Back to reality?

Last time I wrote, we were in Budapest.  We're now back in Germany, albeit only just, having spent the last few days in Austria.  I have actually paid €10 for a motorway pass that lasts 10 days so we can gad about a bit quicker here, which so far seems to be worthwhile since we've covered a few miles.  Real problems getting LPG here though, so ran out on our long drive yesterday and had to resort to real petrol - did find some today at the extortionate price of €0,92 per litre (we have been paying half that!).

We spent a couple of really good days in and around Vienna enjoying the sights and sounds and trams.  We did share the campsite with something like 100 18-30 holidayers, mostly aussie's - thankfully they weren't too bad, and we are definitely feeling old because they were soooo young!

Vienna is lovely, although we kept finding ourselves back in Stephansplatz, the central square!  It seems to be a well defined mix of modern and old, quite well merged with business and tourism blending happily.  Oh, and I bumped into (almost literally) a naked, male, rollerblader while out jogging - quite shocking and certainly not pleasing.  All the girly ones were wearing clothes!

We also tried to go and see Hallstatt, which is a pretty little lakeside town, but we argued with the parking man over €7, so didn't bother looking too closely - we did see it across the lake and from the van in a drive-by.

Today we've done a big loop and gone over the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, which you pay a hefty fee to drive, but it's a beautiful road up over the Eastern Alps and there's a big glacier to see, plus Marmots and Ibex.  I saw both, but fran missed the Ibex because her little legs didn't want to climb the hill, fair enough.

Salzburg tomorrow, then on to Munich, before returning to Austria for Innsbruck in a few days time.