Saturday 17 October
An early rise since we have only one day in Saltzburg we need to make the day count. We head out of the camp and walk to the bus stop and the bus is already sitting at the stop. On we hop and off to town. Saltzburg is a lovely small city or you could call it a town as it is quaint and not large at all. The old town like all of them has lovely buildings, cute narrow roadways and there is a large castle up on the hill top overlooking the town. Since it is early we have beaten the large majority of tourists and it is relatively quiet so we decide to head up to the castle and have a look. The climb up the stairs and the steep walkways is tough on the quads but we hope the view is worth it at the top. It is huge and costs a bit but we decide it should be worth a visit as you can see most of the castle. They had a couple of great displays of things like torture implements which were horrible. There were a couple of iron masks that go over your head and they have a metal funnel going into the mouth and nose that they obviously pour fluid into them to torture the victim. They had a metal chastity belt, a torture chair see the photo. They had an exhibition of photos of this guy who was a ballet dancer and the photos of him were in all kinds of costumes – mostly just little shorts but there were a few naked ones – omg – just a little crude especially since it was visible to kids. We should have taken photos of the photos because they were rather hilarious. Others looking at them were laughing. The state room of the castle was interesting and had it’s own dunny. By the time we left the castle it was being over-run by bloody tourists so we left. The town was also the same. We saw some mulled wine so we had a drink and sat on a seat on the square. Every city we have been to in the last week or so has had horses and carts and here is no different. It’s expensive 44 euro –aud88 for 20 minutes. One cart had a guy biking behind with his shovel and barrow picking up the poo from the horses. What a job. Next we found an Irish bar where we found they are playing the rugby quarter finals tonight so we need now to check out the bus back to the camp and make sure we know where it leaves from and the times as the games don’t finish until after 10.30pm. It is only 10mins away so all good there. One of the main shopping streets is absolutely crowded with people, so much so, you can hardly move. Shops are starting to put Christmas decos up and they are so pretty. They seem to go to a lot of trouble over here for Christmas.
We visited the large church in the square and it’s funny because we seem to find more spectacular ones than we have seen before but really I think that each is just different and has something that makes it look amazing. This one has the most amazing architecture inside with lots of mouldings of cupids and all sorts of things. Like always our photos never do any of our scenery justice, but this church is quite a ‘wow’ experience. We spend the rest of the afternoon wandering and end up at the Irish bar at 5 for the first rugby game. Also watching is another couple, a Kiwi and an Aussie and later another lady from Dunedin came in with her daughter – what a co-incidence. We stayed until the Allblacks had walloped France – thank Christ for that and caught the bus back. We missed our stop, buggar, but luckily it was the second last one so we had to walk back a short distance. But then we sort of got lost and couldn’t remember which way to go. Thank god for the tablet and we saw where we needed to walk and made it home.
Sunday
It is supposed to be a nice day today like yesterday so I am glad we have chosen it to go down through the mountains and visit an area an Austrian couple we met told us to go. We head east and straight into the mountains. The scenery it distinctly “the sound of music” hills with cows wearing cow bells and the chalets you would expect to see. You can almost hear the music as we drive by the paddocks. The scenery in Austria just has to be the best we have seen in Europe, but really it is likely to also be because of the autumn colours which are spectacular and I could tell you over and over how beautiful the trees look. This is something we miss so much in Aus. We come across a lake and small village called Fuschl which is so lovely. The lake is a beautiful green/blue colour & so clear it is difficult to gauge the depth. We stop for a coffee in a hotel where there is a guy suffering the biggest hangover after a hard day before in the pub. He tells us the first drink of the morning must be the same drink you finished with the night before, so we tell him it’s called ‘hair of the dog’ on our side of the world.
