Shortly before this trip, many places in Austria were flooded after days of heavy rain. I was worried that my whole vacation would be wasted. Besides the unfavourable 10-day weather forecast, my feet were aching due to the recurring problem with my bone structure. It was hard to estimate how much I could walk. A few hours before departure, I still didn't have a definite itinerary yet. The only thing I knew for sure was that I would spend the first two nights and the last two nights in Vienna, and the four nights in between I would stay in Innsbruck, and I wanted to go to Melk. That was it. I had to decide my route at the last minute depending on the weather.

I really should count my blessings, for on the whole I was fortunate to have nice weather. Except in Melk and Hall in Tirol, where I was stranded in a thunderstorm for more than an hour, the other days were sunny most of the time. After I left Austria, some places were flooded again. On this trip I visited a few towns I had not even heard of before. I just hopped off the train to check them out, and they turned out to be nice surprises. One day while I was in Innsbruck, a possible severe thunderstorm was predicted to hit that region the following day. I simply decided to take the train to the other side of the Alps - Italy. It was the most unplanned journey I had.

There are a lot of photos in this album, many of which may not be up to your expectation, but I would just like to share them with you to let you see where I had gone during my 8-day memorable vacation in the lovely Austria.

If you wonder why I didn't go to Salzburg, the answer is: I did, last year. You can go to All galleries on the top line of this page, and select "2008 July 4 rush"

(All copyrights reserved)