Austria

Well today pretty much picked up where yesterday left off. Went down had a lovely breakfast then were charged €20 for the pleasure when checking out apparently it's not included. Hey ho, never mind we will just go get the bus back to the station to go to Zell Am See. An hour till our train there so plenty of time for the 20 minute bus ride, or so we thought. That's the trouble with the Sunday service , there isn't a bus every 10 minutes like the nice man in hotel reception said there was last night so looks like we are going to miss the train and will just have to see when the next one is.
Extra money spent so far in Austria €70 it's turning in to quite an expensive country.

Never mind what's done is done and we will let you know what Zell Am See is like, If we ever get there.

Just waiting for the OBB (pronounced Ooooo baby) to zell am see. Things looking up for a minute, when shake found out he could get back home at no extra cost, then he realized that he was technically over the Germany border when he got the good news. Anyway I am pleased to say that the travel lady was extremely helpful and her seat was technically in the Austrian side of the portacabin.
Dropped the backpacks off in the baggage locker. Very very good system, reasonably cheap too. But with the curse of Austria hanging over us, we may never see our bags again!
Oh dear! Our train is coming into platform 13! Is it an omen?

Having a sit down and a drink before our train and I am having a proper cup of tea. One that doesn't taste of lemon or any other fruit and comes with milk. And the best thing of all it's in a proper mug and not a cup that looks like it's from a children's tea set with handles that no reasonable proportioned human could get their fingers through.

The female train announcer makes me giggle. She says everything in German, then repeats in a very posh English accent. When she gets to read out the train stations, she sounds like she's run out of batteries. Hilarious!

Told you! Train 13! Showed tickets to the guard mr vonn trapp. "ahh not valid" he says. Silence from me n shaky. "but it's got us this far through Europe" I panic. FIP card hasn't been signed. Me n shaky look at each other thinking how best to get a fast, yet affordable loan without calling ocean finance. Mr Von trapp takes pity on us. He simply laughs, stamps our tickets and moves on.

Zell Am See is an absolute peach of a place. You exit the station up some stairs and right out onto the lake with a stunning vista, the only decision to make is which way round you walk. We went right and followed the path for about 50 minutes before stopping for a drink in a tennis club. The kids practicing on the courts were fantastic players for their age. As we sat there drinking our coke in the sun you could feel the temperature drop slightly as the clouds came over the mountain. Within 5 minutes hurricane 'where the hell did that come from' was upon us, maybe a teeny weeny exaggeration. It was certainly enough to abandon court and fold down the umbrellas though. 20 minutes later and it's cracking the flags again. Wouldn't have even been worth bringing your washing in.

We then decided to walk back the way we had come and round the other way due to us not knowing how far or long it was to go all the way round. We passed the railway station and within 5 minutes was in the most beautiful little ski resort town where we stopped for something to eat. Into crazy daisy's for refueling and the food and service were spot on.

A quick walk round the town to get a bit if shade from the sun due to us not bringing the sun tan lotion, that's in the other bag back at Salzburg DOH!! I had already been and bought a bandana from the shop to stop my head getting Amy redder and Fi had definitely caught the sun. In all fairness it's took 6 days to get weather decent enough to tan.

After a great day out we are heading back to Salzburg to pick up our bags and get ready for the long journey home. We were up this morning 06:30 and there are no more hotels to stop in. Between now and this time tomorrow it's trains al the way with ashore stop in Brussels for breakfast. Will let you know how we get on.

Transport count up till now.

23 trains
11 buses
2 trams
1 road train
3 taxis

Keep checking the photo albums for new pictures that we add when we manage to get Wi-Fi spots. Will be glad to back on British soil so I can turn my network back on.