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| Strolling through Kitzbuhel |
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| Horse and Cart |
A few days after we fare-the-welled our dear old dragon, came the arrival of my BFF Stinky Pete! So named after the character in Toy Story 2 and because I had to get my own back after she renamed me Smelly Melly. (It’s not because I smell, says I, it’s only because it rhymes with my name. Sure, says everyone else. Wink wink.)
So there were three days after mum left to prepare for Pete’s arrival and there was much scrubbing and dusting and washing and changing sheets and panicking and then it was the day of my epic train journey to the airport. I had decided not to attempt the four hour round trip to the airport and back on the crazy autobahns alone. And so it was that I drove half an hour to the train station in Kufstein to find no parking. I did manage to navigate my way through the town (not good at that on my own) and find an underground car park but wasn’t sure what time it closed but there was nothing I could do about that as my train was due and it was a good 10 minute walk to the station. I arrived and made it onto the platform with 5 mintues to spare. A good opportunity to call Maciek and tell him I’d made it. But hang on a minute, where’s my phone? Brilliant, I’d left it in the car! So Maciek would just have to worry for 2 ½ hours until I met Pete at the airport and call him from her phone. So, on the train. Cabin to myself, window seat, snacks in handbag, journal and pen, ahhhh relax! No children, no noise, just me and fantastic scenery. After almost an hour there was a train change at Munich Ost. Managed that, no problem. On the home stretch to the airport. After a short time I was sure I read on the sign that the next stop was Flughafen (airport). So I stood up to get off and didn’t even notice that all the other passengers with suitcases continued to sit and read their books, and admittedly I was a bit confused when the platform sign floated past the window displaying something completely different to Flughafen. But, I got off anyway. And kicked myself two seconds later as it was in fact the wrong station. I was later to find out that the sign on the train flashed between final destination and next stop. Obviously the bit I’d noticed was final destination Flughafen. Apart from feeling like a complete and utter idiot I wasn’t worried as I had half hour to spare, and waited for the next one. Finally, finally, I arrived at the airport with five minutes to spare, bought Peta’s train ticket for the journey home, and then found out that her plane was delayed. A coffee and blueberry muffin for me then.
Peta finally walked through the arrival gates looking ever glamorous even after a day of travelling and it was all so surreal and one of those moments when you have so much to talk about but don’t know where to start that you say nothing! A Chinese meal while we waited for the train home quickly fixed it. Never had anything so spicy in my life! We forgot to check the ‘chilli meter’ on the menu! She landed at 8.15pm and the train home was due at 9pm. There were two changes on the way home and we arrived back in Kufstein to darkness and pouring rain, just after 11pm. Making it back to the car park in between showers (as neither of us had umbrella’s or jackets) to discover that it was open (phew! So no surprise overnight stay at a dodgy hotel in Kufstein then!) and I had 5 missed calls and 4 messages from Maciek (I did send a message to Maciek from Pete’s phone when I met her but discovered later that I’d actually sent it to my own phone by mistake!) I then had to find my way to the main road home (while the Sat Nav was ‘acquiring satellites’) and negotiate the dark narrow mountain roads in the pouring rain hoping I was going the right way! Little bit on the panic attack side of things but we made it home safe and sound close to midnight. What started out as ‘I’ll just catch the train, it’s only two hours and will be much more relaxing’ turned into a 7 ½ hour door to door journey with a few mishaps along the way! And as my mum would say ‘WHAT A PALAVA!!’
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| Latte and cake in Kitzbuhel |
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| Disturbing the Holy Silence! |
Anyway. It all turned out well in the end. And what’s life if it isn’t an epic train journey of an adventure?! I was able to take the Friday off work (despite a bit of umming and arring from the boss!) and after dropping Amelia and Noah at kindy me and Pete took off to Kitzbuhel. Another delicious coffee and strawberry tart for me, with peace and quiet this time. Beautiful weather, and a wander around town and through the church grounds including the church where Peta disturbed the Holy silence by deleting photo’s on her very noisy camera to make room for more! After that we drove back to St Johann for a ride on the gondola and lunch at the top where my skill in reading German menu’s shone through as I managed to order us a top notch lunch called Farmerstoast which was a bacon, egg and cheese toasted sandwich. Lecker Schmecker! (This has become one of my favourite sayings as the kids in the kindergarten say it and it means something like yummy tasty!) We spent the rest of the afternoon at home eating cheese and horrible olives (definitely NOT lecker schmecker!) and drinking wine on our balcony and had an early night.
