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!

Hiking in the Mountains

One of Maciek's fav's

Lunch at 1500m



Shoulders Daddy Shoulders!



After a confusing start to the day (I slept in but dreamt I was awake getting ready – you know those ones?, Noah had to be changed twice for reasons we won’t go into, we weren’t sure what we were doing as our plans for the week had been thrown off by the weather, Maciek decided he needed to go back to sleep at 8.30 while I took the kids for a walk in the woods and he dreamt he was awake getting ready??), we were finally in the car on our way back to Bad Ischl, dressed for sunshine and a morning of wandering around the town, when we decided the weather was nice and we should do the mountain hike we planned on doing yesterday but didn’t because it was raining and overcast and freezing cold!  So we turned back, got changed, and we were off again – to Gosau.  A cable car took us up to 1500m where we could hire a mountain stroller for Noah for free and we were ‘off road’ in 10 degrees!  The views up there were stunning and I got a good workout especially pushing the stroller, some parts were very steep!  We stopped at a hut for lunch (not too impressed with Austrian cuisine so far we have to say!) and then made our way back.  Amelia loved the buttercups and Noah enjoyed mooing at all the cows.  But I didn’t anticipate that walking up the steep bits would mean walking down the steep bits, this time with Amelia in the stroller as her legs were sore and her ‘bones were collapsing’!  This could have been a disaster if it weren’t for Maciek telling me to use the brake (it’s got a brake on it like a mountain bike!)  I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t think I would have thought of this on my own!

From there we drove to Altmunster, another village on Lake Traunsee, with stunning rugged mountains surrounding it.  The kids played on the playground on the lake edge while we ate ice-cream and dipped our feet in the lake (it was now 28 degrees).

Milly is loving the flying foxes

Nice to get our feet wet

From hiking in 10 degrees in fleeces, wooly hats and raincoats on top of a mountain, to eating ice-cream and splashing around in a crystal clear lake in 28 degrees!  What a fab day!

Bora Bora in Bad Ischl

Amelia playing in Bad Ischl

On Monday after breakfast at another gasthof, (where, after no prompting from us, Amelia yelled ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ and Noah replied ‘Oi Oi Oi’, and then ‘hi mate, m m m maaate!’ – was very funny and embarrassing!), we took a drive into the town of Bad Ischl.  Firstly we visited the school I have been in contact with to meet the teacher so we have an option for somewhere for the kids to go if we decide to stay.  It’s a lovely old building and next to it is a huge barn of stinky animals!  It’s not wrong, it’s just different (this has stuck with me since Contiki!).  The teacher is German but speaks English so that was easy.

We parked in town and then had a walk around.  Very hot day, I think it reached 35 degrees.  As we have been without internet connection since we arrived, we intended on sitting in MacDonalds to use the free wi-fi, send some emails etc, but it was tiny and packed so that was out.  Instead we sat across the road at a nice café with a marquee eating area, thinking we might be able to tap into MacDonalds’ wi-fi, but it wasn’t to be.  So we ordered lunch. 'Maciek asked the waitress 'Sprechen Sie English?' and she said ‘of course’.  So to start with we ordered two bottles of water.  She did seem a bit confused, but after some discussion back and forth she seemed to  understand what we wanted.  We proceeded to try to work out the menu when the waitress returned, placing our huge (I mean HUGE) glasses of water on the table, saying, ‘your Bora Bora’.  We looked at each other a bit puzzled.  What was she talking about?  Another waiter came over and handed us English menu’s (yay!) and maciek asked for another water.  ‘Another Bora Bora’ nodded the waiter.  We started giggling as we began to realize what the misunderstanding was.  When he returned, placing the water on the table, he asked ‘why do you call this Bora Bora?’.  ‘We don’t’, said maciek, ‘I asked for “bottles of water” but she mustn’t have understood me!’  The waiter laughed, and walked away still chuckling! 

If you say ‘bottles of water’ with a mumbling Aussie accent, it does actually sound like Bora Bora!

From now on, we will always refer to a glass of water as Bora Bora!!

Gruss Gott

159 Geschwendt??????????

Room with a view

After two long days of driving we finally arrived in Abersee in Austria, late Sunday afternoon.  The Sat Nav couldn’t find the place, so we had to stop and ask directions and we eventually found it tucked away at the back of 5 other guesthouses.  Apparently there are about 5 streets called Gschwendt, either that or this little area is called Gschwendt, and the streets have no names, as we were driving down all these Gschwendts to find number 159.  Our hosts are very old, und sprechen nein English!  The children’s’ playground comprises of a rickety plastic slide and two swings like the ones you buy from Big W.  Although I haven’t looked at it closely I’ve seen the ‘health spa’ through the window and from what I can gather it is a treadmill, an exercise bike, a few dumbbells, and I think there’s a sauna in there somewhere.  There are about 10 other rooms, I think ours is the only ‘apartment’ and we are the only ones staying here.  It’s kind of creepy, a bit like The Adam’s Family crossed with a polish version of The Shining!! (See pics).  Josefa and Hans are kind and friendly, but we can’t understand a word, and she knows this, but still keeps talking and talking and talking!

