Road tripping back to Vienna, and flying home

The alarm was set for seven, and this time, we got up when it went off, having been awake before that anyway. The tent was quite wet. I let down the ready bed while Christian went to the amenities block, and when he came back, I went off to use the amenities while he packed the bags. We folded up the tent and Christian started packing the car while I went to take some photos of the lake. We met at reception, and I got us some breakfast, asked for completely in German, and correctly delivered. I got coffee this time, after having learned my lesson, and after having said no to sugar, had to apologise and ask for some after all.

We headed off, with Gruner See as our destination. We stopped for fuel a little way around the lake. There was a short section of the A2 to drive, and then we peeled off to the north. The roads were a lot more minor, sometimes single-lane, but the scenery was much more interesting. We made a short stop for toilet and a coffee for Christian, and carried on, through Bruck, along increasingly smaller and more winding roads, to the car park for Gruner See. We didn't have much time to spend here, and I had to wait to use the portaloo.

We walked to the nearby lake, and walked around it, stopped to sit and eat some fruit and drink some water and take some photos. There was a sign that didn't mention Gruner See, and I really wasn't sure that it was Gruner See, but we didn't have time to explore the area any further. (It wasn't Gruner See, it was Pfarrerteich.) It was still beautiful and peaceful, and worth stopping.

Back in the car, we negotiated the small roads back to Bruck, and then back on to an autobahn. We ate the cold pizza (which was surprisingly nice), and via a couple of roadworks detours, found ourselves approaching Vienna again. We stopped for fuel again to ensure a full tank upon return (Christian was accosted by a Scandinavian metal band selling CDs in the fuel station), and kept on. We arrived at the airport with no problems, and parked in the Avis rental car return section.

We started to empty the car of all our possessions, checking every pocket and crevice. A man came to check the car and take the keys. We packed everything up, and headed to departures.

We rearranged some of our gear, and checked our bags in with no problems. On walking through to the gates, though, it became obvious that something was wrong - one flight to London had been cancelled, one delayed, but no change to ours. Turns out there was the tail-end of a hurricane hitting the UK, and Heathrow was limiting the number of flights that could land. The internet suggested that ours was delayed as well, even if the airport didn't.

We could do nothing but wait, and we boarded, fairly late. Once on the plane, the captain explained the landing limit at Heathrow, and that we'd have to wait for 50 minutes. That was extended, and finally we were on our way.

The flight was bumpy, but otherwise OK. We got a nice flatbread thing, and I got a cup of tea. The approach into London was yucky, and I felt quite ill quite fast. Even after we landed, I had to sit very still for a while, and walk carefully back to the terminal.

We rang the car park, and arranged to be picked up. It took a while, but eventually we got back to the car, and drove home.

A Scottish wedding in Austria

We had the alarm set for 7am, but I wasn't ready to get up, and neither was Christian, as he reset it for 8am and we dozed off again until then.

The campsite was unbelievably quiet, even up until 9am, which impressed me no end. We got our swimmers on, ate our breakfast from the flight the day before, and went to get tea/coffee at the kiosk. They didn't speak English, so we muddled through, with coffee for Christian, tea for me, and a pastry as well for Christian (bad!). I asked for milk, and the woman indicated that there was milk in there. Turns out the milk was in the coffee, and my tea was black Earl Grey. Urgh. I drank it, and then we ventured down to the lake. Christian got in, but it was too cold for me, and time was getting away anyway.

We showered and changed (I discovered that my dress no longer fit me properly), and rearranged the world, checked our routes/addresses, and set off in the car. The people in a caravan opposite us were packing up, and they had to move their car to let us out.

We drove into Villach, following Andy's directions, and used the parking ticket to get into the nearest car park to Bamberg Hall. We got out, and met Ivo and Michael, and made our way to a lovely shady park, where we met Andy and Geddy, and all the other guests. There was a lovely combination of traditional Scottish dress, and traditional Austrian dress - sometimes in the same outfit. There just happened to be a vintage car show happening as well, so there was plenty to look at.

