First tulip sighting!

Trailer Park Boys

Wedding clogs

Fedding the ducks

Before

After

Mon 4 – Sat 9 Apr 2016

We couldn’t believe it was time to leave our European adventure already! We left Switzerland on Monday morning and headed to Munich for one last spa trip at our favourite spa, Therme Erding. We arrived just after lunch and had a wonderful afternoon and evening. The sun was out so we had lovely drinks at the outside swim up bar. Since we won’t be having a tropical vacation this year, we very much appreciated the palm trees and swimming pools. We were one of the last people to leave the spa that night and we had to drive 20 minutes to the middle of nowhere to find our airbnb for the night. As usual the sat nav took us to the right spot but human error prevailed and it took us 30 minutes to actually find the house (it was part of a new build in which it all looked under construction). So sometime after midnight we had a nice sleep.

It was an early rising the next morning as we were driving at least 8 hours to Amsterdam but we couldn’t resist a buffet breakfast at the spa (which would be lunch and dinner as well). We set off from the Munich area around 10:45am. The sat nav said we would arrive in Amsterdam at 6:45pm – we were sceptical. The drive was rather uneventful; we hit major traffic a few hours in so Natalie took a detour through the German countryside for a while. Then we hit rush hour and construction traffic around Dusseldorf. After stopping for gas a few times we were only 1.5 hours later then we had hoped. We arrived at our favourite park and ride in Europe and headed to our hostel in the city centre of Amsterdam. After a quick shower and bite to eat, we hit our bunks in our 12-bed dorm room rather quickly.

On Wednesday we decided to go hunting for tulips in the city. We went to the information point at the train station and bought a guide to the tulip festival. We were going to walk around the city but Matt thought it was a good idea to rent bikes. The weather wasn’t looking promising so it was a great idea. We biked around for a few hours in the morning and found some beautiful potted tulips at some of the famous landmarks in Amsterdam. There were some places that didn’t have any yet which was a bit disappointing. At our last stop, before we took a lunch break we spotted the Trailer Park Boys from across a canal. We were standing there wondering what was with the TV cameras, etc. and then Natalie noticed Bubbles and the gang and got really excited! Matt was like, ‘who are the Trailer Park Boys?’, so a quick explanation was made as we dashed over to get a picture. That was all very exciting but then the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down and we were washed into shelter for lunch and wait it out. After the rain had eased up we went back out in search of more tulips. We hit the gold mine at the Museumplein where there were tulips ‘floating’ in the water! We were struck by rain again so we went back to the hostel for a hot shower and a relax. Then we biked to Leidseplein to hear the same jazz band we had went to see in the summer – they were fantastic as usual.

Our last full day in Amsterdam we decided to go exploring in the countryside. Natalie had found an open air museum just an hour’s bike ride north of the city. In actuality it took three hours due to poor signage but the rain held off – it was just windy and cold. We had a great time poking around the museum. This was one of the first areas of industrialization in Europe and there used to be thousands of windmills but now there were only a half dozen. We saw how clogs were made, tried the local chocolate and saw the inside of a spice mill – a great day out. We took a different route home and managed it in under 2 hours. Along the way we stopped to pet new baby lambs and one really took a liking or licking to Matt.

On Friday morning we checked out of our hostel, returned the bikes and walked around a few blocks to try and find some more tulips – the sun was actually out and it was a warm spring day. We didn’t have much luck though – still a bit too early for the tulips to be in full bloom. We walked over to a barbers so Matt could get cleaned up. After spending 4 months in the mountains he looked like a wild hermit! He got a great haircut and bread trim and looked very much respectable again. We stopped for some lunch and then headed to our car and drove about 30 minutes to the ferry terminal.

We spent Friday night on the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. We were very excited to have our own room again (after three nights of sharing) but we didn’t have a great sleep as the boat was rocking all night. We drove off the ferry on Saturday morning back in the UK. It felt nice to be back but we were sad our travels were over. The following weekend and week was a mad dash for Matt to secure a job and find a place to live! We have settled in now and are looking forward to our next big adventure – our wedding in August!!

