In a place out of time?

Ah yes, that glass walled shower on view for all the room to see was interesting to say the least! Breakfast at the motel was expensive to say the least so Michael took a walk to the train station and came back with great coffees and pastries. Graz like many other cities is having road works done so we dodge them to get across the river and closer to the old city that we want to see.

Parking is not too much of a problem here - while there is no street parking nearby, there are plenty of parking stations that have been located underground. And these parking stations are like none others we have come across - spotlessly clean, very well lit, plenty of space with the spots marked by a sensored pad on the ground, piped music etc etc etc! And affordable!

They are all located at the peripheries of the main tourist areas, which makes it easy to get to things to have a look. The city sits in a valley and up the slopes of a steep hill that is crowned by the Schlossberg (castle hill). We will finish our time here with a trip up to there. But we start down in the main square, which is just around the corner from the car park. The tourist office here has put out an excellent brochure that is divided into three walks through the old city allowing you to tailor your time.

We begin our stroll in the Hauptplatz (main square) near the town hall with its domes, statues and clock. In the Square in front of the town hall there is a market place with permanent stalls selling souvenirs, food, flowers and newspapers. They are set all close together so that along with the modern settings, you still get the atmosphere of the markets places of old. There is the Archduke Johann fountain just outside the town hall. All around the sqaure (on the outer sides of the tram lines) there are a number of buildings with amazing facades of stucco or sgraffito high on their walls (including the amazing 'Painted House') and with arcades from the streets into inner courtyards. Many of the facades date back to the early 1700s!

Around behind the town hall lies the Landhaus - a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance that looks like it should be sited in Venice. Turns out that it was designed by a northern Italian architect so no wonder it looks like it does. Not only is the facade beautiful, the inner courtyard with its lamps and wells and its arched porticos is just as stunning. The Styrian parliament (the State that Graz is capital of) sits here.

From here we head up. The streets are not too steep, but the cobblestones are painful - how I hate them. And no, even after almost a year, my feet have not grown accustomed to them! And to add insult to my injury, we enter into a medieval courtyard where the cobbles are made from river stones that are laid on their edges - ouch ouch ouch! We see the Glockenspiel and buildings that have operated as various enterprises for hundreds of years, including a bakery with an amazing carved and inlaid timber store front.

I pass the shop of a tailoress who is selling traditional clothes. There are hand knitted jumpers and cardigans on a rack out the front and I can't resist buying a special little girl a special little one. It will come in very handy - no not in Darwin, in Kapooka! We heard from Antony this morning that he has been promoted to the rank of Bombadier and is being transferred to Kapooka near Wagga Wagga on the New South Wales / Victoria border as of early January as a Cadet Instructor! Anyway, back to Graz - this seamstress must be pretty good, there are three couples in there buying clothes - all Austrians!

We continue to walk up and come to the Cathedral built in 1438 - 1464 and the close by Mausoleum. Neither are open so all we can so is admire them from outside. In the architectural gems of the surrounding areas there is a Jesuit College and the 'Old' university that was founded in 1585. There are more squares with statues and more churches including the Parish Church that is a nice mix of old and new. We are now winding our way back down to the main square through narrow pedestrian streets filled with narrow shops selling all many of goods from sporting equipment to jewellery, from confectionary to eye glasses. People walk or ride pushbikes here - though not too many of them are riding uphill, just a couple of very fit young men - most people get off and push their bikes!

Now its time for lunch. Well, I'm not sure what you call the meal that covers both lunch and dinner - lunner? Kind of like brunch at the other end of the day. Anyway, whatever it is, we are having it now. We walk away from the main square looking for somewhere that takes our fancy and we find the Keller Restaurant through an alleyway and a courtyard. We are hungry, but boy, these meals are huge!
Entrees:
Champignon gebacken mit Sauce Tartare (Deep fried champignons with Tartare sauce) Michael
Emmentaler gebacken mit Preiselbeeren (Deep fried Emmentaler cheese with Cranberries) Maria
Mains:
Gemischter Grillteller mit Reis, Bratkartoffeln und feinem Gemüse (Mixed grill with rice, pan-fried potatoes and vegetables) Michael
Fiakergulasch mit Ei, Gurkerl, Würstl, Servietterknödel (Beef goulash Fiacre style with egg, gherkin, sausage, white bread dumplings) MariaWe had been eyeing off the breaded apple slices for dessert, but the meals are so big that we can't finish either of them, so there is definitely no room for desserts! Our hunger pangs put away, we head back out into the afternoon sun to head towards the Schlossberg high on the hill overlooking the city. There are three ways you can get up there - on foot up the hundreds of steps, using the funicular or via a lift that goes up through the centre of the mountain - our preferred choice today. For the tiny sum of €2.80 we both get return tickets!

Now this has been my eagerly awaited highlight of the day. The clocktower that sits high above the city and is visible from almost every part of it is the best known symbol of Graz. Trouble is that the clock's hands are back to front with the small hand showing the minutes and the large hand, the hour! And while we don't have time to climb all the way to the castle, we do spend some time at the clocktower, admiring the scene over the rooftops of Graz and the Mur River. The hoarding around the top of the tower was erected as a lookout for the fire brigade. And then there is the bell tower just a little further up the hill that Michael dashes up to see.

But dont think for a minute that Graz is trapped in some time warp. Just as the old city shines, there are a number of very futuristic buildings that have been commissioned. Most notable are the Kunsthaus Graz built in 2003 to host exhibitions, and the Mursinel - a floating structure in the Mur River connected to the banks by two weaving footbridges. It houses a restaurant and an amphitheatre. They sit shoulder to shoulder with the architecture of times long past, complementing rather than competing with them. And their wierd shapes seem very much at home amongst the myriad of towers that were there long before them.

And so our time has come to leave Graz and head for Munich. We have a four hour drive ahead of us which means that we won't get there until after 8 pm. As we are leaving the city, the afternoon light is fading fast. Gosh, it wasn't all that many weeks ago that it was light until the late hours of the night!

As we travel across Austria we are heading back into the land of the high snow capped mountains (and yes, they have already had snowfalls high on the peaks)! For quite some time we are actually travelling throug the mountains in a series of tunnels - the longest being 8.3 kms long is the longest we have travelled on our trip. When we see the last breath of the sun gently washing the wispy clouds with a soft rosy hue, and the mountain tops gleaming in that last light of the day, with small villages burrowing down for the cool night in the valleys below (it is now 4°C), I understand why my Dad loved this part of the world so much and kept coming back.

We are travelling the motorways and as soon as we reach Germany, just past the city of Salzburg, the speed limit free Autobahn sees the traffic take off in a frenzy of fast paced racing. Honestly, some of the cars are travelling well in excess of 200 kph - in the dark. Not us though. We keep to a much more sedate 120 kph! We make good time and hit Motel One in Putzbrunn just outside the main centre of Munich about 8:20 pm. Oh for a bed. On checking in, the receptionist Consuela, remembers us from our last stay here in July - now THAT is what you call great customer relations! She does say however that friendly guests make it easy to remember them!! Ain't she sweet.

One day, three countries

Well, Donna has left for home. When we were having dinner last night we were talking about the dreaded trip home - not because you are headed home, but rather because of the thought of 20+ hours flying in cramped conditions and endless hours of stopovers in generic airport lounges where it is impossible to get any sleep, or maybe even worse - the fast stopover that has you running from your arrival gate to the departure gate. Both Donna and I have exhausting memories of arriving at Gate 1 in Hong Kong and then needing to leave only one hour later from Gate 89 and the mad dash to get there in time. Unfortunately, she only has a 1 hour turnaround in Hong Kong again - hope the gates are closer this time Sis!

We left the Hotel Stella about 5:20 am to take her to the Airport and once she had checked her luggage through, left her at the departure point to come back and try to get some more sleep. You know what it is like when you know you absolutely positively have to wake up by a certain time - yep, you sleep with one eye open even through you have set the alarm - just in case! Huh - good intentions, but there is a construction site within easy earshot of the hotel - hadn't been a problem over the last couple of days because it was the weekend. This morning however is different . . .

And so we move out too. This begins the countdown for us as well and from here we are headed north towards Germany and Steph and Felix and then further north for London and our own departure. Don't have an exact date yet, will know by the end of the week I hope. (We are trying to change our tickets for a week later). We will definitely be home for Christmas though.

Before we leave Zagreb for good we are going back in to the old town for one last try to get a look at Ban Jelačić Square - the one spot that we have missed so far. But today is not to be lucky either - parking on a week day is just as bad as on the weekend, if not worse. Michael dives out at a Souvenir shop to get a few mementos and comes back with plenty to share with Donna as well. Nice. We also get a photo of the local tie shop - you see, neckties were invented in Croatia - go one guys say thanks! We head back in through the main commercial area to turn north and join the crawling traffic. With nowhere to park I am left wondering if they just drive round and round in endless circles!