The ceremony began at 11am, and while it was conducted completely in German, we could sort of follow. The room was lovely, and the occasion was lovely, and the bride and groom looked amazing in their matching tartan. Afterwards, we all got the means with which to blow bubbles, which were used for photos, and which were very fun.

Everyone set off for the reception venue, in Godersdorf, but Christian and I tried to have a bit of a driving tour of Villach, because we knew we wouldn't have another chance. It was a very short tour, but we saw enough to know that, like Graz, Villach was clean, expansive, and beautiful by turns. Definitely a place to explore again in the future. The river was particularly interesting because of its azure blue. Really beautiful.

We drove on to Godersdorf (only taking one wrong turn), and after a few circuits trying to find a car park, stopped on the grass next to Andy and Fritzi (last to arrive) under an apple tree. We gathered with the other guests at the front of the Hotel Zollner, and were given a lovely tall glass of beer. Here we met Trevor, Megan, and Mary. Mary was a colleague of Fritzi's in Birmingham. The hotel was traditional in style, with flowers at the eaves, and fringed by mountains. Beautiful.

Before long, the group moved to the outdoor tables in the sun on the garden/pool side. We were aware of a large group of people in traditional Austrian dress occupying a table on the front of the building, There was bubbly, and lovely mini-burgers for us. The kitchen garden, full of herbs and vegetables, was begging to be explored, and so we went to have a look at all the interesting plants.

Back on the deck, we became aware of music from an accordion inside. The people from the table at the front were dancing around Andy and Fritzi. The dancers came outside to us, and a pretty girl grabbed Christian and started dancing with him (I held his drink, and Ivo took a photo). It was fun. Fritzi explained later that it was a festival day, and these people went from door to door helping people celebrate. It was totally unplanned.

It was finally time to sit down, and we'd been placed next to the other English speakers. It was very much an Austrian menu rather than a Scottish one, but that was fine: it sounded delicious. And it was. The wine was good - I had 'weiss', and it was very much in the Gewurz style. It was a very drawn-out meal, and it was unfortunately very hot in the room. I escaped a couple of times to stand in the only cool place - under the trees near the pool. The sun was relentless.

At around 6pm, we decided to head back to the campsite for a swim, but as we said goodbye to Andy, he said that the cake would be arriving in about 20 minutes. We felt we should stay for that, and so we did. We sat on the grass, watching some bad weather gathering after the hot day. The wonderful cake came out, and we had a piece, and finally managed to get away after another hour.

We drove a circuitous way, a bit further up into the mountains, and finally back to the lake. As we went past the campsite next door, I saw what might be a good place for dinner. We drove back to our tent, and found we had new neighbours (who said 'hallo'). We got changed, and had a wander to the lake. By now, a storm was threatening, and the water didn't look at all inviting. Given the rain starting, we decided to eat in the restaurant in our own campsite.

We managed to get a table again (inside, but were soon moved outside), and sat down. This time, I chose iced tea (Christian had another beer), and he had the schnitzel I'd had the night before, and I had a four seasons pizza. It was bloody enormous. I ate about half of it, and we took the rest with us - the woman serving us was very friendly.

We headed back to the tent, performed our ablutions, and turned in for the night. The rain continued, and got quite heavy. We were snug inside, though.

London -> Vienna -> Faaker See

The alarm went off at 4.30, and we were packed and on the road by about 5am, which hurt rather a lot. We drove to the Purple Parking business car park, left the car, and got a minibus with a stack of other people, to terminal 3 at Heathrow. We had checked in already, so only had to drop our bags. After a bit of juggling of weight between the two enormous bags (they were particularly full with all our camping gear), we walked away with our hand luggage and boarding passes, and went through a rather tiresome security experience where the female security officer had to frisk everyone and no more women could go through until she had finished each one.

Once on the other side, we went into our usual breakfast haunt, Bridge cafe, and had a nice meal. We cut it fairly fine getting to the gate, but make it OK. The flight to Vienna was comfortable enough, given we had exit row seats and no one on the aisle side of us.

In Vienna, we made our way through the small airport, I took a photo of the sheet music on the wall, we collected our bags, and started the long and tortuous journey to find the hire car desks. Christian sorted everything out while I waited, and we went downstairs into the car park to find our shiny Corsa. It had only driven 9 km, and had all the bells and whistles.

