Innsbruck by day and Innsbruck by night



Innsbruck by day



A day out to Innsbruck reminded us of what a quintessential European city looks like.  It was the first time we’d been into an actual city since we have been away and we were excited by the buzz! As any other it has an old town area full of beautiful facades and brimming with quirkiness, a mandatory accordian player, with the added extra of a backdrop of stunning mountains.  We just wandered, soaking it in, saw a part of a traditional wedding under the Golden Roof (difficult to see well through the throngs of tourists), had some lunch and then spent quite a long time pounding the pavements for beach towels!  We finally found a shop in the most unlikely place smack in the middle of the old town square amongst all the souvineers! 

Saturday we stayed around the campsite, walked into the nearby village of Natters where we found another playground and where Amelia found a shop selling ‘going out to dinner shoes’ which she ‘really needs as she hasn’t got anything to wear to a party’!  (Amelia – do you know you’re only 4?)

We met a couple from Doubleview also staying here, with two little kiddies the same as us, travelling around in a camper van for two months!  That’s the second set of Aussies we’ve met from Perth and the fact that they were also doing it with kids in tow relieved us from worrying that we might just be crazy!  We arranged to have dinner with them on Saturday night, but after a huge day of hiking, riding gondola’s and then getting lost they gave us a raincheck. 

It turned out well though as a spontaneous decision by Maciek (couldn’t have been me as I need to plan things at least two days in advance!) took us into Innsbruck by train for dinner.  It was lovely as the crowds had dispersed, and we enjoyed a meal and a beer (we didn’t go the stein!) and the kids had MORE ice-cream and we took our time window shopping and trying on silly hats in the souvineer shops!  You never know, some unsuspecting relatives may get one for Christmas!

Innsbruck by night

Just popping down to Italy for lunch….

Vipiteno

Yes that’s right, on Sunday, we drove to Italy for lunch!  There’s a lovely village called Vipiteno just over the border about half hour drive south of Innsbruck.  Just before we got there we realized we hadn’t brought our passports but it wasn’t a problem as there was no border checking going on and we just drove straight through!  It cost us E20.00 in road tolls though.

We expected a bit more Italiano flare but everything was written in German first and then Italian, as I guess it’s not that far and a lot of Austrian’s and German’s go there for holidays.  I wanted to get a photo of the Italian flag in the background but couldn’t actually find one!  Good job we took a change of clothes as it was freezing in the morning when we left and warmed up to 30 degrees by lunch time!  We’re still not used to the changeable weather, it’s like four seasons in one day!  Anyway we had a lovely pizza (even Amelia ate it and that’s saying something!) and some chocolate gelato before heading back to our campsite for a swim. 

And tomorrow, off to Switzerland……

Applejuice in the courtyard

Pizza in Italy

A splash in the lake

Matters and Nutters?

 

Das ist our Campingplatz

Timber

Arriving at Natterersee Campingplatz (in the village of Natters) we were greeted by a stern woman in reception and a crazy guy on a golf buggy who showed us the way to our new home for the week.  It’s a great little place, bit smaller than the caravan we had last week, not as much storage space for all our stuff and nowhere to put Noah’s cot, but enough for what we need.  Noah is sleeping in a bed for the first time, although half of it is in an alcove so we have managed to sort of block him in with a suitcase and pillows and two spare quilts, and despite banging his head against the wall numerous times during the night, he hasn’t fallen out and is sleeping quite well!  Every time I hear a loud bang in the night I jump up to check on him which means I’m not sleeping well at all.  How typical!The day we arrived the weather was lovely and although it was moving day we managed to get a food shop in (in the nearby village of Mutters), a swim in the lake, and