We walk over to the lake and feed the ducks and feisty swan that nearly takes both our fingers off trying to get something to eat out of us. We head off and next stop is Bad Ischl. This is another lovely small town with a river running through it. We sample some of the local fare of cheese filled frankfurter sort of thing. After a walk around we head off to the next stop of Halstatt. Getting there is like driving to Queenstown. A road on the side of the lake with a steep incline on the inside. Arriving at Halstatt is interesting as you can’t go in on the town road, you have to go through a long tunnel to the other side of the village where we stop and look back at the town. We realise the whole town is cut off and only locals are allowed to drive into it, but when you see the roads you realise why. Our camper would have caused havoc on the almost only road through the town. We drive back through the tunnel and find a car park above the town so stop and walk down the stairs into it. Apparently this place is very famous in China amongst many other Asian countries so when we reach the village there are wall to wall Asian tourists. There is a costume hire place in town who hire the traditional costume to them and they can walk around town taking photos in the clothes. We are told it is very quiet at this time of the year so I would hate to see it when it is busy. It is a beautiful place but I couldn’t cope living here with so many tourists, it’s just crazy.
We leave and head for Bad Aussee, the next town on the agenda. We miss the turn off and the weather has started to close in on us so we decide we will look tomorrow and head to the camp for the night in Bad Mitterndorf. We find the camp in the rain and have a chat with the lady owner who is Dutch but her grandmother was German who in the 1930’s wanted to go to Canada but it was too difficult so they emigrated to Holland. Now they live here and love the lifestyle but do rue the lack of holidays as it is practically a year round business. We had a nice chat but it was getting very cold so we parked the van, set it up as usual then took a stroll into town while the weather was ok as it was going to be crap the next day. It is again a very tidy, well looked after town and being Sunday early evening very quiet so we found a small warm restaurant and had a drink each then went back to the van. I can imagine this place hectic in the season. We slept in a bit as it was easy with the soothing sound of rain on the roof and not in a huge hurry.
We decided not to stay another day there was not a lot to see so, as we were paying, we quizzed the owners about any ideas for finding someone to help with the van. Somehow a hospital got mentioned so we asked about whether it was worth getting my 6 month blood test done for my prostate PSA check (or lack of!). The owner mentioned her doctor in town so as she was going in she would take us there. She interpreted what I needed with the doctor so in I went and had blood taken. They get it analysed and will email my doc. Straight in fantastic and something I was worrying about getting done so very happy. We drive into the small town of Bad Aussee and have quick look around and a tasty coffee and cake then back on the road to stop off at the local equivalent of RACQ to see if they can do a test on the battery to see if it is ok. It isn’t so now we know we have to get one. They check our tyres then charge us $100aus. I was a bit pissed off but as we haven’t renewed our RACQ we can’t claim it back. They were happy to send the bill to RACQ but we knew they won’t cover us so we feel we are doing the right thing paying but I would rather have put the money towards a new battery. Not very hospitable to poor tourists but we have to take the good with the bad. Seems weird that it was cheaper to go to a doctor and get blood taken, analysed in a lab and results sent to Oz than for a young kid to put a tester on our battery… go figure.
We finally contact a camper place to go see tomorrow and get a new battery. The lady I spoke to speaks good English so we will get prices as we are sure as hell not going to pay good $$$ to take battery out and connect a new one. We find our camp right on the lake and again we are the only one here but quite close to where we have to go tomorrow. We take the chance to give the van a quick wash as it is filthy which is great and to put a wash on. However after going back to get it out of the dryer we find that it has stopped after 5 minutes and everything is still wet and we don’t have the 8x50cents to put it through again. Grrrrrr I am sick of shit dryers. So I go back and luckily there is an iron so I spend ½ an hour at least drying the sheet and two pillow cases with the iron! Then back to the van and hang the rest up but the heater is on so we manage to dry the other sheet which goes to show how efficient the heater is. Hopefully tomorrow we might find out why it turns itself on when the switch is off and there is no power coming into the van. Tomorrow we are hopefully off to Innsbruck if all goes well with the van.
Pleased that you are starting to make your way south now that Winter is set in. Stay warm and remeber that a very warm and bright Australia is always waiting for you.