...for the
novelty, y'know, of just popping over to another country with another
landscape and language; because a train trip through the glorious
Julian Alps seemed like a grand idea. And so we got a train ticket,
booked a hotel, woke up horribly early and headed, with packs on
backs and bags on fronts and hats in hands, to Ljubljana train
station. It was Friday 13th July. Not that we're
suspicious.
Kath was without
her first cup of coffee. Not a pretty sight; not a pleasant
character. It didn't look like she was going to get one for the next
2 hours because the walk took a little longer than anticipated and
the train was near due. Luckily, or so we thought at the time, the
train had been delayed by 20 minutes and the much sought-after coffee
was gained and guzzled sooner rather than later. Mood grew positive
in the Norcross-Gaskin crew as we boarded the train to Villach.
Then the weather
came in... low cloud and rain, obscuring views, making Howie look
like this...
On our approach to
Villach, we are reminded that the delay means we've missed our
connection and have to wait 2 hours for the next one. That's okay.
We're in German speaking realms now and enjoying (giggling over) the
sound of words like “Abfaht” (departures). *apologies
to my German speaking friends! Ayesha's a bit stunned and
disgusted to see and smell people smoking in cafes in Austria... we
forget that she's grown up in a smoking ban environment. We have
lunch in the tiny non-smoking room of a bar where the smoke creeps a
little under the door anyway.
Onto the Salzburg
train and the weather closes in, with almost nothing visible. Howie
looks like this...
(I know, it's
terribly sad,isn't it?)
Hooray, we're in
Salzburg. Let's walk to the hotel because it's only 3 blocks away.
Howie takes off at his usual packs-on cracking pace (faster than his
standard walk). There are roadworks, and we take a wrong turn.
Three blocks becomes 10. The wheel on a case we're dragging (a
hand-me-down from Ross) finally succumbs to its jam and stops
turning. By the time we notice, it's flat on one side! We arrive
at the hotel about 7 hours after leaving the Ljubljana studio to be
told check in is at 1500 and we must wait another 30 minutes. We do,
and duly collect the key, going upstairs to find the housekeeper
still in our room. Long story short, they stuff up and the room
takes another hour to be ready for us. Grumble, grumble. We start
to count our misfortunes on this Friday 13th...
Until, we have
refreshing showers and walk out into the afternoon. The clouds
miraculously part for us and blue sky appears. We find ourselves in
gorgeous sculpture gardens, Mirabell Park...
We
take the Festungbahn
(funicular)
up to the amazing Honhensalzburg fortress, for an audio tour and spectacular views that
include the House of the Protector of the Cabbages (that's the little place in the middle of the grassed area). What the..?
Howie has a go at shooting crossbow and is frighteningly accurate...
And he gets an
icy cold one...
Now he's happy :)
 |
| We took this photo to demonstrate the great length of German words. Google translates it to mean "FEED-WATER QUENCHING". Of course. |
 |
| We took this one to show the spot on the trams where you can stand with your dog. That's cool, hey? |
All's well and all
that stuff. Good night Salzburg. Oh, and the weather was kinder for
the return train journey the next day. It looked like this...
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