Kinder on tree stump

I made salmon and veggies for dinner (hooray I can cook healthy food!!)  The lake has all sorts of fun things to play on:  a floating trampoline, a floating slide, an ‘iceberg’ (or ice burger as Amelia calls it), other floaty things, a little kids beach an

d play area, and peddle boats to use, big surf boards you can just paddle around on, and a big winding water slide.  Unfortunately also in the lake are millions of tadpoles.  I mean millions!  In comparison to the Swan River at home, not sure which I’d rather have, tadpoles or jellyfish?  Tough one.  Best to stay out of the water I say.We went on another walk yesterday, through the woods and meadows, picking and eating bluebe

rries along the way (we also found strawberries but they were not yet ripe) to arrive at a hut where there was a paddock of donkeys, a petting zoo and a playground.  We stopped and had ice-cream and then headed back with kids on shoulders.  The views were beautiful but we have finally learnt that a hike that is supposed to take 45 minutes takes us 1 ½ hours (one way)!  From now on we will stick to trails that are only ’20 minutes’ long!Then in the evening, with Germans all around us in caravans and tents, within earshot of us

on our verandah, Maciek and I were discussing the abruptness of the stern lady at reception.  Maciek then went inside, only to come out again after a few minutes saying, ‘I wouldn’t worry about her she must just be a bit of a Nazi’.  Oops!  A bit of a faux pas causing much silent giggling from both of us!Off to check out Innsbruck tomorrow.  Servus……

"Hey Mel, Whats Nana Lol doing here?"

Gorges and Castles and Ice-cream!

(Sorry about the pics in this blog - can't move them to where i want and its late and i need sleep!)

Walking the gorge

We are glad to be moving on to another campsite as it works much better with the kids, but we’ve had a nice time here in Niederau.

We’ve been staying in a British owned Pension/B & B with awful décor and a piddly breakfast!  It’s been good to chat to the owners about what it’s like to run a place like this though, and nice actually being able to have a conversation with them at all!  B & B’s are not a great option for us as we are all in one room and the kids take ages to get to sleep, plus not being able to prepare our own food has been tricky.  The B & B’s here don’t have tea or coffee making facilities in the rooms, but the owner has been kind enough to lend us a kettle (I have my own tea bags and two plastic cups I bought for the kids!).  We have to say though, since we’ve been here, once Milly and Noah get to sleep they’ve been sleeping so well – mostly till 7am – must be all the walking and playing in the fresh air.

We won’t talk about Saturday as it was moving day, pouring of rain, and we were all a bit stressed!  But Sunday, after a morning of rain, the weather turned out to be beautiful and we took a walk (which was meant to be 45 minutes each way) down to a hut for some lunch.  Gorgeous scenery all the way, meadows, forest and mountains and then we arrived at the valley floor which was a massive gorge with almost 1000m cliffs above either side of us and a raging river below with sheer drops into it (and in some places no fence or barrier might I add so it was lucky noah was sleeping, on the way there at least!).  It took us 1 ½ hours there, and almost an hour back where we caught a little train for the rest of the journey up.  Poor Amelia walked the whole way and we were so proud of her, she didn’t even complain, except when she fell a few times collecting more grazes, cuts and bruises on her knees! (The Princess will turn into a Tomboy yet!)

Later in the afternoon we visited the smallest town in Austria called Rattenberg with its medieval cobbled streets and castle ruins dating back to 1000AD.  I loved it!  We had (another!) ice-cream and then enjoyed a relaxing meal at a hotel near our B & B, overlooking the sunlit mountains.  (There was some inconsiderate farmer whipper-snippering his field right next to us – but the pro’s outweighed the con’s!)

Today we drove to Kitzbuhel, a busy expensive ski resort town popular with the Brits.  It was lovely, like a larger Rattenberg.  Maciek can have his mountains, I’ll take the medieval villages thanks!  Unfortunately Maciek was stung by a wasp and whilst removing the sting he let go of Noah’s stroller which rolled into the road causing much panic and swearing!  So that’s what those tether straps are for?  Not to worry, everything is fine.  Just gave us a shock, and re-ignited my fear of wasps (I was beginning to calm down around them!)

On the way back we stopped at a swimming lake with an awesome playground.  The kids had fun on the jumping pillow, flying foxes, giant swings, numerous climbing frames with slides, and many other things all free!  There was also mini golf, a huge toboggan ride which only cost E2.00, beach volleyball and a soccer/basketball mini pitch. 

I don’t think the Vee Bee Navigator is navigating cobbled streets and gravelled hiking paths too well, so I’m not holding out much hope of being able to sell it at any future Baby and Kids Market!

Kitzbuhel

Castles - BRILLIANT!

