We ventured into Austria through the Italian Alps to visit Nicoles family who live in their gorgeous mountain town of Radenthein. The journey was meant to be a simple three hour coach ride to the Austrian town of Villach. But with it being us nothing is ever easy as easy as it looks. Waking early we decided to walk across Venice for the last time to marvel in its beauty, instead of getting the expensive canal boat. To get to the bus station island, as the main hub of Venice is a pedestrian area, we had to board a short metro train called the 'people mover' that crossed over to the bus station. Arriving early we quickly bought a ticket from the machine and boarded a tram, sitting back and relaxing as we moved off to what we thought was the bus station, we joked about how easy Europe was to travel around... It wasn't until this tram was passing over a bridge onto the mainland of Italy leaving Venice behind, that we started to panic! We hadn't boarded a people mover we'd jumped onto a tram that headed away from Venice and our bus station! The tram seemed to travel for miles before it reached its first stop on the mainland. We boarded a local bus back to Venice on the opposite side of the road and hoped we would make it to the people mover and bus station in time. Luckily we did and we met a friendly local who was boarding the same coach to Villach, but he was seated in the first class section so that was the last we saw of him!

Once on board our double decker coach we settled into our seats at the front of the top level with a huge window to watch the journey go by out of. Our first hour of travel was uninspiring, speeding along motorways through huge expanses of farmland and a bit of grey weather. However as we approached the Austrian boarder our views dramatically changed. Huge mountain ranges appeared either side of us, with snow covered tops and a bright blue sky. Our coach drove through mountains using tunnels and round steep cliff faces on a seriously well tarmac road. The views continued as we easily crossed the unmanned boarder of Austria and headed to the town of Villach.

We were very lucky to explore this part of Austria and we couldnt have done it without our generous family. Chris and Liz moved out to Austria with their daughter Michele and her family a decade or so ago and they seemed to love it. We don't blame them, our visit even tempted us to join them in their mountainous paradise!

We met Michele and her husband Paul in Villach, they then drove us over to Radenthein the area in which they live. We passed more snow covered mountainous valleys, as well as thickly frozen lakes with families skating and typical Austrian houses and wooden churches. The whole area looked like winter wonderland and we couldnt believe that they actually lived in such a stunning place. Even though Michele and Paul explained that the snowfall had been less than normal due to the extreme cold temperatures, we couldn't see how there could be more snow. On the ski slopes, that were being used by many tourists and locals, they made their own snow for there tracks that covered most of the mountains.

We sipped on gluehwein, while gossiping about frightened skiers, although Matt and I knew that would be us up there wanting to bum shuffle down the steep slope. Later we tucked into a delicious homemade meal of British fish and chips by Paul at their B&B which had a beautiful view over the valley. We also got to meet a celebrity of the household, Archie the dog, who we have heard lots of stories about through Facebook. We tuck ourselves into a warm comfy bed with a REAL duvet at Chris and Liz' house. It was only a few minutes drive away, with a lovely view onto a frozen stream and a snow covered hill. They even spot deer and other wildlife near there house as the national park, which has recently introduced wolves and bears, is right next to them.

We had such a wonderful visit, and we wish we could have stayed longer to catch up more and explore the wider area. We would love to return another time to see everyone and maybe even do some skiing. Thank you so much Chris,Liz, Michele, Paul and Archie for having us :)