Rohrmoserhof 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 ...

... 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!!!!

... was really cool, and I think a good change from all the castles, at least for my boyfriend. The tour takes you through various sections of a working salt mine and at the end we were given a small shaker of salt from Hallstatt. The funnest part was definitely the slides. They are quite long and we could go in groups of three so of course we did. On the last slide the tour group had a speed ...

... 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.

... of the bad times though. I got back to Schladming and ended up riding all day in one of the smaller local resorts. The mountains here are awesome! You can ride from village to village as there are numerous interconnected resorts spread across roughly ten mountains. I rode for seven hours! At this point my legs are killing me. Not sure how they will hold up tomorrow. I don't care though, there will be a round two. Austria is awesome again!

... Mbeki and on HIV/AIDS by judge Cameron that I am reading. But I had to many things to do, and after seven months my work starts again in a few days. So I don't know if I have the time to write these stories. I am going to upload a few more pictures that I took on the last day, mainly on the security signs on Barry hertzog Avennue, where I lived for 2 1/2 months. All the best to all of you and thanks for following me on my sabbatical journey. Dick