Playing at dinner

More Ice cream

I BIN in Ratternberg!

Phew! The train to take us to the top

SPORTCAMP WOFERLGUT

Our humble abode

This is the campsite we stayed in last week in Bruck, just near Zell am See.  After an initial hoo-haa about the caravan (I thought it was too small and smelly), we swapped for a bigger and better one (and more expensive much to maciek’s disappointment!) with a bunk bed for Amelia, space for Noah’s cot and a solid annex built onto the side which made up a dining area and kitchen.  It was very nice, comfortable, lots of storage for all our stuff, and a few meters from the shower block and gym.  We spent the week mostly relaxing and using the campsite facilities as we did so much the week before. 

seconds before mud splat

The day we arrived, which is always the worst day we’ve come to learn, Maciek fell on a ladder in the playground (he was climbing up after Noah) and cut his shin open.  He was in lots of pain and went completely grey and close to fainting!  Needless to say I was in a mad panic!  We thought he may have even broken it but after a rest and ice etc he was okay.  He now has a lovely black scab as a momento!

noah feeding goats

The weather was up and down all week.  But we managed a trip to a wildlife park complete with Bison, Deer and Donkeys!  Amelia must have been the only child dressed in pretty pink matching attire complete with fluffy Barbie fleece!  And after playing silly buggers in front of the Bison she tripped and fell belly first into a muddy puddle!  I think she’s learning her lesson about dressing like a princess in this terrain, and is slowly coming around to trackies and jumpers!  There was an awesome playground – more flying foxes, loads of slides, mini bumber cars and other rides you might find at a fairground but only cost E1.00 per ride!  Unfortunately we didn’t make the most of it due to the weather.  And once we realized the kids feet were soaking we went in search of welly boots!

hiking in bruck



We took a hike, a 3 hour round trip (it was supposed to be 45 minutes each way) but this included dinner at the hut at the end.  On the way back Noah fell face first into a bunch of stinging nettles (and nearly over the edge of a cliff) and his poor face came up red and sore with white welts!  Shortly after that he was crying about his finger, saying ‘spider, spider’ and we noticed it swelled up with a little red mark in the middle – so not sure what that was??  At least we knew it wasn’t a Red Back! 

We managed to get a couple of swims in, the kids had fun in the KinderLand indoor playroom, and we met a lovely couple from Scotland, Paul and Lisa, with wee Emma, who Amelia befriended (they shared an interest in princesses, fairies and all things girly but were just as bossy as each other!) We plan to stop in and visit them on our way to Edinburgh in August!

We visited some more beautiful villages, St Johann, and Lofer, which we could see ourselves living in some time in the future??!

Noah has some new words – Donkey, Bison, Welly Boots, Apple Juice, Twakta (Tractor) and counting to 10!

Noah's wee girlfriend

Milly loves the climbing walls

Undies Undies BATHERS!

Had a great week – Campsites are definitely more enjoyable with the kids.  Starting to settle in.  The food situation is improving.  And I have been asking around about where to buy stuff – so we’re getting there.

I think as soon as we’re used to Austria – we’ll be heading to Switzerland!  Oh woe is me!

Out to dinner with Paul and Lisa

on the playground

Life on the Road...

Hello, its Maciek here. I thought I’d write a blog seeing as Melanie has been hogging the writing recently. I’m going to write about life on the road, the not so cool things.

The Language



Ausfahrt...what does that mean??



I thought that it wouldn’t be easy but I knew that most German people below the age of 40 can speak some English so I thought that if I tried a little German and they could see me struggling they would just offer their English but that doesn’t happen, you just stand there pointing your finger and waving your hand until they guess correctly what you’re after. I guess they might not know that I can speak English but I do try to throw in some evidence of that. Also maybe their English is not very strong so they are reluctant to use it. Anyhow it does make it hard to communicate especially now that we are at a camp site, we would like to speak to fellow campers but we can’t really go further than hello. Amelia finds it quite difficult aswell, especially on the playground. She would love to make friends but the kids speak German to her and she just goes very quiet, we are trying to tell her to just respond in English so they don’t think she is ignoring them. Noah is not having any difficulty with the language mainly because he doesn’t listen to English or German, although he has turned his usual cry of NO to NEIN.

