Sporthotel Royer 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!!!!

... the top of the mountain are also a bit on the narrow side. A large section was also a bit scary because there was construction work being done that closed one lane so there was only one skinny shared lane remaining, and at times I wondered how a car any bigger than ours could squeeze along. We figured there must be another way to the top that our GPS failed to use because there were some large ...

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

... the most castle-like castle I&#8217;ve seen so far.<br><br>For dinner I ate some Topfen-strudel I&#8217;d bought at a grocery store in Hallstatt. It&#8217;s a strudel made with a really sweet cheese and it is really good. It was recommended by Rick Steves, of course, and I first tried some in Vienna. <br><br>I spent the evening finishing my book, and then watching more downloaded TV shows on my computer. There was some kind of rock ...

... like doing anything. So I just checked into my first private room since Orvieto about two weeks ago. I actually passed some beautiful buildings on the way there, but I didn&#8217;t even care. I just thought, &#8220;Oh that looks cool. Maybe I&#8217;ll come back here later.&#8221;<br><br>It was nice to actually have some privacy. Most hostels really aren&#8217;t bad to stay in; I&#8217;ve quite enjoyed a few of them. But you don&#8217;t really have any privacy ...

... 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.

... road actually took us all the way back the way we'd come in from Italy (well obviously not ALL the way!) But what it did do ALL THE WAY, was RAIN! When we arrived it was still raining, so we decided to throw up the pop-up tent as it was quicker. So we had a very cosy night (coz it's smaller). We got up next morning and it wasn't much better, although the rain had subsided a little. All the cool things to see & do here - the mountains, the riding, the gondolas ...

My last story from Jo burg did not materialise because of problems with my mobile internet card since I came back from the field. When I tried to reinstall the package I got stuck while creating my profile, which broke off the installation. Various phone calls with Vodaphone have not helped. I started typing this in my last morning in my garden cottage in Greenside, after having packed my stuff. I had again 18 kg overweight to pay. But I am now ...