The plan was to be in Croatia for a week. The reality changed mid-afternoon in Trieste, and by late afternoon, here I was in the Austrian Alps.
The number two town of Carinthia province (a former duchy), walkably sized, with an attractive Altstadt in a bend in the river Drau (which becomes the Drava after it crosses into Slovenia a bit down-river).
Signs
Coffee teria
Coffee store
Coffee kitchen
Coffee school
THE BEST THINGS HAPPEN IN THE GARAGE
Your guess is as good as mine!
You gotta love a town with a porch swing in a downtown square!
Leaving Villach, the train skirts the north shore of the long Wörthersee lake, before arriving in ...
Klagenfurt
Carinthia's provincial capital.
A larger Altstadt than Villach's, but not fundamentally different.
Klagenfurt has a colorful founding legend, A monstrous critter called the Lindwurm was trapped and killed in the marshes to the east of the Wörthersee. Somehow this resulted in the founding of the town on or near the site.
Centuries later, a romantic fountain, with a much-embellished Lindwurm, was added to the New Square. Centuries after that, a statue of Hercules(!) was added to the ensemble. How a mythical Greek comes into it, I don't know, but there he is.
Signspotting in Klagenfurt
All dogs, (even the little sweet ones), must regretfully stay outside.
Puter Rot. Yeah, I've grappled with that before!
A canal connects the city to the nearby Wörthersee. Somehow this turned the marshlands into a very repectable residential district.
When your hotel lines its stairwell with polished glass, the imagery can be pretty surreal. (Looks just a bit like banks of core memory in 60's computers.)
Next: Still Austria
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