Gut Raunerhof 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 ...

Early start had us at Verona station for 8.30am and we were soon on the train heading for Innsbruck, Austria. After Clare scoffing a chocolate custard doughnut in record time we boarded our connecting train in Innsbruck to Scladming, finally arriving at 6pm. Clare was sweating at the thought of a similar room to Verona, so it was an anxious walk up the stairs to ...

... and her husband couldn't speak English - which is fine, they were pretty laid back.

They served us breakfast everyday which was nice. It was basically bread and spreads. Where's the omelets and bacon? Oh we miss that! Nice breakfast though and the table looked like it was set for a king. When we sat down, she left and we could hear footsteps upstairs (in our room). We kept wondering what she was doing. Turns out she was remaking the bed and hanging towels ...

... cool hostel. It was up on top of a hill, beside the old part of the city. I actually had to take an elevator up to the top of the hill. And then I had to walk on a path through the woods until I got there. It was actually a restaurant downstairs, with the rooms upstairs. And the view of Salzburg was amazing. I could see the Salzburg castle, towering above town on top of a neighboring hill. And it was a very impressive-looking castle indeed ...

... it was just as Rick Steves described it. It’s a little town on the side of a large lake, surrounded on all sides by towering mountains. It was cloudy and very cool, but the lake was very calm and black. It was quite beautiful. The train station for Hallstatt was actually on the other side of the lake from the town. I had to take a boat over to the city itself.

When I got to Hallstatt (about 1 pm), I was feeling very exhausted and didn’t ...

We arrived in Hallstatt in the Austrian Alps on Monday. Its so
beautiful! Reminded me a lot of NZ in one way but also very different
at the same time. Its one of the top UNESCO world sites. We got there
in time for a sunbake and swim but by god the water was FREEZING!!!!!
Took your breath away! You could tell we were in the ...

8/19 Austria, Salzburg. This morning we drove to town and parked in a parking lot next to a Chrysler minivan of all things, who was driven by a guy from Utah and his large family. He is civil service of some sort, and wanted to know all about our most excellent luge experience, as that is high on his family's list as well. We walked the old town, toured the Hohensalzburg Fortress, marveled at the primitive decadence those in medieval power seemed to enjoy ...

... family (his favorite activity when travelling in Europe). He told them he was (originally) from Tata... they said they were also from Tata; he said he was from Szomod (a subdivision of Tata)... they said they were also from Szomod! They asked his family name... they said they not only knew his family, but they bought his grandfather's house!!!! Now what are the odds of that?!

The Ice Cave ...

On my last night in Vienna I went drinking with Vijay. We did some bar hopping around the schwedenplatz square and it was a good time. Didn't feel so good in the morning though... Originally I wanted to get out of Vienna early and get into the Alps for some afternoon riding. That didn't happen. By the time I got packed, grabbed breakfast, and showed up at the car rental place, it was almost noon. To my surprise the Volkswagen Bora I ...

We are so behind on our updates that we aren't going to give a long description for Salzburg. We were there for a day. We saw the castle and a garden and had lunch where Mozart was born or died or something (it was also a museum and an art gallery and I knocked a picture off the wall). I'll write some good descriptions for the pictures.