1 July ’04, Thursday. Up in the morning and time to head for Hallstatt, before we left I wanted to get an interview with the Simunds children from Cle Elum, WA. They were camping with their parents at the campground. They are on a eight week tour of Europe with Mom and Dad (Kris and Steve).
I was curious of what they liked about their trip, so I asked them. Elise aged 7, said she liked Disney France, The “Rock and Roller Coaster”. The city she liked best was Venice. Adele age 8, liked Disneyland France as well, the rock and roller coaster and her favorite city was also Venice. Anna age 10, liked Venice and feeding the pigeons in San Marcos square. Also, her first gelato. Erik age 12, liked the toboggan ride in Fusel, Germany, Disneyland in France and London. This family is having quite a trip. They have rented a car and are camping in a tent throughout this whole trip. They make it look easy too. It was a pleasure meeting them. Our grand children really enjoyed the time spent playing with them and sad that they all had to go on their own way. We headed off first to the hotel to pick up Louise and Drew who were to ride with us.
Off we went through the Austrian Alps. What great scenery!! We stopped at a Rodelbahn and did some tobogganing. You ride a wheeled cart on a metal track that winds down a steep hill. It is quite thrilling.
Once was enough for me, but not for the kids. Later we stopped at a grocery store and bought food for a picnic and stopped along a alpine lake for lunch. Drew enjoyed cheese, potato chips, and peanut butter and jelly. With a coke to wash it down it was perfect in his eyes. Louise had a sausage with potato chips and coke. For dessert there was pudding cups. Great fun for all!! On to Hallstatt, winding through the mountains and a long tunnel to reach the village of 1200. It is too beautiful to describe. We settled in and went to locate Mikleane and Rick who had taken the train. Hallstatt is so small there is no train station. They stop and let people off along the tracks and a boat takes them across the lake to Hallstatt. They were staying in a pension on the lake, with great views. Tomorrow the salt mine and ice caves.