We don’t think we’ll be those people who continue to blog about their every day lives so here’s signing off from us and the purple moose. Thank you everyone we have met along the way and all of our loved ones at home for your support and encouragement. Au Revoir, arrivederci, Auf Wiedersehen and Vaarwel!! xoxo

Way up to toboggan run

Yay!

Matt’s ski adventure

Lunchtime beer

Skiing home

Sent from the end of the ski run

St. Moritz

Air show at the Ski World Cup

Go Switzerland

Salom and Giant Slalom run

Winner of the men’s giant slalom

Audi driving experience

Off road course

Doing doughnuts

Slalom course

Kitty love

March 2016 (& Fri 1 – Sun 3 April 2016)

March was a busy month for us – trying to cram in everything we had yet to do before we leave! After our little getaway to Munich and Bavaria we had a whole calendar of events and special things to do. We went to a free (plus the purchase of drinks) jazz concert at a hotel in Scuol. It wasn’t great – organ jazz should be left to department stores and elevators (says Natalie).

Then we headed back to Austria, one evening, for night tobogganing. Unfortunately, it was one of the coldest nights this winter but we had some hot wine in a thermos for the ride up the chair lift. When we arrived at the top we saw lots of people heading towards the little restaurant . We thought that was strange that everyone was going there so we continued on our way down and up and down again. On our last ride down Matt said, ‘I saw a big tractor pulling skiers up the mountain!’ We still didn’t think anything of it and headed down. We were the only ones on the chair lift to the top…come to find out that there was a ski and snowboarding show taking place. We stopped for a few minutes to watch the fire dancers and a few skiers but we were wet and cold and decided we better head in to the restaurant for some hot goulash soup.

Then Matt headed off for four days of skiing in Scuol. It was rather expensive so Natalie decided not to bother. He got to borrow most of the ski equipment he needed (which was a great help) and rented boots and a helmet. The local bus picked him up every morning just down the road from the B&B and took him right to the ski lift. There was even a run from the top that brought him right down to Sent! The weather was pretty good, a little cloudy on the first day and early in the mornings but bright and sunny for the rest of the time. Natalie took some ‘me time’ to catch up on trashy American reality TV and puttered around the B&B – we both agreed it was nice to have some time on our own!

We had booked tickets to the Ski World Cup in St. Moritz just after Christmas, compliments of Nan & Granddad. Saturday, 19 March seemed ages away but it came quickly. Less then an hour’s drive, through the beautiful Engadin valley, we arrived at St. Moritz a little later then expected but still in time for all of the fun! We missed the first race of the lady’s slalom and men’s giant slalom but arrived in the town in time to see the Swiss Air Force PC-7 team airshow. It would have been nice to see it from the race area but we had a great view from the town! We finally found the free shuttle to the race area and arrived just in time to catch the second races of the day. It was pretty exciting – music playing, flags waving and giant cow bells ringing. After the races finished we had a picnic lunch in the VIP area and watched the medal ceremony. Then we walked around the sponsor’s area. We had far too much iced coffees, won some pretty cool hats and had our photos taken. Then we sat in the sunshine and listened to some dance music before heading down and home. Back in the town we ran into some girls who were promoting the Audi driving experience. They told us that just outside of the town, Audi (the main sponsor) had set up a free driving experience but it closed in 20 minutes. Matt really wanted to try it so we drove back the next morning for a fun ride. We both tried the ‘off roading’ course and drove a £90,000 Audi Q7. The we had a go at the drifting course in S5s and Matt tired the slalom course in an A4. It was well worth the trip just to drive around/slip and slide in the snow in brand new Audis!

We were telling some guests about our trip to the Bavarian spa and they got us googling other spas in Germany. Matt found the biggest spa in the world – Therme Erding – just outside of Munich (if we had only known!!). Well, our new found obsession with spas meant we couldn’t possibly leave Europe without a trip to the biggest spa in the world, so we booked another little trip just to visit this spa. And boy, it didn’t disappoint. After a snowy winter in the Alps, 29 degrees and 450 palm trees is just what we needed! It was like a tropical paradise. We spent the first day in the adult only area, going to lots of special infusions including one in the bakery sauna where we got freshly baked bread, Matt went to the men’s only one and tried some local beer. We had beauty masks, chocolate shea butter rubs, and Italian and water (for world water day) themed infusions too (too many to list!). There was also swimming in the huge pool with an aqua Zumba class in the morning and evening drinks at the swim up pool bar.

