Squared up our host for our 6 night stay and then we left €50 for the lady who we'd inadvertently dudded across the road. Our host said not to worry about it as she'd send some guests over her way next time someone cold called about wanting to stay. Thanked her very much but in order to keep the peace and ensure some good karma we left some cash anyway.
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| Some castle we saw from the highway. |
Just before we crossed the border we had our windscreen checked to see if we had the vignette (sticker) on the car. The sticker allows you to drive in Slovenia on the highways and cost €15 for a 7 day stay. If you don't have one we'd read that you can be fined up to €800 so lucky we'd bought one.
No sooner had we crossed the border we found out we had to now buy an Austrian vignette which was €8 for 10 days. No worries, we'll pay that, it's cheaper than Slovenia. Next thing you know we're slugged first €6.50 and the €10 for travelling through a couple of tunnels.
Gypped!
Gypped!
Seems the Slovenian one covers you for everything and the Austrian one only for some of the roads.
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| Driving through St Gilgan - Wolfgangsee beyond (Lake Wolfgang) |
Pulled in at the tourist office at St Wolfgang to try and get some accommodation as everything we'd tried to tee up on the internet was either too far or not right for us. The day before Nicki had rung ahead and checked if there was any apartments available and was told "no problem, we'll find something for you, it's very quiet".
The tourist lady rang quite a few apartments for us but although it was very quiet it was still somehow very expensive. (€80 to €110 a night). As a result we knocked back a apartment after apartment due to the hight cost.
Sensing her frustration that we were the stingiest tourists that had graced her office for some time we said we'd go door knocking and see how we'd go. (There were 'zimmer frei' signs on every 2nd house here.)
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| View from Apartment balcony |
Looking at a repeat of the Milan episode we left the tourist agency without accommodation much to the dismay of the children who were waiting by the car. "We'll be right" I declared, sounding more optimistic than I actually was.
We drove through town, went up some random street and knocked on a door. The lady said she had an apartment for €65 a night which was brilliant but before taking that I thought we'd knock on the door across the street. Score!! €55 a night and although the apartment didn't have the internet our host went back to his place and brought me back his mobile internet dongle. A bit awkward unpacking the car in front of the other lady but that's capitalism for you.
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| Lounge room in apartment. |
Took all our gear upstairs and then Nicki and Ryan walked into town while I jumped on my bike with Harry and Max who borrowed the guest bikes for a wander along the lakes edge.
Drove to Bad Ischl about 20 minutes away and had dinner at a restaurant called Sissy's. It's bloody cold now. (At least for people used to Brisbane weather.) Almost got hypothermia walking from car to the restaurant.
Stray observation: Tourist information centres, don't trust them with your accommodation bookings.
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