JULY 3 - Much of today is spent getting from one city to another. First the trek across town with bags to the main bus station, then the struggle to find open seats in the train to Villach. This time I am able to avoid standing for the whole trip.
Coincidentally, we will be traveling to four cities in a row that start with the letter “V”, which started with Vienna.
I chose Villach mostly for its position between other cities we want to visit. And I knew it was relatively small, meaning that it wouldn’t be mobbed with tourists.
Less than an hour out of Vienna we hit mountains, real ones this time, as we are just on the east end of the Alps. Many thick fir forests throughout. Pass a few old castles on the summits of small peaks, and long lakes with plenty of people out bathing (today is Sunday). We are not technically in the Julian Alps, but are very close.
In Villach, it is about a 10 minute walk to the hotel. It is quite the auto-setup. First, I key in a code sent to me days before by email. Then, it requests my contactless credit card payment for the two nights. It spits out a receipt and a key card to open the main door, so we find our own room up the stairs and that’s it, we are in. In the event someone is just walking around looking for a room, I did see that there was an option on the screen to search for a free room, so in theory you could just walk up, pay, and get a room like that.
Really need to eat as it is 15:00 and no chance to really have anything since 9:00. Of course there is a kebab restaurant down the street. In fact there are many here. Rest in the hotel for a few hours and then hit the town when it has cooled off a bit.
