Friday 27th September- My husband replaced the duct tape on the window in the morning before we went to Berchtesgaden salt mine on recommendation of my father in law. I carried our little boy because you couldn’t take baby carriers or buggies in with you and off we went to go buy our tickets. We got kitted out with some navy jumpsuits, put our stuff in a locker and waited for our experience into the mines to begin. Whilst we were waiting we got our photograph taken by a group of people because my husband had taken theirs beforehand. It was very kind of them to return the gesture and I was glad because it was rare to get a family photo and the little ones looked absolutely adorable in their get up.
We boarded a little train that you sat on with a leg on either side and had our photo taken yet again, this time by the company’s photographer who made a funny noise just as she was about to take it. I was clutching onto my son whilst my husband had our daughter in front and away we went down the mine passing various tunnels along our way. It was quite fast and our little ones found it very entertaining judging by the huge smiles on their faces. We stopped off at a big open space and watched the neon digital presentation before taking the wooden slide down to the bottom. Our little girl was scared to go on at first and clung onto us for dear life as we went down, legs astride the wooden beam that whizzed us down a level.
The tour guide lead us through a series of tunnels with different presentation rooms where we would then listen in on our audio guide for more information. Our little boy was doing super well for saying most parts must have been dull for him as he obviously couldn’t understand anything that was being said BUT there was lots to see and take in as the tour and information given also had visual elements so it was quite interactive. The best part was when we got to the ‘mirror lake’ it was so still that you could not even tell that it was a lake but instead looked like an open space with a fog floating over the top of it. That was until you boarded the boat. Yes, an actual boat under the ground floating on top of a real lake. It was amazing and seemed pretty surreal to be honest.
Once you got off the other side, you could taste the running water which I did and regretted it immediately when I stupidly realised it was salt water and it was very salty indeed. Yuck! The tour ended and we gathered our things and bought some souvenir photos where our little lady was given a freebie one of our tour guide! I don’t think the lady received the appreciation she was looking for from our little girl despite our little lady saying thank you.
The day was absolutely glorious by this point and we had had such a great start to the day. It felt wonderful. We got back into our problematic motorhome and headed to our next campsite; Camping Nord-Sam in Salzburg. The reception was closed but there was a sign telling us to pitch up and check in when it re-opens. However, the sign we didn’t see until later said we couldn’t leave until 8am as the barriers were closed until then! Not good when you have to be somewhere at 8am and it takes 45mins to get there! Luckily the lady said she’d be in reception at 7.30am and would let us leave then. We pitched up underneath some trees to try and give us a bit over coverage just in case the window leaked again.
We played with the children in the little park and checked the facilities out, pointing out little lizards whenever we saw one dart across some rocks. We then went for a walk to the supermarket stopping at the garage on our way there to buy a vignette so we could use the motorway tomorrow to make sure we got there in time as it would make our journey shorter. We found our favourite Austrian supermarket- Billa- and bought some delicious chocolate filled doughnuts that we so soft that they didn’t last us very long at all. We were hoping to lose weight whilst travelling, envisioning ourselves doing lots of walking, cycling and generally eating healthier but instead we’ve piled on the pounds because of all the delicious food we just had to try!
The little ones wanted to stop off at the park on our way back so we did, spending a decent amount of time having lots of fun with them. Our little boy who loves waving at anyone he comes across received a little chocolate bar from a lovely lad who had just arrived with a bunch of others where he sat at one of the benches in the park. I think he felt intimidated by our little boy who just stood there starring at them. It was a very kind gesture though and it worked as our little boy walked away after that clutching his prize.
We went back to the campsite, and had to plug in our fuse briefly as we realised it turned the oven light off and we wanted to use it whilst we cooked before putting it back in so as not to piss anyone off with its constant blinking. That night the duct tape did its job yet again. Hooray! The following morning we were on it and was up, washed and ready and waiting at the barriers before 7.30am. The lady who was true to her word let us out and off we went down the motorway to our 8am appointment at the Fiat service centre.
The mechanic from Fiat was absolutely lovely and honestly couldn’t have done enough for us. At first it seemed he wasn’t going to do anything when my husband explained the problem to him and then he replied saying he couldn’t touch anything in the motorhome apart from the cab; the cab was Fiat but the rest was made CI. I quickly told him that the noise didn’t seem to be coming from the fuse box; which was behind the drivers seat, therefore making it a part of the motorhome section and not the cab and instead seemed to be coming from underneath my husbands seat which held the charger.
