How much rain can Austria take?

We farewelled our lovely guest house accommodation in the German Bavarian Alps and headed off through the mountains and across the border into Austria. Our route took us through some quaint Bavarian villages on a road wide enough for one car. At one stage we passed the Austrian border sign twice until we realised the GPS was sending us in circles! 

Villa Mittermaier, our accommodation in the German Alps

Beautiful paintings on the outside of the building

Painting on the door to our room

Light fitting in the lounge area of our room

View of the 'backyard' with lots of cows mooing

Crossing the Austrian border twice

We intended to see the picturesque lakeside village of Hallstett, in the lakes district south of Salzburg. Despite the constant rain and the fact that the route to Hallstett was out of the way, we were looking forward to seeing the town and taking photos. When we arrived, it was like Konigsee and Neuschwanstein all over again. Masses of tour buses, crowds of people on a very small peninsula of the lake. All the signs we saw were flashing with car parks 1, 2 and 3 with 0 spaces. So, not only could you not stop anywhere on the narrow streets but you couldn't even use the car parks. Even the toilet facilities outside of the town required 50 cents to open the door. It took the money, but the door did not open, no matter how much money was put in. Not a great first Austrian experience!

Anyway, this is the view we got all the way to Vienna - rain, torrential rain and flooding rain

We did stop to take a photo of this town just outside the lakes district. It is renoun for its salt mine.