The next day we went to the most amazing breakfast buffet at one of the restaurants and then headed to the family areas (during the Bavarian Easter holidays – lots of kids!!). The wave pool on a full breakfast buffet stomach was short lived as was the wait in line for watersides at Europe’s largest water park. With a short stop at the ‘Vitality Oasis’, where we bathed in special mineral water, it was time to head back to the adult only area for more sauna infusions that we missed the day before. We headed back to the water park an hour before the place closed and were one of about 10 people there so we enjoyed the slides without the kicking and screaming of little children!

Easter weekend was pretty quiet. Doro & Til bought us some Easter chocolate and we traditionally watched Chocolat. We went to the final free jazz concert at the hotel in Scuol – it was much better – classic jazz standards! And we went for pizza with Doro & Til on Easter Sunday. Our last little send off was an evening at the spa for world champion infusioners (?) – a great experience and a great way to say goodbye to our local spa!

We are now packing up and coming to the end of our European trip of a life time! Not without a final stop at the spa in Erding and a few days in Amsterdam, before catching the ferry back to Newcastle. We have had an amazing experience – met wonderful people, learned new skills and things about ourselves and had some incredible adventures along the way!

Old Town Hall, Munich

Glockenspiel, Munich

Frauenkirche, Munich

St. Peter’s Church, Munich

Hofbräuhaus, Munich

Paulaner am Nockherberg, Festival of Strong Beer, Munich

Giant pretzel to go with a giant beer

Neuschwanstein Castle from our hotel room

Sneaky interior photo

‘As a guest in time and space, the soul longs for eternal dream’ says Ludwig II and his swans on the way to the spa

Mon 29 Feb – Wed 2 Mar 2016

With such a hectic month, we made a really quick decision to do one last little road trip and mini break before we make the long journey home in April. We were tossing up ideas as to where to go and decided on Munich. Natalie always wanted to go to the Christmas markets there but we didn’t get a chance this time around so we thought Munich in early spring might be nice too! As Til and Doro are from Germany they knew of a few things we needed to see. Til let us in on a secret that there was a festival of strong beer going on, like Octoberfest but a more of a local thing. Well that sealed the deal…

We left for Munich on Monday morning and arrived just after lunch. After circling a few blocks looking for our park and ride we got on the underground in search of our hostel. After stopping off at tourist information for directions we found it quiet near the main train station. It was our intention to join a free walking tour, as we only had the afternoon and evening in Munich, we thought that would be the best way to see all of the sights in one go. Unfortunately it was absolutely pouring the sea and we just couldn’t commit to three hours of walking about in the rain. Luckily we had printed off a self guided walking tour, so we headed to the main square for some quick sightseeing. We saw a few churches, the food market and the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus. Natalie had already discovered that her sneakers were leaking and was feeling a bit cold and wet so we stopped the tour there and went back to our hostel for dinner.

After a quick dry-off and some food we were ready to hit the little known beer festival, ‘Starkbierfest’. We took a tram to the the other side of the river to the Paulaner am Nockherberg ‘beer hall’ (actually a festival hall). We arrived with the party in full swing – a band playing and people dressed in lederhosen and traditional dresses standing on the tables singing and dancing! After a few minutes of figuring out how to order we managed to stop a waitress and Matt ordered a litre of their original ‘strong beer’. Strong beer doesn’t actually refer to the alcohol content but rather the concentration of dissolved solids: the starch, sugars, proteins and minerals or ‘Wort’. Paulaner’s ‘Salvator’ brew is 18% Wort which means if you bolied away the water and alcohol there would it would contain roughly the same amount of ‘stuff’ as 16 loaves of bread!! (And the alcohol percentage is a bit more too, around 7.5%). Anywho, enough of the technicalities…two litres of beer and a giant pretzel later we were ready for our beds (with one stein making it’s way into Natalie’s purse as a souvenir).

