Mountains and Minimundus

On Sunday Hamish drove my parent and I across the southern valleys of Austria to Kitzbühel. We drove across a stunning landscape of feilds and mountains, past the odd castle perched on an isolated hillock and through long, winding road tunnels.

Outside Lienz we stopped on the roadside to admire Bruck Castle. As we stood on the banks of the Drau river it was easy to imagine the Counts of Görz watching over their domain. Nestled in the foothills of the Lienzer Dolomiten mountains, the castle dominates the surrounding countryside. I was staggered to later learn its age. Bruck Castle was built between 1252 to 1277.

Dad loved Felbertauern tunnel. Opened in 1967, its 5,304 metre length passes through the heart of the Austrian Alps. However, I was fascinated by an entertaining series of signs that track progress through highway roadworks. The first sign profiles a large, sad face warning of works for several kilometres ahead. As you progress, the face on each succeeding sign grows progressively happier until the final sign beams in delight as the works conclude.


Natural wonders weren't all that Hamish had in store for us. As we approached the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt, we pulled off the highway into town, arriving shortly after at Minimundus. This has to be one of most unusual theme parks I've ever visited. Spread across 26,000 m² of manicured parkland are more than 150 scale models of the world's most famous buildings.


Over the next couple of hours we wandered by the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London and even the Sydney Opera House. Surprisingly, while Petra's Treasury and Abu Simbel featured, the pyramids were nowhere to be seen. Two models really captivated me. The first was a model of Barcelona's Antoni Gaudí designed La Sagrada Família cathedral. Just like the original, the Minimundus model is incomplete and features a large yellow crane in the centre of its nave. The second, was a model of Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. This reproduction was almost as impressive as the original I'd visited last month.


However, the highlight of the park was a space shuttle on its own scale-model launch pad. Once every hour it rose off its pad in roar of fire, smoke and steam - just like the real thing. Next month Garry and I witness the real thing sitting on the pad at Kennedy Space Centre. Sadly, it won't be launching while we're enjoying lunch in the sun.