Sunday 29th September:- We left our campsite and headed back towards the Fiat dealership as we realised that the mechanic had left his pliers in our van and so we thought we’d do the right thing by returning them to him. The place wasn’t open but we left them outside after giving him a heads up the previous day of our intentions. It wasn’t in the right direction of our travels and meant going back on ourselves but we could hardly pinch them after everything he had done for us.
We decided that (for the first time ever on our travels- apart from to get to FIAT) to take the motorway. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking in West Austria but it soon became monotonous. We made our way towards Vienna but didn’t quite make it that day and instead stopped for the night in a campsite at the edge of the Danube river. The campsite was pretty poor to be honest as the facilities were dire with the grey waste (dirty water) drain being the worse thing of all. It took us a while to communicate with the owner as we tried to use hand gestures and our limited use of words to get across to him what we were trying to ask (where was the grey waste drain?). However, it was no good and eventually he walked us to the ‘drain’ which turned out to be a bit of pipe that was currently broken and disconnected to a little hole in the ground. He shoved it back on and explained that we had to be as accurate as possible as we drove over said pipe which had a little bowl type thing on the end of it to collect the water. It was awful as you had to hold it in place whilst the water was being emptied into it and then tip the pipe up so the water could run down it and into the hole in the ground.
It’s always funny isn’t it when you try to your best to speak another language because you learn a phrase but you can never predict what they are going to say in response. We have mainly been to French speaking countries thus far and have learnt how to say “Hello, token for washing machine and dryer please” and have been caught off guard many times when the person you are asking then responds back in French because they assume you can speak it fluently with that one rehearsed phrase you just said to them. However, it doesn’t take long for them to twig on that that is about as far as we know when they see the baffled look upon our faces as we stand there trying to decipher what it is they have said to us. But you have to try don’t you, otherwise you feel completely rude!
We decided to make the most of the stunning scenery and spend most of our time outdoors, visiting the little town (Grein) and park as well as the bigger park next to the campsite. It was the first time we went out for a walk without taking the pushchair and it was great! Our little boy was doing so well walking and it was good for him to be able to get some more practice in seeing as it was still so new to him. The children had a great time playing around burning off energy before we went to buy snacks at the local garage and then pizza and chips from the town to take back to the van with us. Again, it rained that night but our trusty duct tape still held itself in place thankfully.
The following day we left and stopped in a brilliant campsite just on the outskirts of Vienna, which you could get to via train or bus. It had a brilliant park with lots of slides and was right next to the town too so it had everything you could possibly need. We relaxed on our first day and just played on the park with the little ones before heading off into the town to find some nappies and do a little food shop. The next day is when we caught the train into Vienna. Our little lady’s summer hat needed fixing and we were looking for some needles and thread when we walked past a tailor type shop and dropped it off to be repaired. It saved me trying to do it and making a botch job out of it.
We walked along, passing a man who was so drunk he started vomiting in the street and looked as though he was made out of water because there was so much of it coming out! My husband then went back the way we had come to fetch our little girl’s hat- we could have collected it later maybe but we had no idea when it closed and didn’t want to venture too far just in case. Meanwhile, I found a lovely little vegan ice cream shop whilst my husband was gone and went in to buy some- the lady behind the counter was ever so nice and let me off when I realised I didn’t have enough money after being told I couldn’t pay with my card. I felt awful as I should have asked before ordering but I take it for granted these days and think everywhere accepts cards. Luckily I wasn’t short by much but it was still nice of her to let it go- some people will hold you to the last penny in the U.K.!
We sat outside eating our ice creams when our little girl decided after a few licks that she no longer liked hers. I was annoyed because the lady let her try a few different flavours beforehand and she said she liked this one. It wasn’t the first time she had done this! I was trying to eat my ice cream whilst holding hers which was dripping down my hand because of the sun. To top this off, our little boy was crying his head off because he wanted me to feed him at the same time and I didn’t have enough hands to do it all. This ended up with me eating mine as fast as I could (not really being able to sit and enjoy it) so I could feed our son before it melted into cream soup.
We carried on walking when my husband eventually caught up with us with a newly repaired hat in his hand. Hooray! We walked towards the museums which were absolutely lovely to look at but that’s about it as we didn’t go in. We knew the children would get bored quickly and it wasn’t worth the price for a few minutes in there before we would then have to leave. We then walked to a park so the little ones could have a play for a bit before we walked back to the train station and made our way back to the campsite.
Back at the campsite, our little girl made friends with another little Austrian girl and I could see her chatting away to her mummy whilst I was cracking on with some chores. I eventually went over to make sure everything was alright and ended up chatting away to the mum myself. The woman found our little girl amusing as she said she tried speaking to her in German after asking if she could speak it to which our little girl nodded her head yes- only to then discover that she was in fact English after hearing her speak and couldn’t understand a word the woman had said to her previously. Luckily the woman could speak English herself and managed to actually hold a conversation with her in the end.
The following day (2nd Oct) we left and headed south towards Graz and stopped in a campsite called Thermenland camping. Apparently the area is well known for its thermal spas and people would retreat here for a relaxed getaway. However, it was far from relaxing for us as it was absolutely hammering it down when we got there and had to wait in our motorhome until reception opened again. It’s a good job we have everything we need because we had just under 2 hours to kill. So what do you do with that time- we ate of course! Reception then opened and we checked in, pitched up and stayed in our van for the rest of the day- napping, playing and eating junk food.
The next day we showered as a family in the huge family room they had, packed up and carried on our journey towards Graz. We stopped in a park and ride car park and caught the bus into the city. We stepped off the bus and was not impressed with what we saw or smelt but carried on walking further in the hope that it would improve. It did improve but it still wasn’t anything amazing and so we walked straight through it and back out again not wanting to waste any more time on yet another boring city. Things looked up though as we got to the bus station and was handed a “woman’s day” bag filled with freebies before going into McDonald’s to grab our little girl a shake. The day started to warm up as we sat outside whilst I FaceTimed my mother before going to get the bus back. We went to grab a couple more bags on our way to the bus stop getting one for myself and my little girl (they were handing them out to every individual person within a group and we had only been given one). Hehe, got to love a freebie! It reminds me of when my mum comes to visit us in Manchester and we go around numerous times to grab the freebies- cheeky I know.
We got back to the van and drove in to Slovenia stopping just before the border to buy another vignette so we could use their motorways. We wouldn’t have bought one as we never intended to use the motorways in Slovenia but we were already on the motorway and we couldn’t turn back. We should have thought about coming off before crossing over but we didn’t think. Anyway, it was too late and so we had to buy one and they were ridiculously expensive!! Looks like we’ll be using the motorways whether we like it or not just to get the most out of our money!
We stopped in a lovely little campsite whose owner was very nice and spoke near enough perfect English. It was absolutely freezing though and you could see frost forming on the grass. The campsite seemed nice enough though and had a little park which the little ones played on for a small amount of time before we all retired back to the van to warm up.
K.E.E.N Explorers 