We didn’t get much sleep in our 8 bed dorm that night – not sure if it was the guy who snored all night, the 32 loaves of bread we drank or the excitement of the next day but we were up at 6:30am ready to hit the road for a day at a very special spa in southern Bavaria. As Matt has been driving all winter, Natalie thought this trip was a good idea to do some practicing. Perhaps an early morning, trying to leave a big city in a raging blizzard wasn’t the best time. She did manage to get us to our next destination, down a lonely country road full of snow, only 45 minutes later than we had hoped. We arrived in the little village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria to check into our hotel for that night. The two main attraction there are the famous Neuschwanstein Castle, and for us, the Königliche Kristall Therme spa.

We got to the spa around 10:30am and bought a day ticket with the intentions of staying until they closed at 10pm. The top floor was the nude only sauna area with many different saunas and steam rooms as well as an indoor and outdoor pool and two hot tubs. They did 24 special armoa infusions in the saunas throughout the day. We managed 10 of them and discovered that you got little treats after every other one – for the ‘fruit bomb’ we got orange slices and for the ‘infusion of the day’ we got salted radishes and pretzels. We spent lots of time in the pools, had lovely coffees and dinner. After 7pm there was nude swimming on the lower floor so we tried the 12% salt water pool and had cocktails at the swim up bar. After a relaxing 12 hours at the spa we had a great nights sleep in our quiet hotel room.

We woke the next morning and had a nice buffet breakfast and then headed into the village to get our tickets to view the castle. We ‘followed the Chinese’ (as directed by the ticket officer) up to the top of a big hill to see the 19th century Romanesque Revival castle, Neuschwanstein, built by Ludwig II in the 1860s-80s and the inspiration for the Disneyland Castle. We spent all summer seeing the outside of magnificent buildings throughout Europe but never paid to go inside any of them so we thought this was our chance to see the inside of something! We had a 30 minute tour of the castle and then headed down to the lakeside for a little stroll. Natalie awoke to the brilliant idea of visiting the spa again so we headed back there for dinner and another 4 hours of saunas and swimming. Needless to say, we had a wonderful, surprise mini break.

March will be rather quiet at the B&B and we have lots of activities planned that we have been saving that need doing before we leave…

February 2016

February was a very busy month for us! Every school district in Switzerland had 1-2 weeks vacation during this month and it’s a tradition to go on a skiing holiday. Even if one is no longer in school, or have kids in school, it seems people still like to holiday at this time of year. The B&B was completely booked out for several weeks solid as well as the apartment and the other house we are cleaning. There were lots of snowy days as well which meant lots of shoveling too! But there were some nice afternoons that we spent on the terrace – drinking tea and reading. We also spent a lot of afternoons snuggling Moritz (the kitty).

We did manage to fit in three spa days and a hike to a little cafe on the middle of the mountain-side. This was really fun afternoon out because after we hiked up the mountain and had a little refreshment – delicious coffees, we borrowed toboggans and sledded most of the way back down to the town. Then we got a taste for tobogganing and decided to go to the ski resort in Naudres, Austria (just over the border and a 25 minute drive away) for a quick run down an 8km sledding track. We brought our own sleds from the B&B and took the gondola up 1000 vertical meters (or there about). Then a 30 minute ride down the slopes with beautiful alpine scenery all around. Not only was the run longer then the one near us but it was about 2/3 cheaper! We are planning to go back in March and do some night time tobogganing.

January 2016

This was a rather quiet month for us. After the Christmas and New Year rush we took some time to relax and have some down time. We had a few big groups in for two weekends so that kept us busy. We also picked up another cleaning job in the village for six weeks over the February/March period. We are so pleased as we now have some money to get home and set up for our next adventure back in Newcastle!

