Austria

We visited Austria very briefly whilst driving home to France from the U.K. Austria is mostly mountainous, the River Danube flows through the north east. For a time part of the Roman Empire, Austria was overrun by Germanic peoples in the 5th century AD. From the early Middle Ages it was dominated by the Habsburg family, becoming the centre of a massive European empire. The empire's collapse in 1918 left Austira a weak and unstable country, which was incorporated within the Nazi Reich in 1938. At the end of the Second World War the country fell under Allied military occupation, regaining its sovereignty in 1955. In 1994 a referendum approved Austria's entry into th European Community.

DORNBIRN

We stopped off in Dornbirn as it looked quite nice, and we wanted to stretch our legs. The Dornbirner Ach river flows through the city and into the Lake of Constance, where most of the action takes place. We were there in the winter so the water was not very busy with fun seekers. There seemed to be some good shops and restaurants in the town, although we did not stay for that long. There is a modern museum for those who are interested in geology and animals. The buildings were very pretty with lots of coloured carved wood details. Once we had enjoyed a little walk round, we drove on a little further before stopping once again.

WOLFURT

The other place we briefly stopped at was Wolfurt. We didn't really look round that much there, we just wanted a quick drink before heading off again, but it did look very pretty.