Weiz

Austria Travel: A peaceful country drive through rural Styria

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• published: 14 Sep 2007
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If you want to read more about my trip to Austria please go to: http://www.travelandtransitions.com/our-travel-blog/austria-2007/ This video clip was taken on July 31, 2007 during my trip to Austria, my home country. First I did some discoveries in my home town of Weiz: I explored the famous pilgrimage church called Weizbergkirche which was built in late baroque style and consecrated in 1776. What astounded me was the size and beauty of this church, considering that it serves a city of barely more than 9000 people. Then I moved on to another architectural gem in the Weiz area: Schloss Thannhausen or Thannhausen Castle was built in the 1500s and features a gorgeous Renaissance courtyard with three levels of arcades and is still often used for concerts and special events. After an interesting drive through the Weizklamm (Weiz Gorge) on a main road framed by vertical limestone cliffs that is so narrow that often it doesn't accommodate two cars side by side I arrived in the mountain village of St. Kathrein am Offenegg, a popular tourism destination with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. Then I explored another touristic highlight of the Weiz area: the "Katerloch", one of the largest limestone caves in Austria with a wide variety of dripstones, many of which are reminiscent of animals, human beings and other identifiable objects. The highlight of this cave is the so-called "Seenparadies", the "Lake Paradise", an underground lake located 135 metres below the cave entrance. I had a chance to interview the operator of the cave after visiting this underground wonderland and learning about the interesting history of this cave. I am actually a travel writer who loves to explore international destinations as well as my chosen home town of Toronto. On Youtube you will find hundreds of video clips from a wide variety of destinations. Feel free to check out some of my 700+ articles and interviews on http//www.travelandtransitions.com. My personal travel stories are located at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos.htm and my Austrian travel articles will be published in the next few weeks. Also, my FREE travel ebooks containing stories from my trips to destinations such as Sicily, Havana, Mexico City, New York City, Chicago, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Halifax and many others are available right now at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/ebooks.html .