Gut Raunerhof Schladming

After 2 days of biking mayhem, hiking down the Planai mountain watching practice and qualifying, it was finals day. Unfortunately we broke our camera trying to take a timed picture on top of the mountain. We rested it on a rail, i pressed the button and ran to where Clare was standing only to find when turning round the camera was not there anymore.... It had fell off and broke ...

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 ...

... Maybe this was a good time to go alone but we stuck with our group and did pretty good, but the singles definitely kicked our butts in speed.<br><br>All together we spent about three hours in and around the mines before going back down the funicular to find mom and Lincoln. They enjoyed their relaxing time so in the end it was a nice day for everyone.<br><br>And now, back to the highway!

... 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.<br><br>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 ...

I woke up this morning still not feeling like being a tourist. So I stayed in my room as long as I could, but I had to check out by 10 am. My plan was to just take a quick walk around town and then catch a train to Salzburg. The town was really small, so it only took about 15 minutes to see it.<br><br>But it was really pretty, so I lingered. And I went to a church that had a bone chapel out back. There wasn't much space in the town, because of ...

So today I was really, truly sick of being a tourist. I never thought it would happen, but I guess after almost 4 weeks I finally got burned out. I didn't feel like doing anything at all. But I had to take a 4.5 hour train ride to Hallstatt in the morning. <br><br>Yesterday I stopped by an English bookstore in Vienna and bought a book, because I was already thinking about doing nothing today. So I spent a lot of the train ride reading (it was a book called "City of ...

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

... were all in the water in a matter of seconds, jumping off the stone wall&#8217;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.

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.