Austria and Action Mobil.

The crossing from Slovakia into Austria took only seven minutes.

Because both of us had visited Vienna before, and because we didn't fancy finding a parking place for Mog we decided to go directly to Salzburg, a much smaller and more manageable city.

Salzburg was very welcoming with good road signs and reasonable parking by the river. The "old town" was even better than usual because of the Octoberfest in progress. Large beer tents, multiple brass bands, fairground rides and fireworks as well as fine old churches (many still in use!) a castle and lots of culture.

After Salzburg we visited the campervan builder Action Mobil at Saalfelden. Calling Action Mobil a campervan builder is like calling Tibet "hilly". Everything they do is built to order. At the top end of their range are 8x8 25 tonne trucks with internal garages for a small 4x4 runabout. At the "sensible" end are 4x4 7.5 tonne trucks (MAN, Mercedes Unimog or Bucher Duro) with beautiful hand made living accommodation. Each vehicle takes the six man workforce about year to build.

As the weather in Austria had been splendid so far we decided to continue south on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. Unfortunately the fog descended and the result can be seen (right). The guide book says: "Edelweiss-Spitze, 2571 metres. The highest point on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, with a majestic panorama view of more than thirty 3000 metre peaks".

We camped the night (-2.6°C) and in the morning the fog was gone...