Family hotel in Großarl, and lesser known hospitals in Austria pt2

Time for a short winter break. This was Birgit's birthday present from 2012. The idea is that she can relax whilst Ronja has plenty to do. The place, Hotel Waldhof, is pretty amazing, and very friendly. Unfortunately, we can't take advantage of everything, as Ronja has had a bad cold the past week. It even got so bad yesterday, long with a false diagnosis of another urinary track infection, that we ended up in hospital, in Austria, again. This time in Schwarzach. Fortunately this time they took care of us very quickly and established that it really was only a bad cold/virus. So this time no report about the lesser known town, as we only saw it in the dark from taxi windows. Today she's no temperature, and we're hoping it stays that way, but taking it easy all the same. Birgit's away swimming, Ronja and me (Matt) have toured the indoor play area, adventure land and gymnastic room, and are now writing a blog post together before lunch. You can more or less eat continuously here... breakfast till 10 or after, lunch at 12, afternoon snack from 2.30 till 5, dinner at 6, well, you get the idea. Good for our waistlines (and bank balance) that we're only staying a weekend.

Ronja getting some much needed sleep on the way here

The view from our window

Berlin and Usedom

When I started writing this, we were on our way back from a lovely break far in the north of Germany. We had started 9 days ago, fairly early in the morning on a train to Berlin. Hauling our luggage through what seemed to be roadworks with the least respect for passengers ever seen, we left our heavy bags at an apartment and off we went to visit Birgit's Aunt and Uncle in the south of the city. Ronja had a brilliant time, we were well fed, and too soon (though actually, we left too late) it was time to go and meet Matt's parents and sister at the train station. This time we skipped most of the roadworks with a bus, and everyone settled down for a much needed night's sleep. We had a tall order ahead of us: try and see Berlin in one day.

I think everyone will agree we didn't do a bad job... the tour went something like this...

- A walk to the Bundestag/Reichstag, continuing to Brandenburger Tor.

- SBahn to Potsdamerplatz, stop for coffee and sandwiches.

- Hop on the UBahn to Französische Str. for the obligatory photo opportunity at Checkpoint Charlie.

- Back on the UBahn, change at Stadtmitte for Warschauer Str. to see the East Side Gallery (Berlin Wall). Good ice cream.

- Then we actually should have headed round the ring to our dinner goal of Hackescher Markt, but between accident and wanting to savour the lovely bridge, we walked back to Schlesisches Tor and took the scenic route via Gorlitzer Bahnhof and Jannowitzbrücke. Dinner there is probably more for the atmosphere than the menu (although there's a reasonable choice of places), but it was tasty enough.

- To work off the food we walked through the Museuminsel area and back to Unter der Linden.

But we weren't quite done yet. The next morning we hauled our stuff to the train station coffee shop and Matt's dad, Matt and Grace took a fly-by tour to the Holocaust Memorial. We didn't really have enough time to take it in properly (assuming that's even possible), but one more sight ticked off the checklist I suppose. Making it back punctually, it was time to take a long and partly uncomfortable (think DB regional train on a Saturday in summer: bikes, people, chaos) journey to Usedom. Finally we were there - a clean beach, pleasant air, home cooking and relaxation for one wonderful week.

At the playpark

Matt's dad thinks to himself: "What happened here?". Money spinner: The upside-down house. Would be a good activity for a rainy day except that the roof's not pointing the right way up...

Rockets... this is where the Germans worked on the V2 during WW2

Geocaching FAIL. I think I didn't get it yet. When you use a GPS you get lost in the forest,

and when you don't use one...

A lot of time was spent reading on the balcony, along with feigning wetness at the sight of Ronja's Duplo hose (don't tell her, it's actually supposed to be petrol coming out of there)

Last night - let's treat ourselves. Second worst Indian restaurant ever. The other one was, and possibly still is on a boat in Bratislava.

Taking out the trash, without a car

We really considered doing car sharing for the trip to the "Wertstoffhof" (the place where recyclable/dangerous stuff goes when you can't put it in your normal trash) but it worked out without...

Aidez-moi trouver mon Téléphone!

The title is already stretching my French skills and needed some correction from Google, so I'll continue in English. I managed to let my phone slip into a rather impossible spot today at the fantastic Port de Solférino part of the promenade des berges de la Seine earlier today (Sunday 1st). They have these great wooden plank constructions which unfortunately for me have rather thick gaps in between. But underneath it's hollow. Unfortunately I didn't have a plastic suction dart and a long (very long) pair of tweezers with me, otherwise I'm sure it would have been possible to retrieve it(!!!!)

