We are staying in an exceptional campground. It is not the kind of place we usually go to as it is gigantic with around 400 spots. But because the season is almost over there are only around 15 people here. Because of that we are parked 15 feet from the edge of the lake. The facilities are modern and clean, and the wifi is as fast as at home. Like in Switzerland it comes with a pass that allows us to use all of the bus and train facilities in the state. We loved this in Switzerland and were happy to find it here also.
While Villach does not have a reputation of being a tourist town we decided to go into the city center today to check things out. Truth is we probably would not have done that if we had to pay for the bus.
The bus drive into town was very quick because it did not have to stop at any of the 10 bus stops after it picked us up. Villach was very heavily bombed during WWII and about 85% of the buildings in the town were destroyed. Because of this the majority of the buildings are built in a modern style so the feel is not that different to a like sized city in the US.
The town had two churches that were listed as places to see. One was about 100 yards from the bus station so we started there. We then walked to the other church which was about 1/2 a mile away on the main street of town. It was a pleasant walk, and the main street is pedestrian only which allows for window shopping and a nice relaxing stroll.
After about an hour we had seen what we had come to see in Villach. The local brewery called Villach Brewery was located next to the first church we had stopped at and it had a beer hall on site so we decided that would be our lunch stop.
The beer was good and luckily we decided to split our goulash as the portion was immense and more than enough for two. After we finished our lunch we had an hour to kill before the next bus back to the campground which we spent doing grocery tourism. Ton confirmed that prices were higher in Austria than Slovenia and we did not find anything interesting to buy.
In defense of Villach Austrians don’t come here for culture, they come here for access to the outdoors. From Villach you have lakes, rivers, and mountains to play on and in. You fish in the summer, and you ski in the winter. Villach is a place to stay to do those things. It reminds me of Bend Oregon in that way.
