Hard at Work in the Garden

Amy and the dogs
Benji enjoying a new surface to sit on!
Lachlan at work!
Bill at work!



Have been home a week and already have a pile of jobs to do. This weekend we decided to tackle number one on the list - get some new lawn planted. Part one of the operation was completed on Saturday - hopefully we will get the rest done on Tuesday which is a holiday.

We needed to clear the weeds and the old lawn, which I had sprayed before we went away, but with all the rain some more grass decided to grow! Everyone did there bit, it was hot and hard work! At least the area is now ready to plant some seed and watch it grow.

Obviously we will need to fence it off from the dogs as they have decided it is a nice comfy place to sit now!

Back to Reality

We are now back in Canberra after flying home from Vienna, via Frankfurt and a one night stopover in Singapore. Now it is adjusting to life at home and recovering from jet lag! Amy was back at school today, and after only two hours at school I got a text saying she was - really, really, really, (repeated another 5 times at least) bored! I just ignored it -as I was riding up a hill and was really, really tired. I went out with my Monday riding group and did 70km - I was a bit slow as I was still filled up with chocolate and cheese from my holiday. I now am rather weary and have a sore bum! It always takes a while to wear in the bum and the legs after weeks off, but it was good to be back on the bike.

The dogs where really pleased to see us, and I promised my 4 year old nephew Charlie that I would post a photo of Benji wearing a cow bell that we brought in Switzerland so that is what I am doing. In Switzerland you would hear the tinkle of the bells as all the cows wore them. We had a good laugh when we put them on the dogs- Benji didn't mind, Sarkule look confused and poor old Clancy frightened himself every time he took a step! Thank goodness we only brought a small bell home and not one of the huge ones the poor cows have to wear! We only managed a reasonable photo of Benji - so here it is!

Our Last Full Day in Vienna

Today we went shopping, dragged a 5kg jar of Nutella out of Amy's hands, went to the Hotel Sacher and had Sacher Torte and Hot Chocolate, did some more shopping, had traditional Viennese Pancakes for lunch, brought Amy a funny hat, and went to the Prater - loads of rides - roller coasters, dodgem cars and Ferris wheels - it was a great day!

Musicians Graves

On Sunday drove me out to the Vienna Cemetery and saw the gravestones of Mozart, Schubert,Brahms,Strauss and Beethoven - it was pretty amazing. Also had a look at the old Jewish section where numerous graves had been smashed during the war, and as so many of the Jews had been taken out to concentration camps there was no one around to repair them or look after them.

There were some pretty amazing structures in the cemetery, they certainly like their cemeteries.

Zotter Chocolate Factory

Today we drove out to the Zotter Factory at Riegersburh, first of all we went through a medieval castle, where they had information in German all about witches trials - they were not very nice to witches! They were obviously wealthy but not in the same league as King Ludwig - I think I would prefer his castle! There were fantastic views from this castle,it had been built on top of an old volcano.

We finally got to the chocolate factory much to Amy and Mia's relief, I am not sure who was more excited the 15 year old or the 6 year old. There was so much to taste, 6 different tasting rooms, including a tasting room with a little cable car carrying mini blocks of chocolate to make a hot chocolate with!

Lots of different flavours of chocolate to taste - walnut and saffron, fish chocolate - not so yummy, olive and lemon all sorts, Amy was in her element!

Did Amy get Hungry in Hungary?

Of course she did! We headed of to Budapest, Hungary today with my brother as tour guide and chauffeur. It was about a 2 and a half hour drive in rather bleak, wet and cold conditions, but that did not stop us having a great day.

First stop was the central markets, they were great, they had garlic and paprika and saffron everywhere. We brought a 20gram jar of saffron for about $7 Australian - we have to see if we are allowed to take it through customs. We enjoyed strolling through the food stalls and craft stalls.

Next stop was a funicular that took us up to the Buda Palace and Fishermans Bastion which gave us a great view of the city and the Danube. Amy got to have her photo taken with an eagle and hold it on her arm. We had a look at the Parliament Building which again was spectacular. The it was a drive past Heroes Square and on the way out we went to a park where they had all the old communist statues they had taken down after the communist regimen was toppled - there were some amazing statues and they looked kind of odd all plonked together in the park!

Walking Tour of Vienna

Amy needed a veg day so stayed at home to annoy her aunt and uncle. I headed off in the 6 degree weather, suitably rugged up to explore a bit of Vienna on foot.

First I headed to a church about 15 minutes from their place, it had lovely stained glass windows inside. I then walked passed the Rathus or town hall, had a look at the Parlament building and latter went back in for a tour, which was very informative and a magnificent building. Like many buildings in Austria and Europe it had been partly destroyed during the World Wars and later rebuilt.

I also spent a couple of hours in the Natural History Museum which had an amazing rock and mineral collection, stuffed animals and all sorts of other interesting collections housed in a beautiful building.

Then it was a bit more wandering the streets, a quick ride up to St Stephens bell tower and a view of Vienna, but not too long as there was a very cold wind blowing.

Time to Head to Vienna but One More Castle Before We Get There

It is time to head back to Vienna, we have been on the road for 10 days now and seen and done so much. On the way back we called in to visit another palace that King Ludwig ll of Bavaria built. This one was called Herrenchiemsee. He had a bit of obsession with male idols I think. The first castle we saw was dedicated to Richard Wagner, this one was modelled on Versailles, he adored King Louis the 14th who had been in power 200 years previously. Despite his weirdness he knew how to spend money and this was another impressive palace, however he never finished it - ran out of money and also only stayed in it for 10 days anyway! We had to catch a boat across to the island, a horse and cart up to the palace, so the 4, 6 and 15 year olds had great fun!