Map: https://maps.google.fr/maps/ms?msid=206679085154406122821.0004e5590030f8ca4094d&msa=0&ll=48.861228,2.323329&spn=0.003046,0.005815

As you walk down from the bridge/road, looking away from Museé d'Orsay, we were sitting on the large wooden seating area near the river. Below is a photo pinpointing where it was dropped. You might need a torch, but in good light I could see it clearly at the bottom. Its a Samsung Star. Not very valuable, but I hate loosing things!

It fell from the 3rd step up, in to one of the larger gaps. So if anyone is down there with the necessary equipment, you could have a free phone. Alternatively, to anyone that manages to get it back to me, I'm offering a reward of €30 plus a big thank you on this blog, of course. I'm also interested to see if I can even manage to reach anyone in Paris via my rather small social network. I'll throw in an extra €5 if it still works (so you've gotta get there before the rain does). You can get in touch with me via @mattfullerton on twitter or matt.fullerton@gmail.com.

Cultra, a picnic, the Aquarium and a quick trip back

So avid blog readers, I know we must have left you hanging there... oh, you arrived in Ireland, but, oh, what then? Well, I must say this must have been one of the most technology-free trips home in a long time. I didn't manage to blog, but did manage to use the cable receiver to watch a classic Blackadder episode (The one with Bob, brought back memories of university). Apart from that we spent a lot of time outside, the weather was unbelievably beautiful, and I could have happily stayed longer. But in the interests of completeness and not forgetting these valuable times spent back 'home', here's a lightning-speed recap of what we got up to.

Day 1
We went sightseeing in the fascinating city of Lisburn. Lisburn has lots of things to offer, like Smyth Patterson Ltd., which may hold the record for the greatest variance in ceiling height of any shop in the UK. New to me is the coffee shop, which was really, really good (meaning that they had gluten free cake). Much of the afternoon was spent exploring the new sand pit that I assume was purchased specially for Ronja's visit. Either that or my sister wanted to recreate that Malaga feeling in the back garden.

Day 2
OK. Enough hanging around - time to go and see something exciting. Like a museum. But not just any museum, this one's good even for almost-two-year-olds. I'm talking of course of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. I was last there so long ago, that it was like I'd never been there, and it was really fascinating, especially how houses used to be built and how trains and trams used to be a more important part of Irish life.

Day 3
It was off to the big city of Belfast for a picnic with Matt's Aunty Mona on the lawn of the city hall. Yes, a picnic, in Belfast! Ronja received some brilliant books from her cousin. We sampled Belfast's shops and coffee, and headed back to Lisburn to see another of Matt's relatives who's set up his own company and recently opened his own premises there where they were working on all sorts of exciting things. In the evening we saw Matt's sister's new apartment and tried to reduce the amount of unassembled IKEA furniture.

 

All DIY projects in the UK require a cup of tea to be on hand, of course

Day 4
This was perhaps the highlight - all of us headed for the Aquarium in Portaferry. Now, before you say "how, naff", I remind you that we had a nearly-two year old with us. And what I learned is also that the Aquarium as originally opened had much less stuff, so if you haven't been in a while it might be worth a visit. We had a good old fashioned cafe-lunch, enjoyed the sun for a bit, and then braved Belfast traffic just so that we could be dropped off for a coffee with old friends, but that was of course worth it. A quick train ride home, last minute sand-playing and packing and already it was time to head home.

UPDATE! They want to close the Aquarium!!! Sign a petition to keep it open here.

This photo is mostly here to prove that we really do get good weather...!

The journey back...
... was uneventful. The boat made it, all trains were caught, we had a lovely breakfast with an old university friend of Matt's in Chester while some pub grub in London for lunch left Birgit unimpressed. We had quite a bit of time in Cologne, which was nice but also a bit underwhelming (once you get over how big the Cathedral is). And the night train was more or less on time too.

Belfast-Liverpool-Chester-London-Brussels-Cologne-Munich

One tip from the journey there and back: the Exki way round at the end of corridor beyond the Eurostar checkin. They have simple, vaguely healthy, great tasting food, coffee, wine and gluten free cake. And really nice chairs.

Looks like we made it

For some reason, the London-Ferry bit is always the slightly annoying part. We had to change twice and missed one of the connections. Fortunately, there is now a bus from Stena Line to the port, so no more walks through industrial abandonland like last time. We had a good meal on board and are now looking forward to a family breakfast!

Brussels

With a long train ride ahead there was plenty of time to create a few masterpieces. We were a little bit worried about how Ronja would cope with the journey, but it was no problem. The unexpected change in Cologne due to a broken train probably help to keep up the excitement, and of course there was time for lunch and an afternoon nap along the way.

