Happy New Year to all! It is hard to believe that "Phase I" of our journey has ended. We left Austria 2 days ago, and have safely, and quite seamlessly, landed in Thailand. We landed the day of the protests, but since we just stayed a few hours in the airport before flying north to Chiang Mai, we saw nothing. We did end up on a plane with 120 high school students, which made me a bit homesick!
To catch you up a bit, after a week in Granada, we took the long road to Innsbruck, where our journey began. We took a night train from Granada to Barcelona. In Barcelona, we had a lovely walking tour of a few Gaudi buildings, and then went in to the Familia Sagrada. Quite stunning! All was wonderful, and we were so proud of ourselves for making good use of our few hours in Barcelona...until I noticed the clip on my fanny pack was not clipped, as it should be. Sure enough, my wallet was gone! I felt like such a DUMB tourist! How could I be SO distracted?!? Luckily, there wasn't much money in it, I was able to cancel my credit cards easily, and I still had a spare credit card and ATM card stashed in another location. The best part was that we just happened to be staying our longest time in a place in Innsbruck, and VISA got a new card to me in 3 days! The tough part seems to be getting a driver's license replacement and a new ATM card. We still had passports, and we were all together, safe and healthy. The wallet loss, now, seems quite minor, albeit humbling.
From Barcelona, we flew to Venice and had one night back in my new favorite city. A bit of a tease to have such a short time here again, but also lovely. The next afternoon, we boarded a train to Innsbruck. We've had great luck meeting people on trains, and our luck held. We shared a cabin with a lovely couple from South Africa, and heard some great stories. Now we have people to visit in South Africa!
It was lovely to arrive back in Innsbruck, back at the Weisses Krietz, our home away from home. The streets were beautifully decorated with lights, and there was glue wein (mulled wine) on every corner. The day we arrived, the mountains didn't seem to have too much more snow than they did in September, but luckily, that night, it snowed. Jon and Jeremiah were ready! They skied, I stayed in town and wandered. I had all these illusions that I would do so much planning, writing, etc. Ah well. I didn't. Mostly I walked and enjoyed the views of the mountains.
Innsbruck was a great place to spend New Year's Eve! All during the day, there were activities for kids and music. Apparently, there were going to be fireworks too, at midnight. There were probably tons of other things going on, but the information was all in German, so I felt quite lost. I did figure out that there was a New Year's Eve Run through town. I hemmed and hawed over whether I should join in (Jon and Jem were still skiing), and at the very last minute I did. I was still isolated by my lack of German, but the run was fun (a whopping 5 km!). The two things I will remember most about New Year's Eve in Innsbruck, however, was dancing to a swing band under the Golden Roof, and the amazing firework display on the River Inn.
Carlotta and Hannah (Jon's daughter and friend) arrived the next day. It was so good to see family and friends! We had a lovely time revisiting parts of Innsbruck, eating strudel, and drinking warm, spiced wine. One of our highlights was watching part of the World Cup Ski Jumping competition, right there in Innsbruck. It was fun to be part of the festivities and cheer for Austria. (We cheered for the American too, but he finished third from the bottom.)
Finally, it was time to leave Innsbruck. It was sadder this time, knowing we weren't coming back any time soon. We rented a car and drove to Vienna, with a stop at the mountain lake town of Wolfgangsee. We had discovered that morning that this day was a holiday (Christmas-related) AND the end of the season's celebrations, so everything was closed. Thanks to a recommendation, we found a great place to stay for the night and one of our best meals yet, complete with accordion, violin and yodeling!
I found Vienna very...GRAND! It was hard to take pictures, because everything seemed so big! I loved just walking around the city. I took myself to the Opera one night, because that is what one is supposed to do in Vienna, after all.
