July skiing and camping in Zillertal, Austria

One of the big things we realized after this trip was that being a weekend warrior in Europe, well, kinda sucks. We've found that a general rule of thumb when planning our trips is to add an extra hour of time for every 100 kilometers we are going. It doesn't matter which way we head from our little town, the rule applies no matter if we're heading to Holland or Dresden or Austria. Google maps says it's 3 hours to get to our destination in Austria which is 200 kilometers away? Simple - it will take us 5 hours at the very least. Yes, Germany does have the autobahn, a free-wheeling fast-paced strip of pavement where a seemingly disproportianate collection of asshole drivers congregate. Yes, there is no speed limit in places, but this doesn't help much when there is construction every 10 kilometers, the Dutch ground-force hauling their ubiquitous camping trailers clog every uphill section in existence and traffic jams stretching as far as one can see crop up seemingly anywhere and for no reason. Still, we put ourselves through this every couple of weeks and have really started to wonder, is it worth it?


In most cases it is, but do too many of these weekend trips back to back and you will eventually burn out. A typical summer trip is as follows; Pack Thursday night, rush home from work Friday and hit the road. Arrive at destination at 9 or 10 PM, set up camp/check in to hotel, find something to eat, get to bed late. Do whatever on Saturday, fighting the crowds along the way. Sleep after a long day of doing whatever we were doing. Wake up Sunday and decide whether or not we feel like getting home late that night or not, do whatever, make the long drive back home, unpack, sleep. Monday, go to work early, get home, clean up the rest of the mess from the weekend, do laundry and then start to plan the next trip. It's really not all that relaxing.

This latest trip pretty much followed the recipe above, but we did have a good time. We arrived at our unbelievably overcrowded campsite near Mayrhofen on Friday night just in time to pitch our tent and get everything in it before being hit with some truly crazy thunderstorms. After getting the tent up, we pretty much spent the next 4 hours stuck in it because of the weather. It was some of the strongest rain I have seen in years and the thunder and lightning was impressive as well. Osu did not enjoy it, but he behaved pretty well for being imprissioned in the tent with us. Our friends who were supposed to camp with us this night ended up not being able to find us for a couple of reasons. One, the weather was so bad on their drive down (we missed this) that they arrived hours later than expected and it was dark by the time they found the campground. Two, when they got to the campground, there was no way to find us amongst the hundreds of other tents pitched in the 'tent-only' area which was simply a grassy field next to a road tucked in with all of the camp trailers.

The next morning we awoke to some much nicer weather and headed up to Hintertux for some snow skiing. I love going to this place in the summer. The crowds are thin, the snow isn't all that bad and the views from up there are amazing. We did end up meeting with our friends at Hintertux - us after having slept in a soggy tent and them after a night in a beautiful 4-star hotel. After skiing, we headed back to the campground and had a nice relaxing evening together, caught up after not seeing each other in a while, cooked a good dinner and then proceeded to bed. Surprisingly, we all managed to get a good nights sleep and woke up fairly early on Sunday, cooked a good breakfast and then packed the camp up and left.

The weather was gorgeous on Sunday, so instead of heading back home via the autobahn, we drove some backroads up to Achensee on the border of Austria and Germany. This seemed like a great plan not only to us, but to half of Europe as well. The place was absolutely packed and we didn't end up sticking around for long. Our next stop was the Aying brewery east of Munich where we stopped for one of the most meat-laden lunches I have ever had. It was good, but damn! I felt like Fred Flinstone when I picked up the plate of ribs and the chicken I ordered. No human should be allowed so much meat at one time!

We eventually got home around 6 PM that evening, not rested, not relaxed and tired as hell. Even a full-nights sleep didn't prepare us for work the next day and it was rough for both of us. But, that's how it goes out here and I guess we've learned to live with it. It is frusturating, though, knowing what's out there but how hard it is to actually enjoy. Too many people, too many cars, too expensive, too many people and not enough time. The camping in no way is anything like what camping in the US is like. I now know why the Euros buy tents that look like small apartment buildings for camping - if you don't, someone will inevitably pitch their tent two feet from yours. You need a buffer and a 500 square foot tent will provide this I guess.

Anyhow, we'll be off camping again next weekend again but hopefully in a less-crowded area where we are able to enjoy a little more solitude. The place where we are staying labels it as a 'wilderness camping experience', but that remains to be seen. I'll report back on that when we get home, hopefully with a little more energy and thought.

(wow, that was some bad writing. probably the quickest post I've ever put up, though. And I'm tired.)