How I fell madly, deeply, in love with Austria

Since I was a kid I remember the utterly exhilarating feeling that preceded any travel plans. I was lucky enough to travel with my parents and sister well before I could do it by myself, and those trips make up some of my favourite memories. One time, mid-noughties, we decided that our usual summer road trip would to include Austria. What we didn't know was how much each of us was going to fall in love with it.

We had driven around Europe before but, staggeringly, it was the first time we were going to visit the country. The lush green mountains with occasional dots of colour as we drove through towns kept me awake. We had meant to drive through the country; spend a couple of days in a city or two, and move on. However, we were so intensely drawn to this land of fairytales, princesses, and breathtaking landscapes that our plans changed radically. We spent almost two weeks in Austria and, let me tell you, we would have stayed had reality not beckoned us back.

As we continued our wanderlust fuelled adventure, we ended up following my mom’s directions. She was fiercely concentrated on a (paper!) map from which she'd mentally plotted a route to a lake that lay at the bottom of yet another set of mountains. We expected a mesmerising postcard-worthy landscape, but after parking the caravan and going past the tree-line and bushes... we found pure, unbridled, happiness. It was the most beautiful, charming and captivating place either of us had been to. A lake where people could swim—if you didn't mind the chill—and where families came to make happy memories that last forever.

I remember looking around and feeling like this was a "take-a-deep-breath place". There's no way not to do it. The soul wants it and you know you must take it all in. We weren't alone; a few families dotted the surroundings and it all tied into a perfectly knit moment. My sister (6 or 7 at the time) got her floaters on and ran for the mirror perfect water. It was with a deeply felt laugh that she baptised this as "the lake with the floating grapes” in honour of the rounded seeds, fallen from close by trees, that rested peacefully on the surface. As a family, we visited hundreds of towns and incredible places, but this was the only place we’ve ever visited that all four of us are unable to recall the name or exact location of—yet none of us has any doubts that we’d recognise it in a heartbeat if we saw it again. That day four people fell in love with Austria. Madly. Deeply. Forever.