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| Leafy hats on the hike! |
Saturday we packed a lunch and took off on a hike. The kids did so well and despite Amelia’s protests before leaving the house she got right into it and collected flowers along the way, and it only took us 1 ½ hours to reach our picnic spot. We ran into some mucky spots though, squelching through mud and the stench of cow poo, something which we are quite used to now but poor Pete had trouble breathing and was forced to cover half her face with her fleece to avoid passing out! After our picnic (away from bad smells) we wandered down to the Alm owned by a family who makes their own schnapps (we’d bought a litre before!) for a refreshing drink. We ordered three Radlers (shandys) thinking we’d get a glass each but out came three gigantic 500ml bottles so then it was a trip to the loo. ‘It’s round the corner’ said the nice lady, so off we went looking for a back door but the lady encouraged us up some stairs which looked like they led to some kind of little shed in the bushes. And there it was. An outdoor dunny the likes I’ve never seen let alone sat upon! It overhung a pit. The pit needs no further description. One can use one’s own imagination! The toilet seat was a plank of wood with a hole in it, and a splashback, and everything going down in full view of the user and anyone else happening by! So, moving on……
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| The Alm...... |
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| ....and the dunny! |
In the afternoon I took Peta into the village of Sankt Johann for a ‘hot chocolate more like a liquid chocolate cake’ in 33 different flavours. Strawberry and lychee (my favourite), orange and cinnamon, coffee, hazelnut etc. And we wandered around, in and out of some of the fancy shops that I always gaze longingly into but can never actually go in with the two little grubs! That night we went to the Stanglwirt for dinner. A very posh place, never been before. Couldn’t find parking at first and found ourselves in the hotel reception carpark with no spaces available because it was full of Porsches, Ferraris, BMW, Audi’s, Mercedes and the like, all run of the mill everyday Joe Bloggs type stuff. So I parked outside the stables. Plenty of room there for my little Peugeot! The restaurant was lovely inside, typical Austrian style, dimly lit with candles. There’s a big window inside which looks directly into the cow shed, so you can have a lovely view of the cows chewing and plopping all over the place and staring at you while you’re eating one of their friends, which I can imagine would be completely appetizing, but unfortunately this is only available in winter, as in summer they are out in the fields and pastures. Pooh. We missed out. Would have been right up Peta’s alley, as a non-meat eater and all! Apparently it’s quite famous for its cow shed windows. Can’t see the appeal myself. Bit weird I think! Another thing equally weird and probably not so famous is the ‘grilled chicken with curried banana and rice’ dish, the one Peta opted for. Strangely it was very tasty, the banana more like some kind of potato! I opted for the much more traditional roast pork, sauerkraut and bread dumpling, needless to say after which I was completely bloated! The menu was pricier than expected so we skipped entrée and dessert and only indulged in a splash of wine (but actually ‘ I couldn’t possibly fit another thing in!’). And instead enjoyed a much cheaper coffee in the village overlooking the square.
Pete was off back to Perth the next day. (No not another epic train journey, this time Maciek drove to the airport!) A very quick fly in visit. And no, she didn’t come all the way to Austria from Perth to see us for 3 days! She was in London, and did a bit of a detour! But very glad she was able to do that, even though looking back now it feels like a blink! Thanks to Maciek doing a lot of babysitting we actually managed to spend lots of time alone to catch up on a year of gossip and silly quotes (“it doesn’t even smell like cheese”) and life ponderings (wooly ‘ats are brilliant aren’t they?)! Glad you were able to share a little bit of our journey with us, and we hope you enjoyed it too Peta, despite being suffocated by cow poo! Until next time Stinky…….loves ya, and “say hi to your mum for me!!!”
P.S I nicked a couple of your pics Pete (I'm a bit whoo, i'm a bit whoaa, i'm a bit of a geezer in it?!)didn't have many myself?? Must've used your camera the whole time!
