June 30, 2025: Plan B – Villach, Austria

We had to share this photo from our elevator. Our room was #304 on the first floor. Hmmm.

The day started out with much promise. We had to leave before breakfast so the Holiday Inn Express in Ljubljana prepared a delicious box breakfast for us.

We took a taxi to the train station and ate our box breakfast while we waited.

We were about one hour into our train ride when our conductor said that we all had to get off at Jesenice because a tree had fallen on the tracks and damaged overhead wires. We were told to cross the street and wait for an Austrian bus that would be coming from Villach to pick us up.

Here is our group erroneously thinking our bus had arrived. It was a local bus so I am sure that the bus driver was overwhelmed.

We continued to wait. People were hot and frustrated as we were all missing connections. We waited from 8:35am-10:15am without much assurance.

Our legitimate bus arrived. Some people got on the bus who were thinking that it was a local. So much confusion.

We missed our 10:59am connection. We arrived at 11:00am. So now what? Rob has researched our next move with a train for Venice leaving at 4:40pm. We have some time to explore Villach, Austria. It wasn’t in the plan, but it is still an adventure!!!

Ok. We were off to see the city. We walked through the park.

Paul Hauser was a burgermeister. That is what my family calls the person in charge of making the hamburger.

Rob’s backpack was coming apart, and he was sewing it each night. We passed by a bag store. He is very picky and reluctant to change. (A reason that we have been married for 40 years! ) I encouraged him to look, and we walked out with a new, improved backpack … with lots of pockets.

As for me, I needed eye drops and toothpaste. There are lots of available “pharmacies” for this purchase. The stores are small, but when I made my selection, a pneumatic tube brought it down from above. I imagined a worker picking the toothpaste and sending it down. It seemed like an invisible Walmart … they had everything, but it was upstairs and out of sight.

There are so many Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes across Europe, all leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.

St Jacob’s Church is the main church of Villach. It is dedicated to St. James. Isn’t that confusing?

This church had ten floors and each floor represented a route for the Camino. By the time that I reached the top, I felt that I had had the exhausting experience!

At the top of the tower, I was able to see this ski jump venue.

We walked to Villach Church of the Holy Cross, a pilgrimage church on THIS camino route.

We spent some time in the church marveling at the sites and praying, mostly because it was air conditioned. This is a way to boost church attendance!!

On our walk back to the train station, we were treated to a water show on the Drava River. We would have liked them to point the sprayers our way for a fun cool down!

It is finally time for the train to Venice. The ride was uneventful, but it was shocking to know when we arrived that we would need to ascend and descend many bridges with many steps up and many steps down to get to our room.