After breakfast with Carl I went back up to my room, showered, finished the previous two days’ tour diary entries and did some work on my book. I got a call from Carl at around 11.30 telling me that we were going to meet down in the lobby at 1.30 – when the van (complete with new water pump) would be ready and waiting to take us to Austria.
1.30 came, we all met in the lobby and waited for the van to arrive. The van finally arrived an hour later. We said our goodbyes to Bogdan and, with Gabrielli as our trusty driver, we were on our way.
After a long drive and our customary getting-pulled-over-by-the-police-for-driving-a-suspicious-looking-van-with-Italian-number-plates we finally arrived at out hotel at 9 o’clock – a traditional looking Austrian hotel in the middle of the country side.
After the hotel owner had greeted us, me and Stuart asked if we could get some food. He explained that the hotel kitchen had closed 20 minutes ago but he’d be happy to prepare some cheese, ham and bread; we accepted his kind offer. When we went into the dining room he presented us with a huge platter of different hams and pâté as well as a large plate of cheese. We washed it all down with a beer and then it was time to go to bed.