The weather finally turned wintry and it snowed for the first two weeks of the month. It was lovely to see some snow, finally, but we were a little stuck as our car is not really ‘winterized’. On our first attempt to drive to the spa it was the coldest day at -18. The car did start but getting up the drive was impossible. Then Til found us some chains for our tires so we decided to try again the next day….but then the car wouldn’t start!! We thought we had done something to it trying to get it up the hill the previous day but it was just a low battery due to the cold weather. Luckily Til had a battery charger and he fixed us up.

Natalie celebrated her birthday but we didn’t do too much as we are trying to save as much money for the journey home and we were house sitting as Doro and Til were away for the weekend. We went to Austria the day before her birthday to get coolant for the car and to give the car a nice workout. We stopped at a Chinese buffet for lunch. The following day was the big day – we did some B&B things and had dippy egg sandwiches & fries for dinner with brownies and ice cream for desert. The food celebrations continued the next day when we had our first fondue. We used the end bits of all of the local cheese that we serve for breakfast and served bread, grapes, apples and steamed broccoli. It was lots of fun and very filling!! Now we have to try raclette.

We went skating a few times on the local rinks and one time we went to a very special track in Sur En (at the bottom of the valley) that is 3km long. They prepare it like a hiking or cross country skiing trail but it’s for skating. We went during he last week of January where we were teased with warm, spring-like weather. Needless to say, the skating track was a bit bumpy in spots where the trees were dripping their snow. But it was great fun – a little scary where the track went down hill and good exercise when it went back up. We will try it again in February along with tobogganing…stay tuned 🙂

Christmas cookies!

Christmas tree in the main square of Sent

Advent windows

The (pretty much one and only) restaurant in Sent all decorated

A brass band on Christmas eve

Really cool log fire pit bruning thingy

Santa was 88km away on his way to Zurich but he was throwing out pressies from his sleigh on his way

Above Sent on Christmas Day

Christmas dinner…our frist (but not last) goose!

Ice palace opening in Sur En

Ice and fire ball next to the ice climbing wall

Dec 2015

Wow, what a great first month we had here in Switzerland! We started the Christmas season by decorating – going just over the border to Austria to get a mini tree and pointessta to decorate our space and collecting brush and berries from the forest to decorate the B&B. Doro & Til bought a beautiful bunch of mistletoe to hang over the door – we had never seen real mistletoe before!

We had two amazing spa experiences. Scuol, the larger town 2 miles from us, has an incredible spa with nude only sauna area. We spent 3 hours one afternoon in the general spa and tried all of the pools, hot tubs and sauna area. Later in the month we went to the Roman-Irish spa which is all nude and really fun. In this spa you go to different areas at certain times like the dry sauna, the steam rooms and mineral pools. We also got a mini massage with yogurt and aloe vera cream. It was all very relaxing and we are absolutely addicted now. We even got a gift certificate to use there as a Christmas present!

Til was working on a website for a new sports shop in Scuol so we went to the grand opening and had lots of free nibbles and a few drinks. There was another home decor shop opening down the road on the same day with more free food and drink and Dorothea bought a new chair!

We drove to Samnaun near the Austrian border which is a duty free area and got Christmas pressies for our hosts and got some Quality Street chocolate and Harribo for Christmas day as a special treat. Mostly we went for gas as it’s only 0.88€ a liter (worth the 40 minute drive each way we think, haha).

Matt has joined the men senior’s hockey team in Scuol and has gone to several practices this month. Thanks to his mum, he has most of his gear and skates and is really enjoying it and making some Swiss friends. Most nights he stays for a beer and the night before Christmas Eve they went for pizza together.

We went to a 75th birthday party for a local lady with lots food and drink followed by an organ concert in the church in her honour.

Before the start of the winter season, the butcher, baker and grocery store (sorry no candle stick maker in this village) put on a little thank you for the locals in the main square with free hot wine, sausages and cakes. Speaking of cakes, we received a traditional German Christmas cake called stollen made with fruit and marzipan and the most delicious cheese cake as a thank you for the two times we house sited for our hosts. We (mostly Matt) made Christmas cookies and we drank hot wine and listened to Christmas music. Needless to say we had plenty of food and drink throughout December!

