October 11 We woke this morning at our lodge in the hamlet of Lans to about ten inches of new snow covering every surface and filling the surrounding pines with a heavy layer of white. It was the perfect morning for a drawn out, lazy breakfast followed by some organizing in the room before we […]
Category Archives: Austria Tours
Austria Tours
Finding the Beauty in a Rainy Day in Tyrol, Austria
September 27 Rain, rain, go away, but tomorrow they promise a sunny day. Something like that. We took a short excursion from our home base in Lans, Austria to the Ötztal Valley to the west of Innsbruck for photography and a short hike along the longest and highest waterfall in Tyrol. Even though it rained, […]
A Walk Around Salzburg Part One
September 25 Salzburg, Austria happens to be one of the prettiest small cities on our Southern Germany and Austria itinerary. Called the ‘Rome of the North,’ Salzburg, founded by the Romans, may have lost its Forum but in its place are magnificent statues, fountains, more than one horse bath and 37 churches and one synagogue. […]
From Aachen to Copenhagen to the Wachau Valley, New Favorites Explored in 2012
I cannot tell how many times in the past 23 years that I’ve driven past the exit for Aachen, Germany. This past October I finally took that exit and discovered along with my three guests from Manila one of the most charming of small German cities, and one which is packed with history and ancient […]
Melk Abbey, Austria
(September 22) Melk Abbey or Stift Melk is an Austrian Benedictine abbey, and one of the world’s most famous monastic sites. It is located above the town of Melk on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river Danube in Lower Austria, adjoining the Wachau valley. The abbey was founded in 1089 when Leopold II, Margrave of […]
Taking Photographs is Part of the Trip
People on a big bus tour rarely get to stop and smell the flowers, much less take the time for a well-composed photograph. With European Focus Private Tours philosophy of “your pace is our pace,” our guests have all the time they want to capture the moment. Our recent guest Art shoots his ancestral village […]
The Gorgeous Oetztal of Austria
May 20 We spent the day in one of the most scenic valleys of Austria, the Oetztal, near Innsbruck. The Oetztal is perhaps best known for the discovery of the “snow man,” nicknamed “Oetzi,” found frozen in a glacier high above the valley floor. Oetzi is now in a museum in Bolzano, across the border […]
Mauthausen’s Somber Shadow
March 20 There was a time when Germany was ruled not by men or women, but by monsters. The concentration camp on a hilltop near Mauthausen, Austria is testament to that fact. During Hitler’s “Thousand Year Reich,” which lasted from 1933 – 1945, millions of people were brutally murdered by a regime intent on ridding […]