Our first walk was 10 km. Jem was a star and did the whole lot which was quite fortunate, it being a circular route, and charlotte managed half way before her legs got tired and the second makapaka was used again - unfortunately just as it got rather hilly. Jem was flagging a bit as it started to pour it down saying his legs were tired and ant and i agreed that so were ours when charlotte piped up her legs were really tired and she needed an energy sweet - little princess!
After the first 2k we came across a tobogan style roller coaster and gave in to the whoops of joy and paid our 14 euro. As under 8's had to have an adult to drive ant and i had an adrenaline rush as we sped down the side of the mountain on a sledge on a track doing 180 degree turns over about 7 meters of track. Charlotte yelling at ant to go faster. Both kids got off with beaming smiles and both adults with jelly legs. Zoe sadly had to stay at the bottom with whichever adult wasn't whooping down the mountain. After a wee stop for charlie we set off again to our half way mark hut with the promise of our first kaiserschm - very eggy pancake chopped up laden with icing sugar and black current jam. Delicious! We set off on the final leg with Charlotte spotting way finder marks developing bottom blisters, zoe getting coos and smiles from any one we passed and jem chattering about everything from why are some babies twins to why did the snake (mosquito) bite daddys finger (the questions being a big improvement on 'why doesnt jesus ever get any false arms' which was posed in the showers in the last campsite which suddenly went quiet as fellow campers stopped what they were doing to see what the answer was-having two perfectly healthy arms didnt seem to cut it so a couple of willy jokes were used to change the subject) and all that goes with snake bites out in the wild. Rather wet and 7 hours after we set out we got back to the camper. Heater on supper, pj's, swallows and amazons and bedtime for all.
Walk 2 was much shorter as a result of the previous days hike. We headed off early to get the best of the weather up to the start of the cable car which went to the dachstein glacier. Unfortunately we couldn't take it up as zoe was too young to cope with the 1000m climb in one stop. Instead we set our sights on a small mountain hut in the hills. First we stopped to purchase a walking pole each for jem and charlotte as a treat for doing so well yesterday and some new walking socks for mummy after getting the start of blisters and prickly heat due to very hot (and ant reckons sweaty) feet, then with zoe on ants back we were off with our 2 little german hikers tapping their sticks as they went on ahead. The highlight was definitely crossing over snow closely followed by the spotting of a playground at the hut. After an apple juice stop and a look around the corner at what would have been a rather superb climb over several snow patches we decided to quit whilst we were ahead and race the storm back down to our camper which we timed perfectly with the first rain drops falling as we opened our sandwiches. Back to the camp site and we ventured into the 'rest room' which was a rather cool basement room in the owners house with sofa, tables and chairs, games and toys, books, a bar but most importantly for the children their first tv in 5 weeks even if it was in german... Jem was transfixed. About two hours later we headed back to the camper in the still pouring rain to make supper and another early night as there was no chance of getting a fire lit again.
We're at lake Bled now in slovenia having arrived about 1pm. Ants spotted lots of english which raises our current english spotting from 3 to double figures. As usual i didn't notice other than the initial very friendly brit who ran across the front of us waving within moments of us arriving. This must once have been such an idyllic place. A stunning green lake small island with pretty church on it and medieval castle on the hill, but unfortunately tourism has arrived big time and our camper is parked amongst it on the one night only field. Still we had a lovely afternoon strolling round the lake in the sun with the kids scootering away only almost falling in once (Charlotte) then we had early supper, learning a few words of slovak from the waiter, jem continued his food experimenting and ordered shark looking somewhat disappointed when it arrived on a plate rather than filing 2 tables, and charlotte did her trick of eating very little even though we didn't order her anything and just shared ours (new tactic). Then we got the land train the rest of the way back to the delight of 2 little cooks for a play on the play ground, air hockey and table football before bedtime. Then the disco began and we realised we'd left austria camp sites behind and were back camping in eastern europe!
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