stretches on the main axis to the Gloriette Hill since about 1780.
Schönbrunn - Once again, we were meeting to discuss the setting up of a camper stop and its advantages with regard to the further development of local culture and travel tourism to Brunn am Gebirge, which we could later use to visit the Palace of Schönbrunn and the city of Vienna.
Karlsplatz - And we continued with regard to the visit of various Christmas markets in Vienna, this time we went to the Christmas market "Art Advent" at Karlsplatz.