Gasthof - Restaurant Kirchenwirt Schladming

... focusing lens :-( We took it to a shop later and they said it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. Oh well that camera has been through a lot and was due for retirement, and what better excuse to buy a new one!!

Anyway.... The finals were brilliant. We got the gondola to the top of the mountain and walked down the track watching the riders come down. First up ...

... room.... but it got the thumbs up as it was clean, tidy and modern. The view from the room was amazing, perfect view of the Planai mountain slope, so good we could have sat there and watched the biking from our room!! Dropped our bags and went for our first meal out since leaving home, chilli fahitas and chicken burgers went down a treat, god bless Papa Joes!!!!

... but I'm getting worn out. Once to the top we had great views of the region and the lake. We also hiked down the mountain - thats probably worse then going up.

Before we had left for Hallstatt I had done a little wash in the sink - underwear and socks, and put them outside to dry. When we returned that evening my underwear was ALL over the room. Our little old lady friend had come into our room again (!) and brought in my stuff from outside. She put them on 2 ...

... at a place I had seen with a great lakeside view. I got a "grilled sausage", but it tasted like a hot dog to me. When I was finished I had just enough time to catch the boat across the lake to the train station. It was definitely the smallest train station I’ve seen. It was just one little building and one track going by.

On the train ride I just looked at the scenery again while we were still in the mountains. But after I ...

... The train to Vienna had just arrived and I didn’t think there was time for my train to arrive at the same platform. So I went back to check the departure board, and it did indeed show a track number change for my train.

I remember reading in Rick Steves guidebook about watching out for track number changes, and just watching if people all of a sudden ran to another platform. But I was pretty much able to figure it out on my own, so I was very ...

... black striped socks up to my knees
to protect me...oh and my handbag! Yes, I know I'm so cool..... It was
a nice walk tho and we even got to build some cairns (rock
formations)... with 100s ofothers in the river. We spent the afternoon
sunbaking - again. And ate Pasta for dinner, again.... at this rate im
going to get fat.

... were all in the water in a matter of seconds, jumping off the stone wall’s diving board (literally, a board, no spring at all) into the lake. First experience with others dressing and undressing in the middle of the park (going "full Euro," as we call it). The water is glorious. Walked to town for dinner, then did the after dinner tour. Saw an oompah band in the square, had the mandatory eis, and called it a day with the stroll back to the camping.

It rained heavily all night (quite unusual for Hallstatt, I'm told.) Our plan for today: visit the Ice Caves at Dachstein and head for Hungary for our visit with Attila's family.

To reach the Ice Caves, we took a gondola (our third in as many days) to the top of the mountain. For there we hiked 20 minutes up the mountain to the caves. On our way up the gondola, Attila made friends with a ...

... Attila the pork) with fries and apple strudel. It was very yummy, though part-way through the meal we had to abandon our lakeside table and run for cover as it started to rain. After supper the rain was still not letting up, so we walked back to the B&B in the rain. It was actually quite lovely. We both agree that Hallstatt was a highlight of our European travels and we plan to return and spend more time here in the future.

... the museum is full of dodgy wax figuerines that have nothing at all to do with Mozart. The museum was just using him as an excuse for curious (and stupid) tourists to go inside and to part with their money! Ken and I burst out laughing and thankfully the American couple did to! We also wanted to check out Werfen Ice Caves, which are apparently the largest accessible ice caves in the world but they wanted an outrageous amount of money for the experience, so we ...