The Last Post

2747 miles later we are home.

We visited France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and passed through Holland, Belgium & France on our way back to the UK.

We went up 2 mountains of over 6,500 feet and one nearly 10,000 feet, drove over 2 passes of over 6,500 feet.

We stood inside and on top of a glacier, sat in a 2000 year old roman amphitheatre, climbed a gothic cathedral that was the worlds tallest building until 1874, watched helicopters and planes battle a huge alpine forest fire.
Rode in a Gondola in Venice, been on the world's steepest railway, visited the oddest town - a star shaped citadel purpose built by the Venetians in the 16th century to buy glass cleaner (!), bought clothes for college in London and Milan, pasta in Venice and gingerbread in Nuremberg.

We ate tub loads of Gelato in Italy, had an amazing pannacotta in a Holiday Inn Express, really unique and very tasty dinner in Mercure hotel in Germany and an incredibly atmospheric and romantic meal in a Veronese palace.

We drove through the most stunning scenery imaginable, ended up in the Alps rather than Vienna and loved it.

We stayed at 8 different hotels and 2 different apartments, we went on trains, trams, buses, vaporettos and boats in 5 countries and traveled under the sea in the car.

We are home safe, sound, tired, happy and ready for a good sleep in our own beds!

Thank you for reading our blog, we hope you enjoyed it and shared in our fun.

(and didn't feel we were boasting!)

The road is long, and many a winding turn...

Nuremberg to Ludenshied 3 hrs 51 mins nay bother.... Actual journey = 7 hrs almost to the minute.

A long day in the saddle for us all, as the receptionist said 'all of Germany is on the road this weekend' - you don't say....

Anticipating (ahem) such a long journey I had booked us a suite in our hotel for tonight, so we were doubly looking forward to a swim and a stretch out in our rooms. Yes you've guessed it we turned up to find no such booking, Maggie legs it out to the car and returns triumphantly with the booking confirmation, the receptionist looked at it and kindly pointed out that I had booked a suite for the 11th of May.....
Fortunately he was able to offer us the same room for only 10 euros more....phew!

We have a great suite, 2 huge rooms with a bathroom in the hall between the rooms and BBC & ITV 1 & 2 on the telly !!

We don't usually take photos of our food but tonight we had the 2nd best meal out on our travels, you can guess who had what!

Lamb Fillet with apricots

Salmon baked in beech with mango chutney

Roast chicken in salsa

Ermmm....

So to round off our week in the German speaking world......

(Tschuss means Cheers)

Nuremberg

After battling through the traffic (like a sunny bank holiday on the road to Whitby) but 3 lanes for miles and miles we managed to do our 3.5 hour journey in 5 & a half. We arrived at our hotel, dumped the bags and hopped on a train into town. We didn't know what to expect other than it had a traditional old town, it turned out to be a largely pedestrianised and a very pleasant place to spend a few hours.

Pretzels & beer a great combination while waiting for my Bratwurst boiled in wine.

 

The Fountain

The Castle

The castle walls

Hannah !

Austria, unplanned pleasure.

So our last full day in Austria was spent up in the Alps. We decided to go up to the Dachstein Glacier as we though this may well be our one and only chance to see one.
We used our brilliant Sommercards which gives us free bus travel and also free cable car rides. We reckon we saved £150 today alone!
Up we went into the high alpine valleys and then on the very steep road to the cable car. When we got there the top was shrouded in cloud but it made for some great photos and a unique experience!
After we ate our lunch we went down into the glacier where the ice sculptors had been busy, like the ice bar in London only real!
Afterwards we messed around on the snow and descended the mountain only to see the cloud clear at the top - Doh.

 

Tomorrow starts the long road home with 2 separate nights in Germany then one in London, the road trip is coming to an end :-( 

It would be rude not to!

We are in the last house before the old road to Untertal which follows a gorge, this old road, now a path is the first National Geographic Hiking Trail (apparently). Which would explain the number of people passing by our apartment. So as the title suggests it would be rude not to give it a go.....

A Cunning Planai

After a lazy morning and stroll around Schladming we went up a 6,200 ft mountain called Planai.
As before we did most of the hard work by cable car but we did walk around the top for an hour or two!
It was a really nice afternoon out, the cable-car starts in the town - a 10 min walk away.

The Apartment 'Haus'

Taken from the same spot as above looking the other way!

Just a pity our cameras don't do the scenery justice.


PS we have a great internet connection, so if you fancy skype-ing please feel free!

Good Night Vienna

Well we left Venice and had a lovely drive threw the eastern Alps to Villach just over the Italian/Austrian border. A lovely little town with a very nice hotel. The following is the view from our room followed by the sunset watched on the terrace having our dinner...

All this loveliness hid the drama about to unfold............


As I checked my emails just before bed I discovered a message from Vienna saying our apartment had been flooded by the previous occupants leaving the tap on before they left?? So we woke from a fitful night to the decision of an alternative apartment in Vienna with no aircon in 40c heat or to try and find somewhere else to stay for 4 nights from scratch in the middle of Europe. After much hasty research and negotiation we have found ourselves in Schladming, 80km south of Salzburg. (No we hadn't heard of it either). First impressions are of a lovely ski resort surrounded by mountains with ourselves in a 2 bed apartment with views which we will no doubt share tomorrow.
So the arch planners are in a town for 4 nights that they still can't remember the name of.......should be fun!!!

Stop Press !
First photo, the view from our terrace/bedroom window. Not bad eh?