Back to the car and on the road again! As we headed along the highway there was snow and ice on the road which slowed us down a bit- especially when we passed a car accident that involved a car that had passed us a few minutes earlier.

We headed up towards Eaglesnest - the Salzburg summer retreat for Hitler. We did not go up to Eaglesnest, as the weather was lousy but stopped at a museum where we went down into a bunker system that the Nazi's had built under all the buildings. It was snowing as we drove up, it was beautiful, unfortunatley there was enough snow on the ground to provoke another snowball attack on Aunty Sue!

Then it was time to hit the road and we arrived back in Vienna around 7pm after a great adventure!

A Day out in Munich

Under the direction of our Tour Guide - comes highly recommended, we headed into Munich for the day by train. First stop was the Rathus or town hall in the main square, then we wandered down one of the main streets of Munich which gave us a good view of some of the buildings. Simon and I went into one of the churches which evidently the current pope had been the bishop of. Charlie and I lit a candle, I think that was one of the highlight of the day for him - being able to light a candle, by himself. Of course once he told Mia and Amy what he had done they had to light one at the next church! We went to the Science Museum and spent a few hours exploring there, found a yummy bakery in the railways station and had to sample a few of their wares, wandered through the markets, visited another church, saw some more lion statues, they had them everywhere!

We used our umbrellas a number of times today and our warm jackets. Up to now it had been tshirt weather but a cold jet stream came through and temperatures are down to 6 degrees so are now wearing some of the clothes we didn't think we were going to use, it was like someone flicked a switch!

Off to Germany

Had a transit day, drove from Zermatt, drove our car on a train ferry that took us through the mountain for about 20 minutes, up and over another pass and ended up in Singen, Germany where we spent the night. The next day we drove to Friedrichstien where we went through the Zepplin Museum then onto Fussen where Amy and I went through Neuschwanstein Castle. This was one of the palaces of King Ludwig, who was a bit of a funny king. He built quite a few castles, died at 40 in mysterious circumstances, after being told that he was no longer considered suitable to rule Austria but he certainly knew how to spend money on castles. This was not completed but the rooms that were were incredible. We had to wait about 2 hours for our tour, but it was certainly worth it. We filled in time buying souvineers, eating pretzles,cream cheese puff balls, hungarian goulash and reading up about the castle. The Disneyland Fantasyland castle was modelled on this one.

After that Amy navigated us to the Holiday Inn in Munich, we managed to get our little Fiat Panda up to 155kph on the Autobahn, even then some cars where whizzing past us and Simon informed us he got his car up to 220kph!

Zermatt and the Matterhorn

We woke to a clear sunny morning after rain the night before, so up we headed to the Matterhorn. It was three cable cars to get to the top, took about 40 minutes to get to the top. By the time we got up there the cloud had started to roll in but we did get some glimpses of the Matterhorn behind the cloud.

We also got stunning views of the mountains around us, saw glaciers, wandered through a glacier tunnel, just ennjoyed the scenery and it wasn't too cold!

Interlaken to Zermatt

We left Interlaken around 8:30am and experienced our first rain in our whole trip. The Swiss country side was just as you expected it to be, green grassy mountains, cows with bells, little swiss villages dotted along the mountain roads, houses with colorful window boxes of flowers.

We stopped at the Nestles Chocolate factory first - Amy was in heaven, lots of free samples! Then we headed to the cheese factory for a tour and tasting.

Next we stopped at Chillion Castle, a medieval castle on the shores of Lake Geneva- you need to keep reminding yourself you are wandering through a castle from the 15th century - just like in the school books you read about.

Then it was driving through some more beautiful scenery to Tasch, where we caught the train to Zematt, a carless town, where we stayed for two nights as we are planning to go up and see the Materhorn.

Interlaken

We left Como around 9am but discovered the GPS wasn’t working for some reason, so managed to navigate by notes I had fortunately prepared earlier! We drove into Switzerland, around the lakes and through the mountains, very scenic but the skies still a bit hazy. We drove through a 17km tunnel and when we came out the otherside there were beautiful blue skies. We drove over the mountains to Interlaken getting up to about 3000 metres, it was a beautiful drive, our little Fiat Panda chugged along, not much power but did the job. We passed a few cyclists riding up, not all of them had helmets, and most of them seemed old with pot bellies so nothing too much to get excited about!
Once we found our hotel, we went for a wander, loved the colour of the lakes and rivers, a lovely cool icy blue. I took a funicular up the Harder Kulm and enjoyed a spectacular view of Interlaken and the mountains.

Tackling the Italian Tollways

Breakfast room at our B&B

Amy outside our B&B

We left Venice Tuesday morning, it was rather foggy, then hazy as we drove across Italy. We were on a toll road, lots of trucks, fairly industrial so a rather boring but quick drive, broken up by the odd crazy Italian driver that decided to exit at the last moment and just dive across 4 lanes of traffic! Amy again successfully navigated us around the outskirts of Milan to Montano Lucino just south of Lake Como where we stayed the night in a lovely bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town. It was a peaceful stop, and we had a lovely breakfast of homemade bread and jam, yoghurt, grapes and the nicest hot chocolate I have had in Europe!