WEEK 6 - July 20-26

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The hotel where Ferd works is 2½ hours away but he had very kindly decided to take the week off to show us around his home town, so after a breakfast of sliced meats, bread, cheese and coffee, we headed out. First port of call was the airport where we picked up our wayward bags and then out to a small lake at Teichalm for a short wander around and a look at the big bull. This area is called Almenland and is famous for it’s beef due to the grasses and herbs that the cattle feed on which are big, beefy and beautiful. (Jac loves cows!) They don’t have big herds and appear to have very few fences so the cattle tend to graze freely and appear very contented (and why wouldn’t they be!) We had lunch at the Gasthof by the lake where the owner had a huge dog something like a Newfoundland called Mozart who was absolutely beautiful. We have since discovered that Austria is a very dog friendly place, they don’t mind dogs in the Gasthof and camping grounds and there are many places in the cities to let your dog run free (Jazz would love it here Devlin). There are also a lot of Gasthof, which are small family run pub/diner/hotels which all serve great food, cold beer and schnapps. (The Gasthof at Teichalm was actually quite big and apparently goes off on a Tuesday night with a DJ and about 3000 patrons from all around) So we had our first schnapps in Austria, pine cone flavour to begin with, and Ferd suggested we visit a few of the other gasthof in the area and we said why not - provided we could have a different flavour schnapps at each one! Like I said, there are a lot of little gasthof in the area and it appeared that Ferd knew most of the owners personally so by the time we got home at about 1am we had sampled pine cone, pear, cherry, raspberry(twice), apricot and red wine schnapps (along with a few beers, a couple of ciders and a couple of gins); met some really nice people; and discovered that Ferd can play the harmonica (not the mouth kind) and sing! (see photo) What a cool night, the coolest place was Hans’ where they brought out the harmonicas and the double bass. Hans actually grew everything he sold, which meant he didn’t have to have a license and with his leather pants and music he really appeared to be the definition of an Austrian farmer/innkeeper, and a really neat guy.
The next day was a little slower (surprise surprise). We decided that we wanted to buy a cheap car so we went for a look around and came across this little 1982 VW Bus (ie combi) and thought we could save a lot on accommodation if we bought it, so we had it checked out and got it near the end of the week after the brakes were fixed (this unfortunately required a lot of running around to find a couple of second hand calipers which would have been impossible without Ferd’s help) - we named him Dobby (the van - not Ferd!). Ferd’s Dad and a few of the neighbours helped with fitting a bed and supplying a mattress, duvets and pillows. We had a great time doing it and everyone was fantastic and with the shopping we had done during the week we were pretty much set to wander off around Austria by Saturday afternoon. We went to a nearby Gasthof which had wireless internet and shouted Ferd lunch before he took off back to work, and after checking our emails we hit the road in a northerly direction. It was mid afternoon by then so we didn’t travel too far and by about 7 we drove up a gravel side road hoping to find a bit of solitude and some level ground - we found both so parked up and brewed a coffee before trying out our new bed.

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Photos

Ferd and Hans
Both were in fine voice

Fladnitz
A typical country street in one of the villiages in Almenland

The Bus
Ferd's Dad and Peter fitting the bed in Dobby

The Bus
Ready to go

Our first night out
The view from where we parked

Our first night out
Dobby on the side of the road