Schlosshotel Freisitz Roith Gmunden

... factory is cancelled. Absolutely crushed. That was something I was really looking forward to, but my german dad said he may see if he can get me in one time, I really hope so!!
And one last thing, the football Gods clearly love collingwood!!!! and we probably will win the premiership next year, yeah I think so, can't see any reason why not, superior ruck, superior midfield, superior coaching staff...... life is great!

Our original Austrian itinerary included a day in Graz, but we are really running out of precious time so we decided to skip it so we could see the salt mine in Hallstatt. And having missed Graz only gives me a very good excuse to come back!

We spent a lot of time on the road today trying to get to Graz. The GPS got confused once we were off the main highway. The steep and winding roads ...

... radiators, hung them in the bathroom, behind the door, in the closet, everywhere. Brian said it was like an Easter egg hunt. What was she doing in our room again and with my underwear? Best part was I couldn't find one of my socks. The next morning after breakfast I asked her where it might be (in broken German and using my hands) and she left, and came back 15 minutes later with it. Still don't know where exactly she got it from.

For breakfast I decided to ...

... 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.

... men beating people the teachers came up to our rooms and said that we all need to go downstairs the Perchten are outside and we all need to get to a safe place inside the school. So we're all in our pjs freaking out cause we think that we're going to be beaten by monsters. So all the girls run down to the room that the boys are already in and then we start to here the huge bells that the Perchten have and we're all like ahhhhh and ...

... we have free time from 3 to 6. We usually walk down the castle hill into town. At various times this week, we have swum in the lake (Traunsee), watched beach volleyball, chilled at a local cafe, and explored the town. However, when it rained for two days, we stayed in and enjoyed my extensive movie collection. It has actually been a sehr gut bonding experience. At 6 we have dinner. Then more free time until curfew at 10, when we have to be back from town. Bed time is 10 ...

... to the church and push the creaky door open slowly. We peer inside and see a glow coming from the altar. The church appears empty. As we approach the altar the glow fades to just a couple candles on either side. On the altar we find what appears to be a really old manuscript (the corner crumbled to dust when Spanky touched it). It's handwritten in Latin script with an elegant brush. Spanky, being the linguist expert, translates a story of a strange man appearing from ...