Around 6pm, we finally reached Feldkirch at the Austria border, after crossing Liechtenstein - the smallest German speaking country in the world.

We had planned to stay a night at Feldkirch to save a day of our Eurail Pass, since it was already late evening when we arrived Austria, and headed to Innsbruck the next morning. We would stay at Jugend Herberge hostel, but had no idea how to go there. It was getting dark. We walked and walked, with our heavy backpacks and empty stomachs, and we had walked more than 1km before we finally found the hostel. (Think if you ask me to do such “risky” thing again in a foreign land, I don’t think I have the guts now.)

The hostel was actually a very old cottage, more than 700 years old! The hostelkeeper reminded us that since it was an old cottage, we need to take care of it too! The rate was very cheap - only €14, and as the smaller rooms were occupied, the hostelkeeper was generous enough to let us stay in a big dorm for six persons!

Our only containers brought for the trip. The thick piece of luncheon meat was brought from home; it’s one of most delicious meat we had in Europe!! And the instant noodles tasted so good in a foreign land, yet we treat these instant noodles as MSG junk food at home!

To mention about the bathroom and toilet, they were fine in term of cleanliness, except with a touch of eeriness! The lights were timed to switch off automatically even I was still doing “small business” in the toilet. I had to call Jacky to open the toilet main door in order to turn on the lights. And for the bathroom, it was a big shower room with a few shower sprinklers and no partitions or shower curtains at all. Luckily I was the only one inside. I locked the main bathroom door and Jacky guarding outside. I felt eerie bathing in such a big bathroom too, with scary thought of shower sprinklers turning on by themselves! Eee… In fact, the whole floor where the bathroom and toilet were located was very dark, as it was all about energy conservation again.

Innsbruck with the enchanting Alps!

We had booked a resort called The Alpine Club for a 7-day stay in Schladming, a small mining town in Styria. This was not the first choice resort that we wanted, but to book a timeshare resort, especially a popular one, it might need at least six months of advance booking (that’s why I terminated the membership). We managed to book this resort within three months of departure.

The resort overlooks a wonderful scenery, a beautiful town nestles in the alpine valley. Read the full story

We took a direct train to Vienna, the capital of Austria and reached Vienna after a few hours of train ride from Prague. We checked in to Hotel Praterstern - the BEST hotel that we had stayed throughout the trip in Europe!! Anyway, it had to be the best, as it is literally the only HOTEL we had stayed; we stayed in youth hostels previously.

The historic centre of Vienna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. St Stephen’s Cathedral is just a walking distance away from our hotel. It is a Romanesque and Gothic styles cathedral and is the most important religious building in Vienna.

The other side of St Stephen’s Cathedral.

Vienna is so different from the other states that we had visited in Austria earlier on. It is like Paris; it has plenty of boutiques and shoppers. There are also more Asians. Many buskers could sing classical soprano very well too! The people could speak good English and more helpful and friendlier too.

The shopping lane in the city centre seemed to me like the one in Nanjing Street, Shanghai. And the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had an enjoyable time savouring delicious Austrian pastries, ice-creams and sausages. Of course, they were no longer as cheap as those in Prague. Everything was back to double. Ouch! :(

And plenty of Mozart Chocolate Balls…

Exploring the city by foot… Read the full story