Austria Travel Answers

not actually answering your question, but one of my fave memories from Melk is walking down after seeing the Monastery, through the town of Melk---stopping for fresh picked strawberries at one butcher (!??!) shop and just sitting watching life go by eating them one by one....the stores were just opening and looked like fun exploring...our bus awaitied us at the bottom of the hill back to our cruise ship (Viking) The Monastery was amazing with young volunteers from the area doing the english language tours----

when you come from Linz there is a bridge, right before you get to Melk ! In order to drive to Vienna afterwards you have 2 possibilities: 1) the south bank (where Melk is situated) has a lot less trafic, but also the road is partly a bit narrow. You will pass by Schoenbühl castle, will be able to drive up to the ruins of AGGSTEIN, that I can also recomend, drive through small villages with only a few restaurants etc. untill you can cross the bridge shortly before KREMS. 2) the north bank has more restaurants, more trafic, more places for tourists, better streets and also more places to enter the ship. DUERNSTEIN makes sense to stop on this bank. - better landscapes and view ? hard to say, I like both !

and after Krems: there is a road that is not really a highway, but people drive quite fast on a road with just 1 track in each direction. Lots of accidents with deer, crossing the roads, with speeding-cars etc. A road that I hate, because I always almost fall asleep when driving it, and other people do the same, because of the boring landscape and a road without bends ! at the end you merge into the Highway at Stockerau and enter Vienna through the streets with the most heavy trafic you can imagine !!! - Maybe you better drive from Krems in direction St. Pölten and take the highway to Vienna there !

Thanks for the detailed information. Obviously we're not interested in a boring and dangerous road. We want to return our car at the airport, and from there take the train to the Vienna Westbahnhof. So obviously we don't want to get into city traffic. I hope the roads aren't like a heap of spaghetti, as we had in Barcelona. So this time we will go by the Autobahn. Then we'll be in Vienna for a week. What you, Michael - Globtr-r, wrote about the train stations is not about the western, I hope.

What did I write about the train stations ?? That Süd & Süd-ostbahnhof are confusing now, did you mean that ? Westbahnhof is quite OK and newly restored now, so should be no problem ! Where are you going to by train ? If to Salzburg or Linz it might make sense to take the private WESTBAHN instead of ÖBB ! Tickets are half price ! - When you need to go to the airport, thats another good reason to take the WEST-autobahn from St. Pölten and then you first follow the signposts for GRAZ, which is the right track where the highway divides 20km before you get to Vienna. Once that you are on that track you follow the signs for Wien Schwechat Airport !

oh I forgot the link: www.westbahn.de uses the same track & stations, goes 12 times a day Salzburg to Vienna and back. just jump on the train and buy the ticket THERE ! no extra-fee for that ! and it is halfprice against the ordinary train ! Viennna-Salzburg I payed 25 euros !

Yes, you wrote about those stations where you have to cross the road with your luggage through the traffic. I don't know how polite and attentive the Viennese drivers are, but don't try do do that in Israel. We fly to Vienna, arrive in the evening and take the aiport hotel, take our car next morning for 2,5 weeks. So we don't have to pay to get in and out of the city just for sleeping. Then we drive west to the mountains lakes etc., and back to Vienna, returning the car at the airport. We'll stay in Vienna in the Motel One at the Westbahnhof. That's the only train we need, of course in the city (six days) we'll use public transport. Then fly home. Like Gzaman-Simcard's wife, I don't like carrying suitcases (and my husband straining his back for the whole trip). Our car trip isn't fully planned yet, your Hunderwasser pictures being outside the intended destinations. The 1/2 price train to Salzburg will wait for another trip.