Hotel Zum Kaiserweg 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 ...

... coffee. Austrians know how to make coffee, that is for sure. After yesterday I had to tell her I would just be having tea from then on. I was bouncing off the walls and my heart was racing for hours afterwords. It reminded me of Starbucks Christmas Blend. If you've ever had that, you know what I'm talking about - WAY too much caffeine! But regardless of the racing heart, we still relaxed on our balcony that morning. We also discovered Bad Ischl that day. We hiked up ...

... steep mountain behind it, which meant they didn’t have much room to bury their dead. So people were only buried for 12 years. Then their bones were dug up, cleaned, and placed in the bone chapel. So it was a room full of decorated skulls and stacks of bones. Supposedly, it’s the only place like it in the world. It was a little creepy.

I also decided to ride the funicular up to a viewpoint above town. This was a very ...

... in the same vein as the Twilight books). I actually had to transfer trains for the first time, and I was a little worried because there was only 12 minutes between connections. The train I took from Vienna went directly west towards Salzburg, but I had to get off in Attnang-Puchhein to catch a train south to Hallstatt.

When I got to Attnang-Puchhein it was a very small station. I went to check the departure board to see what track my connecting train ...

... 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 ...

... they do it! Sunday morning we were up to watch the cross country - women first (4 laps of pain), then the men (8 laps of pure torture). We were very surprised to find not one Aussie in either field! - but we cheered anyway. These people are machines - they were riding up inclines we were having trouble walking up. And I'm sure the damp ground didn't help much either, although it was lucky enough to stay dry for both races. After the race we headed towards Innsbruck ...

... who lived in exile for 30 years. He is a good performer and really got everybody on their feet and dancing. I knew most of his songs from my touring with Jabu, I have three CDs from him. Originally the concert was three hours, but we left at 00.30 when Masekela had finished and there was still a set to come by Malaika, a lady singer. Surprise party Monday afternoon Jabu organised a surprise farewell party for me in the office, with a speech from ...