As we were settling in and bringing our bags up from the car, Amelia, being very excited, decided to wander off and look around.  I thought she was with Maciek and he thought she was with me.  Once we realized she was with neither of us we started calling for her and back came a faint ‘yeah?’

-where are you?

-In here.

-Where?

-In the toilet.

She wasn’t in ours.  So which one was she in?  Whose room was she in?

-Amelia?

-Yeah?

-Which toilet are you in?

-I don’t know, the one with flowers in the window.

Well that could have been any of them.  We looked in three rooms before we found her, sitting on a toilet in another guest room, NOT doing a number 1.  Unfortunately these toilets have shelves for self inspection, the deposits are then flushed down into the water afterwards.  Needless to say the smell was not pleasant.

-What are you doing in here?

-I just wanted to have a look around.

Good job we are the only guests.

Creepy Jesus above the bed!

Creepy Gasthof aside, this place is stunning.

Things we have learnt: 

Noah hates the car, which means we all do.  So think of us when we are on a long day drives.

Noah thinks it will take a heck of a lot more than some crappy mountains, stinking lakes, and stupid cows to take my attention away from the excitement of BINS!!

Noah is 1 year too young for this trip!

Snow White’s Castle



Princesses outside the castle!



Neuschwanstein Castle

Along the way we stopped for a night in a small village near King Ludwig’s’ Castle (Neuweistein??), in a guesthouse/B &B where thankfully the waiter spoke English and we found out the German word for BIN, which is Mulltonne (bit more difficult for Noah to say so perhaps if we start calling it that he’ll lose interest!).  The room we stayed in had one light so once we put the kids to bed we were stuck in the dark! We tried a couple of times to put the lamp on but it was too bright and caused Amelia to keep poking her head up looking at us with squinty eyes.  But Maciek managed to make me a cup of tea by the light of the bathroom. 



We were up early for breakfast then drove to Fussen to have a look at the castle (we told Amelia that Snow White wasn’t actually there at the time as she was away on her holidays!) and hopped onto a horse and cart to take us up, where we sat opposite a couple from Texas (he he – I won’t explain further as those of you who have met American’s on your travels will know exactly where I’m coming from! – Bless ‘em) and – A COUPLE FROM JOONDANNA AND HER MUM IS FROM DUNCRAIG!!  It’s a small world, it was nice to hear the accents, even the Texan’s, at least we could have a conversation!

Das Ist Curly

Kurky!!  Ruff!

This is Sue and Frank’s little doggie called Curly, or Kurky as she is known to Noah!  As I neglected to mention her in previous blogs I thought she deserved a little blog of her own!  The kids loved her.  Every time she came down in the morning at breakfast they both went mental!  Sometimes too much which drove poor Curly back upstairs!!  They had great fun chasing her around the table shouting and squealing.  Goodbye Kurky, thanks for the fun, and we’ll see you again soon! X

Happy Birthday in the Aldstadt!

What do you want for your birthday Maciek?

Maciek's birthday present



A peugoet 307 and a trip around Europe please!  Voila!




In the moat

We began Maciek's birthday with a stroll around what used to be the moat surrounding the town.  The wall still exists around 2/3rds of the town (4kms) and the outside moat wall still stands for most of it, so in parts on either side of you are walls centuries old, 10 metres high or more, and there you are on the floor of the moat surrounded by huge beautiful trees, and masses of greenery.  And every so often is a small childrens playground.  Awesome and very surreal!

Weeee!!

Later in the morning Frank and Sue took us to Mohnesee, about a 10 minute drive from their house.  A stunning area surrounding a lake where there are childrens playgrounds, a couple of cafe's, volley ball and tennis courts, a giant chess board amongst many other things.  The kids had a ball on the flying fox and huge winding slide.  I took video footage only to realise later that i'd pressed the wrong button so didnt actually record anything at all!  WELL, its new, and I hadn't had a chance yet to work it out!

After lunch (bratwurst and chips, what else?), we walked around the old town and stopped for coffee and cake and then a drink at one of the many restaurant/pubs, sitting outside in the lovely sunshine.  Soest is steeped in history.  The oldest restuarant dates back to 1304, and in places you feel like you've stepped onto the set of a shakespearean film, without the mud, pigs and chickens!  For those interested, Soest as a village was first documented in 836AD, and the first town seal was created in 1140, one of the oldest in Germany, and it became one of the most important Hanseatic towns of the Middle Ages.  Its quite strange to see such old buildings housing such modern businesses and shops!

Prost!



Milly playing in the old town



Don't touch the Bins!



As i write this the kids are finally sleeping and Maciek is watching the French Open with german commentary!  I am looking forward to a cup of tea with lemon and honey as i am losing my voice!  All the yelling at Noah to stay away from the bins!!  And then we have to pack, because tomorrow morning we leave on our journey to Austria, stopping along the way at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. 

I BIN in Soest





Amelia's Daisy Chain...Hello

I will miss Tante Sue and Onkel Frank's hospitality and help (and shots of Shnapps!).  I will miss shaking my head everytime I step out of the front door as I'm reminded of where I am.  I will miss the birds that tweet (instead of squawk!), and the church bells!  But can't wait for more beautiful places to see............



Sue and Frank...Anyone for shnapps

Post by Melanie