Austria

Leaving Czech we head for Vienna but not before being warned, once again, about the antics of Romanians by the Camp owner. This story goes like so: "Be very careful the Romanians lie in wait by the side of the road and when you stop they jump out, spike your tyre and then when you are distracted jump in the campervan and steal things" ???? Romanians obviously leave nothing to the imagination creating huge fear among travellers. We hear different stories so often some just have to be true. In my world though....... I prefer the rose tinted lenses.

Closing in on the border we decide to stock up Molly at the last Lidls store in the Czech Republic. Gin is NZ$6 bottle, wine is NZ$5.60 for 1.50litre bottle. Oh yes, food is very cheap too! We have our Vinette for Austria - a must that we bought at the Polish/Czech border (possibly from scammers but we are still not sure) - so we are all ready and prepared for our border crossing.

This we do and straight into a traffic jam. It takes us 1hour 30mins to travel 5kms and guess what? It is raining again!!!!! The holdup is because of a bottleneck through this charming little village which also has a sculpture of a naked lady leaning on and looking over the bridge in the middle of the village. Could she have had something to do with the holdup????

Finally arriving in Klosteneuburg, still in torrential rain which we will experience for the next 72 hours, we next morning brave the elements to visit the village and it's majestic castle. It is a really cute village, not much happening because of the rain I guess, but the castle is magnificent and has been restored over several decades by the current owners who are winemakers. Best find though?........ a Japanese Restaurant buzzing with life where we actually ate Thai/Chinese food in the warmth for our late lunch early dinner. Vienna tomorrow with a hopeful improvement in the weather.

Alas this was not to be although breaks in the rain were sporadic. Vienna was a disappointment - maybe it was the weather I am unsure - but the journey from campsite to the metropolis was definitely not.

Firstly the bus = perfect. Secondly the Underground = not so cool. I figure going up an escalator not down should have been our first clue and as we climbed the moving staircase I whispered in Garys ear..."are you sure about this Gary?" Armed with cellphone, google maps, underground map and various other paper maps....yes he was certain. Ok onto waiting train. Second clue should have come when we remained on the surface of the earth not once venturing underground!!!! End of the line = Hutteldorf = totally wrong direction, totally wrong train, and totally wrong service line.

VIENNA. Yes there were some beautiful buildings steeped in history: some lovely parks but nothing particularly memorable for us. The Danube was brown not blue and everything and everyone seemed to pack up early and disappear??? Vienna was without a heart - just a rambling, sprawling city. I had always wanted to visit Vienna - my rose tinted glasses threw up idylic visions of waltzes and violin music in picturesque squares but no, nothing like that. To stave off disappointment we decided to take a boat trip along the Danube only to be told that the last one had left for the day but one was leaving at 5pm from a different destination. Cool it didn't look that far away on the map so off we trotted feeling at least we would get something out of this very expensive city. An hour and a half later, and not at a slow pace either, we arrived at the harbour and, getting to within 100yards of the boat, we watched in horror as it pulled away from the shore!!!!! Finding the closest underground station, regardless of our ticket zone, we headed back to Molly putting Vienna behind us.

Up early the next morning we decided, before departing for Salzburg, to take a bike ride along the Danube. Although the bike ride was good the Danube was not.....but I am fed up with being negative about Vienna so shall say no more.

Travelling to Salzburg we made a detour to Lake Mondsee where the sun was shining. This is such a cute, pretty place with a community feel about it. Everyone was friendly and helpful and our spirits lifted. Arriving at our camp which was also lovely, the bikes came off Molly and we headed into the town which was 5km into the Centrum. Cycling a fair distance uphills and over dales and looking at a cluster of buildings still on the distant horizon we finally came upon a sign. This indicated that Centrum was in the opposite direction!!!!!!! Cycling back the 6km to the camp we ditched the bikes, jumped on the bus and had a thoroughly perfect day in Salzburg. If you come to Austria forget Vienna, Salzburg is the place. There is so much to see and appreciate. It is easy to navigate and as a large town makes sense for some reason.The castle was standing proud in the sunshine - it was an amazing day. We finished the perfect day off with an Asian buffet - fabulous choices and loads of it - meeting a couple of Australian people, Maggie and Richard from Perth, who came and sat beside us. Time slipped by as we happily chatted and we still had a fair walk and a bus ride back to Molly to do. Unsure when the last bus was we were lucky to catch the last one for the night exposing ourselves to arguing Romanians and drunk elderly ?Russians.

Managing to find the correct bus stop to get off, in the dark, up in the hills along a very narrow winding road we happily made our way back to Molly. Suddenly Gary exploded in fits of laughter - he still had his bicycle clip around his jean trouser leg and neither of us had noticed - all day!! I like to think we didn't notice because we were captivated by Salzburg - we really do love this place.

We are making our way to Zurich so next stop is a campingplatz in Izny, Germany. To our surprise it was based at the Dethleff factory and they had made a very nice set up there for overnighting. Electricity, showers, toilets etc and all for 8 Euro. Off came the bikes again and we biked into the very small but cute village, had a beer in the sunshine and then prepared for our final trip to Zurich to meet up again with Markus and Livia, Pepo and Sydney. We are so looking forward to spending time with them again.