Graz

Graz is the second largest city in Austria and was home of the Governator. But after a controversial execution in California the city wants nothing to do with him. There are a few weird sites in Graz, first of which is the Kunsthaus Graz. The Kunsthaus is green and blob like and is used for exhibitions. The locals refer to it as the “friendly alien” and it is very odd indeed. Secondly, the Murinsel is an artificial island in the River Mur and is shaped like an open Sea Shell, it’s used as a amphitheatre and has a café. Julie and I climbed to the top of the Schlossberg (castle hill) to get a great view of the city below. From this vantage point you can see the Kunsthaus and the Murinsel. There was a clock tower at the top with back-to-front hands (the minute and hour hands are reversed). There were a few things to do once up the 260 steps, but all cost and we have seen enough medieval museums and the like. I wish to note, that today’s weather was amazing, it was too hot for jackets and we saw someone tanning. We could not ask for nicer weather and so far Austria is proving to have nicer weather than Italy. Our intention was to head to Bad Waltersdorf to spend the night, but we could not find the location (we think it was under construction) and since it was still fairly early, we decided to finish the drive to Vienna. There were two campsites for us to choose from, because only two were open, or at least that’s what our camping book said. The first campsite we arrived at was closed and this didn’t impress either of us as we were both tired and stressed after driving through Vienna with its traffic. So we plugged in the location of the second campsite only to learn that it was on the other side of town and we had to retrace our steps. The traffic wasn’t as bad once we made it outside of the city as this campsite is located in the forest surrounding one side of Vienna. The location was nice and did provide easy access to the centre. When we arrived the reception kiosk was closed but the gates were open so we found a spot and set up camp. The showers at this campsite were great although Julie tells me her side had an odd smell coming from it.