Traveling, Austria to Slovenia

This is another installment regarding food and travel experiences from our 2007 Fall Europe trip. My last post about this trip was about the small hotel we found on the German/Austrian border. After we left the little hotel, we drove through the middle of Salzburg and headed for Slovenia. We chose Slovenia because of the beautiful scenery (and the famous dessert) around the resort town of Lake Bled.

At one point we traveled down the A10 freeway through a very long tunnel in the Alps. When we emerged from the other end of the tunnel, we were in a picturesque little valley with a castle covering the top of a hill. We thought the castle was very interesting so we exited the freeway and drove up a mountain on the far side of the valley to get a good view of the Castle Werfen.

One thing we like to do when traveling is purchase some of the local snacks. In this case they were strangely enough, paprika crackers in the shape of a kangaroo. The kangaroo crackers were good and tasted like a BBQ flavored potato chip. I though it would make a fun photo to have a perspective photo with the kangaroo and the castle.

We drove down to the base of the castle to check on visits and tours, but as much as we would like, we didn’t have the time it would take to hike up the hill and tour the castle. We decided to continue our trip to Lake Bled in Slovenia.

While passing the town of Sittal, we could see from the freeway a giant red chair sitting in a store parking lot and we had to go look. We pulled into the parking lot of a Spar supermarket and parked under the chair (that’s our rental car underneath). It was Sunday and the market was closed, so we sat in our car under the giant chair and had our lunch. We are always prepared for days with lots of driving with cheeses, bread, fruit and yoghurt. We carry small folding cups and plastic utensils, so we can eat just about anywhere.

After our lunch, we were back on the road to Slovenia. When we reached the border of Slovenia, we were required to show our passports before entering. We pulled off the road, entered the information for Lake Bled into our GPS. We were very surprised to find that the included maps of Europe only provide information on the main highways for many of the former Soviet Bloc countries. Fortunately, Lake Bled (not on the main highway) was very easy to find and is as beautiful as advertised. Now if the food is as good!

Adventure In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Traveling – Kufstein, Austria

After leaving Oberammergau (Fall 2007 Europe trip), we traveled due East to Kufstein Austria.  The driving is Austria was very easy once we purchased our required road pass and bright green emergency vest (in case you have to get out of the car on the road).

Why would we pick Kufstein you might ask?  When we were planning our trip, my wife received some information from a friend that had the dates for the town of Kufstein’s fall festival.  We decided that if the dates matched with when we would be in the area, that we would try to attend.

We drove into the outskirts of Kufstein and visited a supermarket.  We are always amazed at the wonderful assortment of yogurt available in central Europe.  We have not found anything quite like it in the states.  The photo is of the yogurt aisle.

Once we stocked up on food, we drove to the center of town to find the festival area.  It was easy to find the square with the festival because of the banners and people.  We parked in a nearby parking garage and walked across the street to the festival.

The first thing saw were all the people of all ages enjoying the festival.  It was quite fascinating because when we arrived, music was playing and a group of the local men dressed in their lederhosen and white shirts were snapping cart whips with the music.  I used our digital camera to take some brief low-quality movies.


As for the band playing at the end of the video: Die Brixentaler, and yes we purchased their CD.  My favorite tracks are: 30 Jahre Brixentaler and Stiegle Bier-Polka.

As the band played on and the dancing continued, we walked the three block length of the festival.  I had a good laugh at the name of the café at the far end of the street.


There was a very wide array of products offered for sale, beer, wine, cheese, honey products (including honey wine), smoked meats, roasted nuts, bread, potato dumplings and Prügeltorte.

What is Prügeltorte?  Until yesterday, we really didn’t know.  I had tried looking it up on Google several times without any luck, but yesterday I found an obscure reference that took me to information about Baumkuchen or Cake of Kings.  In Kufstein, we purchased a ring of the pastry, which is crisp but not too hard and has a taste like sweet goats milk.  It was very good to eat, but even more fascinating to watch it made.

The cook starts with a four foot long tapered cylinder that is rotating horizontally on a spit by the fire.  They pour the thick batter over the length of the cylinder.  As the cylinder rotates, the batter starts to cook and adheres to the cylinder.  Some of the excess batter drips off the cylinder into a pan below, but most stays on to cook into a pastry.  They continue this process of adding a little batter, cooking, and more batter until the cooked pastry is about one inch thick.  When they reach the desired thickness, then remove the cylinder from the heat and then let it cool.  When it is cool, they slide the approximately three foot long pastry off the cylinder and then using a saw, cut it into sections for sale.

The great thing about this festival is that the town tried to include all ages into the celebration.  Even the children were able to participate by wrapping dough around the end of a stick and roasting it over a fire. 

We really enjoy visiting small towns during their celebrations, it is a unique way to experience the culture and try some foods and products that you normally you wouldn’t find.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell