We made the trek to Hallstatt today – a 336km journey from Vienna. We were able to borrow a car from our friends, so that was huge. It didn’t have AC (first world problems), but the girls had a blast riding in the backseat wind tunnel on our journey. The temp outside the car was 35 degrees Celsius (95 F) and I actually got a sunburn on my left arm along the way!

The sights along the side of the road were interesting to say the least. Here are a couple.

We also played on a climbing structure along the way.

Vienna was easy because 85% of the people speak English. Once you head into the hills, no one speaks a lick of English (which, mind you, they should not). I have learned six words in four days and none of them help when when I’m lost in the countryside. The girls love how I change my voice to sound like a local (even though I still don’t understand anything the person is saying). I’m finding the the point and pray method works with some manner of success though.

Case and point. We arrived RIGHT where I thought the apartment we rented was located. Google maps said so, right? We drove back down a steep hill and fumed quietly by the side of the road as the contact number we were given for the landlord did not work. Our next step was to drive back UP the steep hill where I thought the apartment would be based on a picture I vaguely remembered seeing online. When I proudly asked the two men working in the road if the place we were now located was Saag 74. There was a woman standing outside her home with an inquisitive look, so she MUST be the landlord, right? Nope. My skills and six words didn’t get us far, but somehow one of the men knew our house was right down the road from a church. Now we were getting somewhere! We reset the google maps and drove a kilometer to our new location and found the house.

Problem solved. Not really. We now were AT the house, but couldn’t get inside! We didn’t have email access so we didn’t know which of the five apartments we were staying. Back DOWN the hill to find WiFi … in a village … in Gossau, Austria. Fortunately for us, there was a new hotel right around the corner. It had WiFi and a nice deck for checking email. Now we had the info necessary to get into the apartment building. Turns out the entire place is electronic. You punch in a code to open the doors to the entire facility. Technology in the middle of this.

Once we were settled in the apartment we headed back to the hotel/restaurant for some dinner. What does one order in Austria? Spaghetti with tomato sauce and a garden salad. We are however, learning more words because the menu was in German. After dinner we walked to the local grocery store for supplies and paid with cash. I now have forty pounds of Euros because I keep paying with bills and not coins. I’m still learning.

After a quick nap, we headed toward Hallstatt for some exploring. It’s basically Hogsmeade from the Harry Potter books. It was amazing.

Temperature note. It’s now 25 degrees Celsius and nice outside.