So, PNE are off to Austria, and for the vast majority it's an exciting step into the unknown.

Two new opponents and two new grounds for our groundhopping supporters mean it'll be a trip to relish for the small band of Lilywhites fans expected to make the journey by air, land, train or sea, and our guide to the two matches and the venues they'll be played in will no doubt raise the expection levels...

PNE v CFR Cluj, Obertraun, Friday 11th July (kick-off 6pm AUT/5pm UK)

CFR Cluj are the current reigning Champions in the top flight of Romania's national division.

Coached by Ioan Andone, a former Romanian international with 55 caps to his name, Cluj will be competing in the European Champions League this forthcoming season after qualifying automatically for the group stages of the tournament.



They were formed in 1907 and play their competitive home matches at Dr. Constantin Radulescu Stadium, which is currently undergoing a revamp that will increase the capacity to 28,000 in readiness for their upcoming campaigns in their domestic division and Europe's premier footballing competition.

They have assembled a multi-national squad compromising of players from as far as Brazil, Uruguay, Sweden and Canada, with the highest profile being Sixto Peralta who enjoyed a short spell with Ipswich Town back in 2001.

Alan Irvine's men will pit themselves against CFR Cluj in Obertraun on Friday 11^th July, a place which will act as a base for the week long training camp.

The small town is situated 50 miles south-east from Salzburg - the fourth largest city in the country - in the state of Upper Austria.

In a previous interview on PNE.Com, Alan Irvine described the place as a "fantastic site" adding that "the weather is generally good for training because it's not too hot and it's not too cold, the pitches are quality and the people know how to look after us because they have had many teams train at the camps before."

The region is described as the 'Salzkammergut', which is considered to be the Austrian equivalent of the Lake District and is renowned for its stunning picturesque mountain backdrop.



North End supporters who are considering making Obertraun the destination for their summer holidays instead of the Costa Del Sol will be interested to know that there are many local tourist attractions aside from the possible bike rides, sailing, paragliding and skiing activities in the town itself.

30 minutes away by car is The Blue Dome, a park which explores everything to do with water, billed as "an attraction which the weather can't spoil".

Alternatively, nearby is the small town of Bad Ischl 15 miles from Obertraun which was the former summer capital of the great Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and has been associated with the Habsburg imperial dynasty for at least 700 years.

There is also one of the largest ice caves in the world and attracts at least 150,000 visitors each year. The guided tours will take you deep into the cave and you will see the magnificent ice formations, stalagmites and ice masses some as thick as 25m.

SV Erdal Hallein 04 v PNE, Hallein, Saturday 12th July (kick-off 2pm AUT/1pm UK)

Hallein is situated 14 miles south of Salzburg, and is easily accessible by road (Tauernautobahn A10 southbound to exit marked 'Hallein') and train (several services per hour from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof, the central station in the city, taking roughly 15-25 minutes depending on the route taken).

The town's main football club, SV Erdal Hallein 04, plays in 1. Salzburger Landesliga, which is a division at the heavily-regionalised semi-professional fourth tier of Austrian football. A smaller club, Union Hallein, plays two divisions below in the Salzburger 1. Klasse Nord. Our estimate is that our hosts, who play at the exotically named Almbacharena, will be of a similar standard to our other semi-professional opponents this pre-season, Bamber Bridge and Chorley.



Hallein will see this game as an equally important part of their pre-season preparations, with their new campaign getting underway a little earlier than ours with a trip to face ASK Salzburg on Saturday 26th July. The team will be looking to improve upon their 2007/08 campaign, when they finished a little way off the title pace, finishing sixth in their 14-team division. Still, there was success to savour in the campaign just gone, when a 1-0 victory over FC Puch - courtesy of Önder Esatbeyoglu's strike - brought the SFV Stiegl Cup to the town, which is the 'administrative capital' of the Tennengau region.

North End will have to keep an eye on top scorer Christian Feurstein, who netted 14 times from 28 games in 2007/08, while fans will warm to the intriguingly-named Haris Huremagic (surely the potential is there for some witty chants from the terraces?). The hosts' line-up will take on a continental look, with a number of imports including Bosnian Jasmin Jahic, Serbian Goran Mitrovic, German Ludwig Moz, and the Turkish duo of Ferdi Yasaryildiz and Kamil Cetin.

Once the game is over, there are a number of delights within the medieval town to keep you occupied. The town was created on the banks of the river Slazach thanks to the abundance of salt available from within the earth, and you can take a tour around the salt mines of which the townsfolk are justifiably proud all year round.



Museum fans can keep themselves occupied by taking a look around the Museum of the Celts, which unsurprisingly documents the town's Celtic past, while the Silent Night Museum does exactly what it says on the tin, paying homage to Franz Xaver Gruber, the man who composed the famous Christmas carol of the same name. Amaze yourself by gazing at the original signed manuscripts for the song or "the guitar on which Joseph Mohr, parish priest and writer of the original words, accompanied the song at its world premiere on Christmas Eve 1818" (so says the tourist literature).

Perhaps more genuinely interesting for those making the trip is the 2.2km "longest summer toboggan slide in the SalzburgerLand", while the town also boasts a nine-hole golf course, archery, numerous mountain walks/mountain bike trails and an outdoor swimming pool (weather permitting).

Ibiza it isn't, but that's exactly why Alan Irvine has chosen this beautiful and generally relaxing part of the world as the ideal base for the real start of the hard graft this pre-season.

Austria Tour Overview

Check out local public transport information at www.oebb.at (available in English)...

It is expected that most PNE fans making the trip will aim to fly to Salzburg and then take connecting transport from there. On this assumption, supporters can access Obertraun by bus from Salzburg Mirabellplatz in around two hours and ten minutes, including a change at Bad Ischl.

Similar connections are also available between Obertraun and Hallein on the day of the game, with the bus journey taking anything from 90 minutes to three hours, depending on your preferred route (from one to four changes, with some of the more complicated routes with added changes actually offering a shorter journey time).

Taking a car from Salzburg Airport to Obertraun will probably take around one hour and ten minutes to complete the 53 mile journey. The 42 mile commute between Obertraun and Hallein should take around an hour with your own wheels, with a 15-minute, 14 mile journey taking you back from Hallein to Salzburg Airport.

If you need to take a train back to Salzburg Airport after the fixture in Hallein, this should take between 45 minutes and one hour, with a bus service taking you from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof to the airport. Keep an eye out for the Tennengau Guest-Card, available within the town, which provides you with public transport to Salzburg for just 1 Euro!

A word of advice for anyone planning to hire a car or drive to the pre-season fixtures. If you're aiming to visit central Salzburg, you're strongly advised to take public transport into the city, as driving and parking within Salzburg can be nightmare-ish at best.

Holidays

Wherever you're going this summer, why not see what the PNE Holiday Club has to offer by checking out all the latest offers at http://prestonnorthend.thomascooksport.com/?