Matt was dying to see the new Star Wars film so Dorothea called the two nearest cinemas to see if they were showing it in English but they weren’t so we assumed he would have to wait until it came out on DVD. But then we had a thought that a cinema in a bigger city might be showing it in English. We found out that places like Zurich and Lurcene were in fact showing it but it was at least a three hour drive away or a very expensive train ride. Natalie did some more research and found a cinema in Innsbruck, Austria was showing it in English, with no subtitles and in 3D – what luck! So Matt drove himself there and got to see the film in all it’s glory on the opening weekend.

The days around Christmas themselves were quite special. On Christmas Eve eve (23rd) we went for a hike above sent with Doro & Til and stopped at a little cafe for some hot wine and hot chocolate. Usually you could toboggan back home but there wasn’t a drop of snow for Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve we walked around Sent looking for advent windows. It is a tradition in villages around Switzerland for 24 houses to decorate a window for each day of advent. We weren’t able to go see a new one every night as the list of each house didn’t give the address but just the person’s name so we had no idea where these people lived!. Then Doro & Til took us to Sur En which is a very tiny village below us in the valley. We went for a candle lit walk in the forest with, of course, free hot wine and sausages.

On Christmas day Natalie made brunch and read our usual Christmas stories, followed by a little hike above Sent to look for the full moon before it got too dark but it was a bit overcast and the moon wasn’t visible yet. We Skyped with the Downie clan and then went to Doro & Til’s for a wonderful Christmas dinner of goose, red cabbage and dumplings. We had never had goose before but we will certainly be making it again for Christmas in the future. Then we Skyped the Frank family and snuggled in to watched Elf, our favourite Christmas movie.

On Boxing day we went to a hotel bar in Scuol to hear a jazz trio give a beautiful Christmas jazz concert. The band was a piano player who sang, a trumpet and a double bass. They played quiet a few regular jazz songs as well. The concert was free but you were inclined to buy a drink while listening so Natalie had a glass of wine and Matt had a beer. The following day we went to Sur En for the opening of the ice palace with yet more free hot wine and sausages!

We were beyond excited to receive our skates from Matt’s parents and went skating in Scoul to test them out. The back drop was amazing and because Matt knew the guy who was working from hockey, he let us skate for free!

On New Years Eve we hosted an ‘apéro‘ for the guests in the B&B. We had lots of wine and prosecco and little munchies. Doro made plums wrapped in prosciutto and Natalie made chocolate brownies. We had local cheese with bread and potato chips, nuts and pretzels too. After a few drinks with guests we watched the big fat quizz of the year (an English tradition) and had a really great laugh at all of the funny and crazy things that happened in 2015. Then Natalie decided that she needed to go to bed by 11pm as she was serving breakfast for 8am the next morning. Matt stayed up with some of the guests and had gin cocktails and went to the main square to ring in the New Year, among all of the locals and tourists, with a glass of champagne. The B&B was pretty busy during the two weeks of Christmas holidays – we are very much looking forward to a quieter January.

View of Sent

View from our kitchen window

Our little Christmas tree

Christmas corner in our bedroom

Our frist breakfast for guests

On the walk to Scuol

In Scuol

Scuol Christmas market

Scuol and valley from the church in Sent

Mon 23 Nov 2015 – Apr 2016

After a quick stop off at the Lindt outlet store near Salzburg to pick up advent calendars and to stock up on chocolate for the winter, we arrived in the little town of Sent, Switzerland – just across the Austrian and Italian borders. This is our final destination and workaway experience before heading back to the UK. We will be spending the next four months helping to run a nine bedroom B&B, 1500m up in the Swiss Apls.

We arrived in time for some delicious soup, then unpacked the car for the last time in a while (what a relief!) and headed off to bed. We have our own beautiful bedroom. There are two other bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen on the ground floor which we have all to ourselves except in really busy periods like over Christmas when we will have to share the area with guests. It certainly is giving us a great idea of what it’s like to live in a B&B.

