A small Austrian Town with a population of around 7500 residents and its a trade centre for local villages

The town itself is so small and locals live in one section of it which is on the west side of the main town square

In 7th c. this area was managed by the Bavaruab Duchy, freistadt was founded before 1220

An old picture drawn of the town

LOCATION

https://goo.gl/maps/MDe2gvQ6N6mwdVCRA

5min walking distance from our campervan site

Northern part of Austria not far from Linz

We picked up the Austrian Vignette from the czech border at sa service station, you just dont know your luck, sometimes you go in and they dont have a vignette and so you have to go searching for another service station which may be far away so we were lucky this time and were excited to find it so we didnt have to waste any time

19.50 euro for 10 days

Austrian vignettes are mandatory documents to have for using the Austrian motorways and expressways. Vignettes serve as payment proof of the obligatory road tax that’s mandatory to cover before using the Austrian highways.

Stuck it onto our windscreen and go moving!

Austria is very similar to Germany and had great roads and signage

Cute little villages passed by along the way didnt get missed by my camera 🙂

I love the european traintracks where you have to stop when you hear the ting ting of the bells stating a train is going to zoom by any minute now!

We went shopping again on the way to Freistadt and stocked up, thats the good thing about campervanning, plenty of space to stock up and dont need to stop too often at shops, only for fresh produce

After parking our van at the campground nearby, we walked the quiet little back streets down to the town centre

It was a beautiful scenic walk with gorgeous flowers and trees and wildlife everywhere! felt so relaxing hearing the water running along the banks of the stream and watching the bees buzzing around

Water so clean and clear

I LOVE maps and mostly physical maps so I always have them with me as a guide and I love taking time out to really get to know the town from above before exploring

One of the first things we come to is the Old Schloss (castle) which dominates the town and at the back is a well maintained gardens which is free to be used by all

Coming in from the southern gate, Böhmertor and walking up towards the Town centre and where the cars park

The Parish Church of St Catherine in the background amongst the colourful buildings

Interesting and unique buildings here

This town has these cute hanging signs and different designs – love it!!

The main town centre where they allow the cars to park, some campervans stopped here as well but i wouldnt want to drive in these small streets so im glad we parked at a campsite and walked in

This is the entrance to the old Castle Freistadt which is now a Museum, here is the link to my blog post about the museum

*****

Pretty brave van driver to drive into this small town centre

The beautiful colourful buildings in the main town square – I didnt know where to look every angle and corner of this place was just amazing to look at!

The Parish Church of St Catherine – the inside beautifully ornamented

A little cafe on a random corner tilting at a random angle – love it!

Back street exploring

The details of the buildings just get me… look at the details of the door ornaments!

Part of the city wall

Part of the city walls and turrents

City gate Linzertor – height of 28m is one of the most massive gate towers in Middle Europe and is Freistadts landmark

How about the little details!? love it

Some more iron signs – a lot of these are originals

A uique looking door

Crocodile in Pfarrgasse – A crocodile escaped from a circus, which was giving a performance in Freistadt and they had to shoot it, the local grocer asked for it and stuffed it and hung it here!

Heading into the area towards the west where the locals live

Here the locals have their little homes and more cars were here parked

More cute little apartments

View from every angle 🙂

Old ancient shop fronts

Inner courtyard of the homes

Heading into more units and tunnels led to other side of the streets, it was so cool to explore

The original Bohmertor gate, we climned up and explored

Ciy walls on the other side

There are a lot of parklands and playgrounds around the outskirts of the town centre, they made it really nice and kid friendly

An old photo I found online, an older Freistadt with more cars inside and im sure more freedom of movement in general, buildings still looks similar which is nice