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Austria
Almenland in the springtime After leaving Ptuj we decided to forego further sightseeing in Slovenia partly due to the Visa situation and partly due to the fact that we wanted to catch up with the Spreitzhofers at St Kathrein before we left. Jac programmed Dorothy once we got back to into Austria, despite the fact that we pretty much knew the way anyway, and off we went. Half and hour or so later we realized that there was actually more than one St Kathrein and we were heading to the wrong one! Luckily we were in no great hurry and arrived a little later to find them all fit and well. We sat down for a bit and enjoyed the lovely weather with a couple of drinks while we said our thanks and bid our farewells. Next stop was the Gasthof at Fladnitz where we could log on to the internet and enjoy a cold beer at the same time. We checked our bank account and emails and updated the blog and before we knew it it was dinner time so we ordered a pizza. It was about 8.30 when we got back to Ferd’s place but he was not getting back until tomorrow so
Austria
Last supper at the golfclub - Passail his folks gave us a key. We were just settling in when we noticed Jose and Peter arrive home next door so we bowled on over for a coffee. They had just got back from a few days in Sardinia so we swapped stories as best we could and commented that it would be better when Ferd got there to translate. Nevertheless we chatted our way through a couple of cups of coffee, a schnapps and a few photos before heading off to bed.
Next morning was the big tidy-up. We had to clean Dobbie inside and out as well as a couple of loads of washing before Ferd arrived. It was a pleasant surprise to see him at around 8 o’clock in the morning as he had left Hochschober really early, but we still had work to do. By the time we had all the washing done and Dobbie was looking bright and shiny again it was early afternoon and Ferd suggested we wander down to the golf club for a drink and a bite to eat (the golf club was where we ended up after our Gasthof rally when we first arrived in Austria almost 10 months ago).
Austria
Jac, Hans and his wife & Ferd at the golfclub Our friend Hans was a great host and brought out some delicious soups which we enjoyed with our beers as the sun went down on our last day in Austria. We then wandered back to Jose and Peter’s for a couple of wines in the barrel before climbing into bed.
We spent the next morning packing and Jose made us lunch before we said our last farewells and we set off with Ferd for the airport at Graz for the Ryanair flight back to London.
The no-frills flight was just over an hour long and dropped us at Stanstead dead on time at 1535 (boldly announced by a loud ta-da over the inter-com), unfortunately Allison was waiting to pick us up from Luton! - Oops! Consequently we had to catch the train into London, the tube to Paddington and another train to Maidenhead. Still, it was a nice afternoon for a train ride and we struck the connections just right so it was actually quite enjoyable. We finally caught up with Allison at Maidenhead when she came to pick us up with Zane who was really happy to see us. We spent the next couple of days sorting out our
luggage for the flights home, being careful not to exceed our baggage allowances and trying to ensure we didn’t keep anything in our carry-on that we weren’t allowed. I rang Visa and discovered that they had sent me new cards early and cancelled the old ones as an extra security measure because they had obviously forgotten that I was travelling. All it amounted to was that they wanted me to ring them to confirm everything was ok and the best way to do that was to suspend my cards! This after 10 months travelling around the world! The good news was that they reinstated them immediately and all was back to normal again.
It seemed like no time at all before Alli was driving us to Heathrow for our flight home. We were greeted at check-in and immediately told our flight had been cancelled - but not to worry because we were booked on an earlier flight! (luckily we had got there really early!) We bid our farewells at the gate and off we went, homeward bound at last.
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