We packed the car, I got my camera out, Christian set up the TomTom, and we set off in backwards seats, on the wrong side of the road. Christian dealt with it beautifully. It was motorway driving for much of this journey. We stopped for lunch in Zöbern at an Oldtimer, which is a restaurant/cafe chain in garish tones of yellow. It had a wonderful view of mountains, though, and the food was OK. I had a rich potato dumpling dish with ham and spinach, which I couldn't finish, and Christian had tasty hash brown things. Potatoes all round. We stocked up on chocolate biscuits and water, and headed off once again.

We drove some more, during which I dozed, and before long were in Graz. We drove into the city through roadworks, and past the huge Stadthalle. The traffic lights were a bit confusing, but we found ourselves a parking spot beside the river, and set off for a walking tour. The bridge we first crossed was over some white water, which seemed odd to me in a city. And then I later saw the people kayaking on it! We walked up the opposite side of the river, dodging cyclists, and walked back across the next bridge. We decided to explore the 'beach' which was some deckchairs and sand on the concrete beside the river, and some music playing, and a kiosk. We walked along that side at water level, and then we saw the climbing wall, complete with overhang section. Wow.

We got to the next bridge, which was covered in padlocks. We could see a dome structure ahead, and so decided to keep going at water level to investigate. It was a twisty metal bridge, but with a dome in the middle housing a cafe-cum-amphitheatre, a children's play area, and a restaurant. Very impressive design.

Back up at street level (I forgot to go back and investigate the padlock bridge), we made our way into the old town, and checked out the Schloss. It's amazing. Up a sheer cliff, with a clock tower on top of it. A nice man had offered us his ticket, but we had to decline because of lack of time on the parking ticket. There were tortuous steps to get to the top, or a lift (which was presumably what the ticket was for). We went to investigate the lift, because it was at the end of a dark and mysterious looking tunnel into the mountain. As we got near the tunnel, a freezing blast of air came towards us, which was very welcome on such a warm day. The tunnel itself was pretty interesting, and we had an explore in the cool darkness. We had a look at the lift, but didn't have time to go up it (the tickets were very cheap).

All we had time to do after that was to wander through the streets, have a look at the main square, and buy some exorbitantly expensive blueberries and grapes, and then run back to the car. Where we discovered that we'd actually had another 20 minutes. Oh well. We got in the car and had a quick drive through the streets, and then back onto the autobahn.

We made one more stop (or was it two?), the second of which was at Wörthersee. We bought a road map, because Christian's phone was overheating to the point of not working, and we fancied an ice cream. It was a very short drive from there to the campsite. It was immediately obvious that Faak am See was a family-oriented holiday town as there were people and cyclists everywhere.

We found the campsite easily, parked just inside the entrance gate, and went looking for the office. The place was moderate mayhem, with a bunch of running types with numbers stuck on. In the office, we spoke to a nice English-speaking man, who looked quite harassed, and he had our booking and all was fine, but he said to give him 20 minutes and he'd show us to our site. We walked down to investigate the lake. It was stunning. Lots of people were swimming, so it was a bit cloudy, but obviously normally clear. It's fairly big, with an island against one edge. An hour later, during which we watched the races, which were pretty fun, the man finally came back, and cycled away to show us the site, with us walking behind.

It was a good spot, along the fence in a quiet area. As the races were still going on, we walked back to the car and retrieved the tent and the ready bed. After putting the tent up, and trying to get the pegs in the ridiculously hard ground, I dealt with the ready bed while Christian went back for the car.

Once we were set up, with one bag inside the tent, we headed to the restaurant for dinner. It was a surprisingly professional affair. It was packed, and they asked if we had a reservation. Luckily they had a spare table. I had Weiner schnitzel, and Christian had a mixed grill. We had very nice beer, mostly because it was cheaper than soft drinks. There was a lot of food, and Christian had to help me finish it, but it was very good, and pretty cheap.

We got ready for bed, and turned in for the night. There was loud music coming from across the lake, and the kids in the campsite were still pretty noisy, but I got to sleep fairly quickly.