Matt tried to find a restaurant he remembered using only his hazy memory and Google maps. Alas, he mistakenly came up with the wrong one (Birgit should have been worried when Matt noticed that he didn't remember any laterns, whilst looking at the website, which talked about the splendour of the 100+ laterns, but only that there was a photo on the wall, which seemed familiar, so, err, that must have been it). But fear not, this is not a disaster story, in fact a happy mistake. We can recommend Kasbah's Morrocan cuisine, on Rue Antoine Dansaert, No. 20.

The low tables are great for children. Just a warning though, if you've got a young child, watch out for the candle - Ronja was rather surprised to learn that its actually quite hot. We did a quick walk round the old city centre of Brussels, gazed longingly at a few chocolates, and headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

The next morning we had actually planned to do some more walking through various parks, the EU institutions, but it was cold and damp, so we opted for the "Atomium" instead. Yes, a tourist magnet (how many photos can you make of yourself inside, around and beside the giant "Welcome" letters!?), somewhat expensive, but still impressive given it was built in the late 50s, and lots of interesting stuff inside. Although, the highlights are probably the staircases and escalators through those incredible tubes...

Ronja is now enjoying a massive sleep, giving Matt time to write this, perched in the back of a Eurostar (minding Ronja in her buggy), on our way to Belfast (yes, with a change or two in between).

Ready set go

Time to visit Granny, best to eat banana first

Easter egg hunting (in the snow)

It was Easter Sunday, time to see what the Easter Bunny had left in the garden (with Ronja's cousins, in Herrlingen, near Ulm, on the way back from Skiing)...

On your marks...

Get set...

Go!

Inspecting the plunder

Time for some skiing

After the unexpected trip to the hospital, it was time for some fun in the snow. With Ronja along we spent less time skiing than when we were last in Lech and more time sipping warm drinks and just playing in the snow.

Our motley crew of holiday makers - Birgit's father, uncle, aunt, sister, brother-in-law, nieces, nephew and us.

Where's high dynamic range photography when you need it? In any case, Ronja got to enjoy a sunny morning sledding around with Great Aunt Ulla.

Going... up

 It's surprisingly warm when the sun comes out. There was even a day when people were out sitting in deck chairs (I could add, when they could have been skiing...!)

Congratulating Jana after her timed sprint down the hill

"Daddy, just try and face the camera and look as cool as me"

 Having fun in the hotel. Notice the stylish €1 slippers (emergency purchase, as Birgit forgot her's, yet somehow I ended up having to wear them?)!

Beautiful Feldkirch

We weren't supposed to be seeing the town of Feldkirch on our trip to Austria, but it somehow turned out that way. Feldkirch is a few miles from Lichtenstein and a few more miles will take you to Switzerland. The people are lovely, if rather difficult (even for Birgit) to understand. Actually our holiday was supposed to be in the beautiful skiing village of Lech, high up in the Arlberg region of the Alps. And although we got there, Ronja had been getting hotter and hotter the whole way, and a trip to the doctor was hastily followed by a taxi ride down the mountain to the nearest hospital in Feldkirch. The reason was that he feared she had a recurrence of an infection which shouldn't really come back. And he was right. Considering much of her time was spent on a drip making moving around more or less impossible, she seemed to enjoy being there well enough. Except for when anyone in a white coat came by.

The next day, we decided that to begin with Birgit would stick around and I would go back to Lech. I'd had a look at a map before I left and thought I would figure out how to get back to the centre of town and my goal: the train station. I was in a rush to get a train and came to the rather illogical decision that walking would be faster than waiting for a bus. And unfortunately (for me) I'd left the internet sim card with Birgit and didn't think to consider that the map would actually still be in the iPhone even without a connection. After a very scenic tour resulting (I think) from coming down the wrong side of the hill, I did think to look at the map on the phone, but then the GPS had a lot of trouble getting started, either because it was cloudy or because it couldn't use the phone masts to help it out. Shortly after I finally swallowed my pride and asked someone where the train station was, it started working. A few photos and videos of Ronja's hospital stay as well as my wander through Feldkirch (unfortunately I was too stressed to take photos beforehand, but you can get a flavour of the most interesting part here) are below.

Despite being rather ill and the time somewhere around midnight, Ronja still had enough energy to get very excited about where we had to wait while they got things ready for us: the play room!

On the streets of Feldkirch

Finally!

 

Being in hospital's not all bad. And there's time to catch up on the news...

And the food (or at least the drinks) aren't bad either

But eventually it was time (for Ronja too!) to leave, we took the bus to the station and we had enough time waiting for the train for Ronja to get a snack from the bakery. There were a couple of English travellers fascinated by the painted eggs (for Easter)...