Bludenz

Bludenz on the Swiss border is one of my favourite places in Austria. Unusually last time I was there it was also for two weeks, and I got a free regional train pass thrown in. The province of Vorarlberg is known as Das Ländle, the little land. They speak Swiss rather than Austrian German there, and there’s large stretches of sparsely populated mountain between them and the rest of Austria. It’s a very prosperous area though, as a lot of people commute to well paid jobs in Switzerland or Germany.

I stayed at the Hotel Einhorn (Unicorn Hotel) which had this fabulously 70s lounge. It closed down not that long afterwards, as I think the owners retired.

This was the view from my bus stop every morning. (Click to expand)

This was the view from my classroom. I asked the kids what the mountains are called and they shrugged, went dunno and started pestering me with questions about living by the beach.

Even the industrial park is scenic.

Bludenz is also the home of Milka chocolate. The chocolate factory is right next to a brewery on a steeply sloping road, so you ascend through weird layers of smells on your walk past.

They had a load of full-sized bars for 29c each. So I grabbed a handful, some of which came home with me.

I also went to a jumble sale in the town hall. The two things you are guaranteed to find at an Austrian jumble sale are second-hand skis and home-made taxidermy. This flat marmot made me laugh. I had to take a sneaky photo however, as the marmot’s owner was very protective of him.

As it was spring, everywhere had wild garlic specials (Bärlauch in German- bear garlic). I discovered that cream of wild garlic soup makes a great dip for chips.

Even the supermarket was scenic. I started an instagram account that day of ridiculously scenic alpine supermarkets- you can find it here.

A work colleague came down with covid and had to quarantine in his room (which sadly had a view of the carpark rather than the mountains), so I went to the supermarket to get him some supplies. My reward was this cow puppet that came with the cheese.

Although Vorarlberg can be very conservative in many respects, they’re also known for their love of modern architecture. I even went to an exhibition about it in Vienna. I’ve also been to some schools in the region with fantastic buildings.

There’s a really nice ice cream shop in town run by a friendly gay couple. These are their stickers proclaiming themselves the “ice princes” in Vorarlberg dialect.

The shop is full of frog prince decorations.