Once we are clear of the city though it soon thins out. Today is very foggy. It looks dim and dismal, but apart from being rather dank, and despite being very cool (down to 13.5C), it is a very comfortable day for driving. We want to make one last stop at a supermarket here - I want a bottle of Orahovac (Walnut liquer) that I have come to like so much! I'll add it to the Pear Cognac I have to bring home - so from now I will be building Michael's alcohol allowance!! Don't worry though, my cigarette allowance is still intact. So we follow the signs for one of the Konzum Super stores and end up about 10 kilometres away! Still, shopping successful (we also bought enough of their lovely Jamnica mineral water - by far the very nicest we have ever tried) we re-join the motorway.

This part of northern Croatia is much like Slovenia for where we are headed en-route to Graz in Austria. Through the foggy mist, we can see mountains developing from the lowlands we have left. There is plenty of ploughing going on in the fields by the roadside - everyone is getting busy preparing for what feels might be a long cold winter. All around, we can see the smoke from the home hearths burning inside the houses. Without any wind, they curl lazily upwards in straight columns.

As we near the Slovenian border, the countryside gives way to more rugged scenery with deep chasms appearing between higher cliffs - oh how I wish we had more time to explore this part of Croatia. It has been a wonderful two weeks getting to know this jewel of the Adriatic and its people. But push on now we must. The motorway ends, with further construction going on ahead of us - boy Croatia is really in a road building blitz. And as the motorway ends, the traffic comes almost to a total stop. We crawl forwards so slowly that it doesn't even register a speed on the speedometer. Ah, this is the last kilometer before the border crossing. At least it gives me time to get one last look at the colours of autumn in their blaze of glory before winter and the white claims victory shortly.

As Croatia is not yet a member of the European Union, border posts are still manned at its borders. There is a huge traffic jam here - cars in three queues, buses and coaches in one and trucks in another. We join one queue hoping that there is not going to be any need to open theboot - I mean it is packed to the upper limit. As we get close to the officials, we can see the passengers on all the coaches disembarking to file past a border office and have their passports checked - no wonder there is such a long line of coaches. It would be faster for an official to get on the bus and check the passports - but hey, they are the ones in control, right!

It is much faster to be in the cars and none are being stopped at the moment thankfully - I think that the police are annoyed at the traffic building up that by now must be kilometres long. A police car has come to a screaming, angry stop at the border post just a few minutes ago. We get to a bored official who no doubt must have sore feet. He just glances at our passports and hands them back with a dismissive way. So we crawl forward about 50 feet and this time don't make the mistake of not stopping for the customs official. He doesn't even look at us before waving us through! Guess there is no hard and fast rule.

So we are now back in Slovenia and the EU. First stop is a roadside petrol station for a Vingette that we need to have in order to travel the motorways and main roads. And you can't get one for one day and have to buy one for a week for €15. That's an ouch as we actually need it for less than one hour to travel the 60 kms to the Austrian border where again we must buy a weekly vignette but this time we need it for about a 24 hour period as we are stopping overnight in Graz to have a look. And at €7.70 at least it is more reasonable. Ah, revenue raising in Slovenia is alive and well. As we are travelling the motorway, there is not much we can see of this area of Slovenia, but as with the more western edge, it is very scenic - rolling hills with villages in the valleys and copses of trees left standing on the ridges to minimise erosion and lots and lots of churches - some with tall spire and others with the more orthodox onion shaped domes. Bugger bugger bugger that our time is ending - there is so much more to see. Anyone want to finance us to keep travelling????

Graz is just 40 kms into Austria from this southern border, so it is not long before we are back into a city. The outskirts are very familiar looking - individual houses with fenced or hedged lawns. Once we reach the more urban areas, this gives way to medium density apartment blocks and commercial enterprises. There is the golden mile of car yards, lots of 'bars' thatare advertising scazntily clad women in provocative poses - ah, a (brothel) rose by any name is sweet I guess. There are also numerous casinos and gaming shops.

Austrian motorists here are about as crazy as the Italians, taking crazy crazy risks overtaking on this major road that is generally thick with traffic. And like many other European cities, the horn rules here as well. Gosh, you kind of forget how crazy a large city can be. Kate has no trouble getting us to our accommodation at Hotel Daniel which is literally right next door to the main railway station. However, it is as quiet as!!

The hotel is one of those funky modern types and our room is very interesting with a shower that has a glass wall that looks into the room! Hey Donna and Helen, aren't you glad that you are not with us now! Its very comfortable and that bed looks really really inviting after what has turned out to be a longer day than usual. So instead of going out for dinner, we give in to the dreaded takeaway from the world's largest chain before crashing. By tomorrow morning we should be ready to have a look around!

You know, we swore when we started out on this trip that we would not do the ten countries in two weeks thing that so many visitors to Europe do. Today proved us a little wrong I guess.