I’m not quite sure if he was listening or not or whether he could see the disappointment and desperation in our faces but he did say that what he could do was check the batteries and so he went about his business checking the motorhome’s leisure battery. We had a new leisure battery installed before we left so we didn’t think it was that and rightly enough he came back saying everything was okay with it. However, he did not like the fact that the battery was underneath the motorhome in a cradle instead of inside and kept muttering about it’s stupidity the entire time which we found amusing as we agreed with him really. It was an odd place for a leisure battery but it did its job so we weren’t as bothered but it clearly baffled him as to why the manufacturers would do such a thing.
He carried on checking lots of different things over when one of his colleagues arrived. He went over and explained things to him and then he came back and started fiddling about with the charger underneath the seat when all of a sudden the noises stopped. Hooray, I thought but he said he’d be back in 10mins to plug it back in and check if that had solved the problem. I thought it had and was so desperate for those 10mins to pass by so I could see whether our problem had been solved or not and so I sat watching the clock tick down by the minute. 10mins were up and he came back and did whatever he did and nothing….the noises had stopped! We checked the control panel which seemed to be back to normal and then checked the lights which were no longer blinking! It was fabulous!! I was so delighted I could have kissed him and I think he could see the look of appreciation and sheer joy on our faces and that made him beam himself. It was probably his first job of the day and he had been successful in solving one desperate family’s problem already. I asked him what he did so that I would know what to do in case it happened again and I was near enough on the ball myself in seemed. It appeared that the lever I pulled before and did nothing had to be pulled out completely when turned before being plugged back in again – “just like what you do with a computer when it doesn’t work, unplug it and then plug it back in to restart it” quoted the mechanic.
The drive back to another campsite- Camping Panarama, was blissful. The silence was music to my ears and I couldn’t help but smile the entire way there. One problem down, one to go. Camping Panarama was okay but the owners weren’t as ‘friendly’ as the reviews had said- maybe they treat people differently depending on where they’re from. Who knows, but whatever it was we weren’t as well received and was practically ignored for a long time whilst we tried to pay.
The pitches weren’t great either and ACSI customers were shoved together like sardines in a tin instead of being allowed anywhere on the site. It seemed some campsites didn’t like ACSI customers and separated us from everyone else, and made people feel as though they were an inconvenience. This wasn’t just our opinion, it was very much the opinion of other people we spoke to as well. We were a bit worried about our ‘pitch’ as our motorhome was quite long and stuck out into the central road slightly but this is where we were allocated so there was nothing we could do about it really. We had lovely neighbours though- a couple from Surrey or Kent, I can’t quite remember and got chatting to them about our travels so far. We then got our stuff together and went and caught the bus into Salzburg which I must say is a beautiful city. The west side of Austria is absolutely beautiful too, with gorgeous views of the mountains. Salzburg had beautiful gardens to wander through with weddings galore having just taken place- it seemed to be a popular spot for their photographs as we passed many a bride and groom with their photographer.
We got to the river and looked down as we saw a young man shout down to someone and run along the bridge and down the river bank towards them. There was a young woman who appeared to be injured and was sitting in the shallow of the water with her head down. I shouted down to see if the young man needed any help but I didn’t think he could understand me so I did what I thought was best and went down to help after making sure my husband was alright with our two little ones. However, it turns out the young woman wasn’t hurt at all and in fact was in the middle of a role play that they were both enacting as part of their ambulance training. I felt a fool but was glad I went to go help anyway not being any the wiser beforehand and it put my mind at rest. I was amazed though that I was the only person to offer my help- sure, some might have known what was going on but surely not everyone! There were a lot of people stopping and peering over even after we left and not one person went to help or shouted down.
We took a lovely stroll around and bought some new acrylic art before going to get the bus back to the campsite. Unfortunately our little boy had done a poo but there was no where to change him so we had to get on the bus with him stinking, hoping no one would notice too much. The little charmer won the heart of a lovely woman on the bus though who entertained him most of the journey and gave him a conker before getting off the bus. Our son who loves new things was absolutely delighted.
We stopped at yet another park at the bottom of our campsite and managed to change our son’s bottom on a huge flat roundabout before letting him wander off to enjoy it too. Don’t worry, we wiped it down. They were both well away, playing and running around until we discovered that our little pooper of a son had done yet another poo!! I swear this little boy shits for England. Well, we were out of nappies and so that was the end of our playtime. We were just leaving when we spotted the most amazing, luminous bright green furry caterpillar that we just had to stop and watch it before walking back and catching up on some chores before we turned in for the night. A happy day all in all and a successful one at that.
K.E.E.N Explorers 