Baumkronenweg is one of the strangest attractions that I have ever been to, which is probably why I…read moreenjoyed it so much. This isn't a place you just stumble upon. You have to drive quite a ways to get to this wooded area of Austria. You definitely get the impression that they don't get many English-speaking tourists here. None of the signage has English on it but the friendly staff was very helpful. After you go through the main entrance they'll snap a quick picture of you. You'll then encounter a boardwalk where you climb stairs up. Then you climb some more stairs up. Repeat until you're pretty high up in the trees. There's a large wooden observation tower near the beginning that you can choose to climb up if you want. I hate heights so I went up long enough to take a few pics and then "noped" my way down as fast as I could. The views are quite stunning in several places and it is a nice relaxing walk through the forest on the boardwalks. In the middle of the forest they have a restaurant and what I think was a hotel with five rooms elevated high above the ground. We stopped here and had a treat of a glass containing milk, a scoop of ice cream, and a little cookie! As you continue on there's a playground area with swings, rope courses, and other obstacles. Past this part we actually got really confused. There was what was obviously a one-way gate to exit, but it just spit you out into the woods. The signs weren't in English so we weren't sure what to do. We decided to follow the road (instead of a path we saw). After a little bit of "I hope this is right" walking we finally spotted a little shack in the distance. When we go to it we found it was a souvenir stand where they offer to sell you the picture they took of you at the entrance! Guess we took the correct path! This was a fun afternoon in an offbeat place.

We spent one night in Passau before boarding our Danube river cruise…read more The town was quaint and easy to navigate. The Old Town has several churches, medieval buildings, shops and restaurants worth visiting. Their pedestrian area makes it easy to stroll and enjoy the city.

What a quaint little town. So much to see, it's amazing…read more Most famously the St. Stephan Dome. A spectacular cathedral. Much smaller but also very picturesque and interesting is the St. Paul church. There are beautiful historic buildings all over, including a wonderful garden next to the tunnel adjacent to St. Pauls. Find cool little cafes and shops along the narrow cobblestone street. Careful though, traffic flows a lot faster than you would expect here. There is both old and new art in every corner it seems.

While the town of Ebensee has a nice museum commemorating the Ebensee Concentration Camp…read more(Konzentrationslager Ebensee or KZ Ebensee), this is the actual site. After the war, the area was rezoned for a housing development and much of the camp is now family homes and gardens. However, some of the site remains along with a memorial wall. The museum in town is also on yelp and called "Zeitgeschichte Museum und KZ-Gedenkstätte Ebensee" and you should start there and then come visit the actual site. Its web site is http://www.memorial-ebensee.at/ There is no website for the site, but you can get lots of great info on wikipedia or at: http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/1287/Memorial-and-Cemetery-Concentration-Camp-Ebensee.htm There is not much parking or even great signage to get to the camp location, but it is worth a visit. There are also "Tunnels" you can visit that were dug by this camp's prisioners during the war to hide underground the V2 rocket production. The museum can tell you more.