The Driving

Driving on the wrong side of the road and sitting on the wrong side of the car is very unusual.  It’s hard to know how wide the car is and with the European roads being made for horse and cart in some of the old towns I thought I was going to side swipe everything. Luckily the only things I have side swiped have been a couple of curbs. Having someone to follow does make things a lot easier but when there’s no-one in front, you do have to concentrate very hard especially when turning left. Carparks with no markings are another matter, it’s ok now that I have been driving a couple of weeks but initially I was constantly on the wrong side and causing commotion. Then there’s

Random stop for lunch

the high speed autobahns. I, with my 1.6 L Peugoet, would try to stay in the right (slow) lane on about 125km and cars would just fly passed me and that was ok, until I came up to a slower car and had to overtake. I thought I gave myself plenty of room but each time I got into the fast lane to overtake, the car behind me would be up my ass in a flash and I would be holding up the fast lane until the Peugoet could speed up enough to get back into the slow lane, by this time it would be doing around 140km. And all this with a screaming Noah in the back.

Moving Day

Our stay in Soest was a bit surreal, we didn’t really know what was going on, but we did

Perfect fit??

settle in eventually and then it was time to move. Packing everything and getting it into the car is a nightmare, then when you get to the new place everything is different and it’s a shock. We are not staying at 5 star hotels. These places claim to be 3 stars but everything on the internet looks a lot bigger and nicer. So settling in takes a bit of time, where we’re going to put the 7 pieces of luggage we have, how we’re going to set up the porta-cot, where can we sit when the kids go to bed etc. By the time you have it sorted it’s time to pack up and move again but I think we will get used to that, well we will have to. (What a whinger having to move from one gorgeous place to another!)

 NOAH

So far he has smashed four glasses; broken the car dvd player; fell into a bunch of sting

ing nettles; got bitten in the finger by something; caused me to fall off a ladder on a very high playground causing some serious damage to my shin; fondled every bin he has seen and screamed his lungs out everytime we have been in the car for longer than one hour! He has been the great leveller in this trip so far. He is such hard work that we have seriously conside

red is this all worth it. Amelia has been great and is really enjoying the trip but keeping Noah safe has been the biggest hurdle so far.

Anyhow this “Life on the road” blog will continue, I know Melanie has a lot to add to it so we’ll update it from time to time……

For now it’s ‘Pfirti’.

Maciek   

Touring Around

View of Lake Wolfgang

We’ve have a great week here in Abersee (by lake Wolfgang) and tonight we pack up to leave in the morning for Zell am See.  Our tiny apartment has challenged us, and we are a bit remote, so we are looking forward to the campsite where things are walking distance with playgrounds and swimming pools and a WASHING MACHINE!  But that aside we’ve had a brilliant week touring around and visiting some beautiful places.

Cathedral Steeple

St Wolfgang on the opposite side of the lake to us, a quaint village full of shops selling Austrian souvineers (cuckoo clocks galore – some costing over 1000 euro, such intricate craftsmanship), a stunning cathedral and a shop where Amelia found her ‘most favourite dolly ever’.

Strolling through St Wolfgang

Halstatt is a village set into the side of mountains and the edge of lake Hallstattersee, and is a world heritage listed region.  It is the kind of place you see in fairytales with tiny winding walkways in between chocolate box houses with windows and doors that look like they’ve been made for pixies!  We’ve had a photo of this place hung above our bed for five years, so it was pretty surreal being there. 

Picture perfect Halstatt

In the village square, Halstatt

To get to these places we have encountered some tricky terrain.  Mountain roads with steep gradients and even steeper drops from the edge of the road.  On the day we decided to visit all these places the weather was the worst it has been all week, raining and cold, which made it even scarier!  But Maciek has done very well with the driving, after beginning the week with a big black ‘R’ written on his right hand to remind him what side of the road to drive on, to negotiating narrow winding mountain roads where the speed limit is 100k/h (are you kidding!!) and trucks and buses come hurtling towards you.   Well done Maciek!

Thanks for all the comments!  Keep them coming.  It feels like you’re here with us!