The next morning, Dorothea showed us how to prepare and serve breakfast and how to change the rooms as we were going to be house sitting and running the B&B while they were on holiday for a week! Then she and Til showed us around the nearest town, Scuol and also showed us around Sent. They even took us out for pizza that night. It turns out that Doro and Til are the most generous people we’ve met on our travels and we feel so very lucky to have the opportunity to work with and learn from them. Dorothea has been thinking of odd jobs Matt might be able to do to earn some money and she has already signed him up for the ice hockey season!

The next morning (Wednesday) they brought the cat, Moritz, whom we were minding whilst they were away, and took off on their holiday. They left us with 8 guests checking in and out during the coming week. A new booking even came through when they were away for another couple. All in all we managed quite well considering one group of three ladies arrived with a fourth guest. They all wanted dinner (that they get from one of two restaurants in the town) and breakfast. Some had booked that, some hadn’t so the invoices all had to be amended. Another little hiccup was the last minute booking wanted a different room. The only one we could offer was in our little area which meant our bathroom was out of commission and so was the cat’s bedroom (we were OK with it, the cat not so much – he was quite annoyed!).

Also, on this day we decided to walk to Scuol to visit the Christmas market. It was a lovely walk down into the valley but took us around an hour. At this point the sun was setting and it was getting cold so we didn’t stay too long at the market. On our way back we had our first hitchhiking experience. We were going to pay the 9 euros total for the 13 minute bus ride back to Sent (the prices of anything and everything in Switzerland is astronomical!) but Matt had the idea to hitchhike as Dorothea had mentioned it was a safe and common thing to do in these parts. So we stuck out thumbs out (at the bus stop) to see if anyone would stop and it turned out that a very nice elderly couple stopped for us. They lived in Sent; knew the B&B and the owners and dropped us off right at our front door.

We survived our first week on our own but were very happy to see Doro and Til when they arrived on Wednesday afternoon. We now have a few weeks of quiet time before it gets really busy for the high season which starts on the 18th of December. When we set off on our adventure back in June we didn’t plan on spending the winter in a cold and snowy climate but we are both so happy that we decided to do it. We are most looking forward to the winter sports…from the free skating at the ice rink just down the road from us, to tobogganing and skiing…we should have an amazing winter.

As we will be here for sometime this may be our last post for awhile but we will upload photos of our winter sports adventures from time to time.

Happy Holidays from us and the Purple Moose 🙂

PS A note about the church bells…The church is a beautiful building that we can see from our bedroom and kitchen windows but the bells, oh the bells! The bells toll 24 hours a day. Two bells at 15 minutes past the hour, four bells at 30 minutes, six bells at 45 minutes and eight bells at the hour plus one bell for every hour. Then, while school is in session, the bells ring for 5 minutes stright at 7:50am, noon, 1:20pm and 7:30pm. And sometimes they ring for 5-10 minutes at random times during the day and we’re not sure why. We are getting used to them and they are rather charming!

Thurs 19 – Mon 23 Nov 2015

Yes, it’s true, we’ve already been to Graz but we thought as we left Italy and before we moved onto our next workaway adventure we would stop off and visit our friends again!

It was too bad that we weren’t able to stay with Gisy and Alex because we knew we wouldn’t get to see them as much as last time but they had a full house of roommates. So we booked a very cheap Airbnb room in a flat right in the heart of Graz – all of the attractions were right on our door step.

Our journey began with a 7 hour drive from Tuscany and we arrived outside of the city for a free park and ride at around 8pm. After getting the bus in we met our host, Cest, who was very nice and friendly. We ventured out to meet our friends but we had no internet and didn’t know exactly where we were going so we went home and got some fries from the food truck on the way (little did we know this would become a nightly ritual). It was nice to get outside for a walk after being in the car for 7 hours.

