Nanna Lol

The pricey view of Salzburg

I feel the need for speed!

Maverick and Goose

Cathedral in Salzburg

Nanna Lol was due to arrive at Munich airport the day before Maciek’s birthday.  In preparation to collect my friend Peta alone in a few weeks time from the same place, I (or rather Maciek), decided I should have a practice at the 2 hour drive on the autobahn.  The right lane (slow) is for happily chugging along at 100kmh until there comes a time to overtake a truck or a caravan which is very often, and then you fling yourself into the middle lane flying along at about 130kmh until it’s safe to merge back into the ‘slow’ lane, but sometimes in the ‘medium fast’ lane there is a need to overtake again for example when one of the caravans or trucks originally in the slow lane decide they are feeling like a bit of an adrenalin rush and then it’s into the fast lane at above 150kmh until it is safe to merge back into the slow lane once more.  Needless to say my stress level was very close to a 10 and if I didn’t have Maciek sitting  next to me as my strategic advisor guiding me in and out of the traffic I definitely would have pulled over into a rest stop and thumbed my way to the airport.  So I didn’t drive on the way back.  And I will also be taking the train next week to meet my friend.  No more autobahn’s for me I’m afraid!  But we did eventually get there in one piece even though I was beginning to have black outs from panic attacks.  The first thing I did was to enquire at the train counter about train fares and timetables, and thinking I was being polite I asked the spotty sleepy looking attendant, in German, if he could speak English, rather than just assuming he could, which I’ve been told is very annoying.  (“Can you imagine,” said one of Maciek’s colleagues, “if I visited Australia and just walked up to a counter and started asking questions in German?”  Quite true. )  He responded by saying “of course I can, I must, I work in an airport, what a stupid question” which really threw me off and I forgot to ask half of what I intended after that.  Maciek was so angry when I told him that he went back to the counter and gave him what for!  Embarrassing.  Put a bit of a downer on the excitement of meeting mum.
But it was all forgotten when little old mum tottered out from the arrival gates with her designer suitcases complete with pretty pink ribbons so she could recognize them at baggage return (really mum?  But yours is the only red and gold tartan one amongst all the black ones?!) and Amelia ran up to her shouting ‘Nanna!’ followed by Noah who initially ran up but then decided he didn’t know who he was running up to!  Shame.  He gave mum the evils in the back of the car all the way home, sussing her out.  It has been a year, and he wasn’t even two when we left home, so that was understandable, but it didn’t take him long to turn on his cheeky!
Mum left the sunshine behind in England which she had brought with her from Australia especially for my cousins wedding (aww, it’s cute how old people think isn’t it?!) because she arrived here to temperatures of 10, and rain, and storms.  But that hasn’t stopped us dragging her out every afternoon after work for sightseeing after she’s spent the morning in doing my washing and ironing and surfing the net!  Her first Friday I left the kids at home with her, poor mum, but may aswell throw her in at the deep end!  It was Maciek’s birthday and we walked around town in the afternoon, the markets were on, and I overindulged with my cake purchases (for a special occasion so I can be excused) and after we went out for dinner, where we had a massive schnitzel and a couple of drinks and I crawled under the table looking for a Polly Pocket shoe that Milly had dropped, and then got trapped in by the waiter.  It all looked a bit suspicious!  Nevermind.  How come “Mr Bean’ scenarios always seem to happen when mum’s around?  Strange.
Saturday……..In the afternoon we walked around Schwarzsee, the lake with a fantastic view of the Wilder Kaiser (this is the mountain that Maciek has a love affair with with!), and participated in some of the ‘fitness’ activities, like throwing pine cones through the holes in the board, which actually we were all very good at!
Last year Maciek got a new Peugeot and a trip around Europe for his birthday.  This year he got to fly in a private plane with my friends’ father in law (he has a pilots’ licence) over the mountains.  Lucky bugger!  It was like Top Gun, only much slower, and not as cool! 
For the afternoon we were going to take a drive up the Alpine Road around the Grossglockner which is the highest mountain in Austria, but the clouds were coming in and we decided there wouldn’t be a view so no point.  Instead we decided to visit Salzburg.  It’s an hour drive from us and on the way the kids (including Nana Lol!) had a snooze in the back and we arrived in the city to blue skies and 28 degrees!  It was nice for us to see it in the sun without the crowds we experienced the last time for the Christmas Markets, and mum loved it until she decided to buy some souvineers for friends and family at home and was horrified at the checkout when it came to 90euro!!  So with her hands full of fridge magnets and keyrings we wandered around and enjoyed a horse and carriage ride, a visit into the cathedral that holds 10,000 people, some nice views of the fortress which began it’s life in the 600’s and took 500 years to build, and discovered a restaurant up on the hill where they must have been charging for the views and definitely not the food!  Next time we’ll go there just for a drink we think.  It was a long enjoyable day and after ice-creams and coffees in the afternoon we left for home at about 6.30pm.
(Apologies for all the cheeky digs mum, but we know you love it!)
Next post: Nanna Lol continued and the long weekend in Venice….

Socks n Sandals only in Europe

Amelia's Jean Claude Van Damme impression

One of these things is not like the others?

Good old See Saws!

Mel and mum in Salzburg



Views from the plane