The next morning we headed back to the neighborhood of our friends so Matt could get his hair and beard a much needed trim from a Turkish barber! Luckily we ran into Alex on our way, he showed us their flat and we said hello to Gisy and other roommates. After a crash course in backgammon – Matt won his very first game in style – we went to get Matt’s hair cut and then back to the flat for the most delicious, homemade Indian lunch. Matt went from the ‘stranded on a desert island’ look, to a groomed and respectable looking citizen. After that we went to explore the Christmas markets…

Natalie did some research before going and discovered that there are 14 Christmas markets in Graz, all within easy walking distance and they started on the same weekend we were there! Being a Christmas market junkie, Natalie insisted that we visit all of them over the weekend. So on the Friday evening we headed to the main square for one of the big markets. There were lots of stalls selling mulled wine and some selling food and chintzy Christmas directions. We visited two more markets that night and stumbled across one by mistake (but they were just selling mulled wine and all of the proceeds went to charity). We went back to Gisy and Alex’s to have a few drinks and hang out. Then we headed back home and stopped for a bratwurst and mozzarella sticks.

On Saturday we slept in a bit and then went to do some toiletries shopping. As we were heading to Switzerland for 4 months and it’s really expensive there, we stocked up on toothpaste, shampoo, etc. to take with us. We also went to H&M to stock up on warm gear like hats and gloves. Then we headed over to Gisy and Alex’s to say hello and then back out to a few more Christmas markets. By this time we had discovered that since it was the first weekend they were open, the markets weren’t in full swing yet and were a little sparse. But Natalie was still determined to see them all! We decided that we would collect mugs that our mulled wine came in as souvenirs and not worry about looking for hand crafted decorations and ornaments (which we couldn’t really afford anyway). Then back to Gisy and Alex’s for a few hours and watched a hilarious Johnny Depp movie; Mortdecai. Then home again with a stop for an extra long hot dog.

By Sunday it was time to get serious – our last day and 5 more markets to visit! We got up and went by the first market that had an ice rink and it wasn’t really a market at all. We checked out the price and decided to go back later for a skate! Then we walked to the top of the Schlossberg. There we found a few market stalls and it was feeling very Christmasy. Matt had the great idea to go a bit further as he saw a few more stalls in the distance. It turned out to be a huge market and everything we could have wished for, complete with a brass band. After a good look around we headed down for a cappuccino in the cafe that is situated in the middle of the river. Then it was off to a market to buy pretzels for that day and the next day’s lunch, back to our flat to bundle up for skating, then off to the ice rink where we had a great first skate of the year. After skating we dashed through the remaining three markets and went to our friend’s place to say goodbye. One last stop at the food truck for another bratwurst and then off to bed.

On Monday morning we packed up and headed off for a 6 hour drive to our next workaway destination in Switzerland!

Sat 14 Nov 2015

Siena was another city Natalie had on her wish list for a while and didn’t think we would ever get there! It was a beautiful city – almost better than Florence (but not quite). We arrived in the afternoon and again our hosts told us where the free parking was! The city itself is rather small with lots of rizty shops. The two main attractions were the campo (main square which was a semi-circle shape – very unique) and town hall. The duomo was absolutely stunning and perhaps the best cathedral we had ever seen. The outside was pink, black and white marble and the inside was so ornately decorated. We were lucky that we arrived just as they were letting a whole group of people in so we just tagged along. Come to find out that there was a private confirmation ceremony taking place so we quickly dashed about snapping pics. We stopped at a very special cafe for a lovely cappuccino with a cannoli and elcair. Then Matt saw the most delicious hot chocolate so we got one of those too (to share!).

We loved our four weeks in Tuscany. It was so great to explore different areas that we didn’t think we would get to see. We loved the famous towns and city and we loved our volunteering experiences.

Sat 7 Nov 2015

We were lucky enough to be working so close to Florence. We both wanted to visit the city but we didn’t think we would get there this summer so it was a great bonus!

Our hosts told us of a free place to park at Piazzale Michelangelo which gave a spectacular view of the city below. We did our own little walking tour by starting with a walk down towards the Ponte Vecchio, through the Uffizi gallery courtyard to Palazzo Vecchio. In the plaza there were great statues (not the original Michelangelo’s David but there were some original statutes from Roman times). We had a picnic in the main square with the Tuscan sun beating down. Then we headed to the famous Duomo which was an amazing sight. We poked around other areas of interest in the city and stopped for pizza and sangria at a little trattoria.

Once it was dark we went back to the main sights to take some night photos. We had such a wonderful day in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe!