Boy was it a cold start to the day. Temperature is 1° with the forecast to reach 9°. Are we in for a cold one. I started out with my warm clothes and within 1 hour was putting on the thermals and within a couple of hours we had stopped to buy beanies and gloves. I also managed a pair of boots to wear out to dinner as I only had pretty thongs, good summer shoes or hiking boots. None of which were suitable for the cold or looked very good with leggings. Seeing as it snowed on the mountain last night we decided on a detour to Weissensee Lake, Gerlitzen-Kanzelbahn which was about 20mins west (the wrong direction) to go for a gondola ride up the mountain to see the snow. Unfortunately as it was the first snow for the season, the workmen were just there fixing the gondola so it wasn’t ready for tourists yet. Oh well. We then went to a ruined 14th century castle nearby called Landskron Castle and took some photos of the area. We then headed on with our planned itinerary to Hochosterwitz Castle which was pretty amazing. The castle is considered to be one of Austria’s most impressive medieval castles. It is situated on a 160m Dolomite rock and can be seen from about 30 km away on a clear day. Hochosterwitz Castle is situated at a height of 664m. It housed a museum of mediaeval armour, tools, weapons, clothing and art. All very interesting. The view from the top was absolutely amazing. Our next location was a gorge on the way to Vienna but this was abandoned due to time frame. As always, the Broadbent tours were packed to the maximum with unplanned added extras in the mix as well. We headed off for Vienna at about 4pm and thanks to the GPS ended 1650m up the mountains with the snow capped pine trees. A little worrying as we did not have snow tyres on the car. (Snow tyres are mandatory on all vehicles from November in Austria, so lucky we plan to be back in France by then). This also added 1 hour to our already 3 hour drive. The scenery on the way was incredible until it got dark and started raining. DB’s first comment about driving in Austria yesterday was that the Austrians were on sedatives. They drove to the speed limit and weren’t in any hurry. I don’t know how he feels about that now after driving on the windy mountain road followed by 2 hours of freeway driving in the rain. They were still passing us like we were going backwards. On arrival in Vienna at about 8.30pm we finally found our hotel and then went out for another traditional Austrian meal at a traditional restaurant. The food was amazing, the service great and a nice time was had. We both tried a grape juice with mineral water which was really refreshing. I had chicken stuffed with spinach and sheep cheese with a herb white wine cream sauce and DB had Perch with garlic and Rocket. Another successful dinner with DB saying it was equal to his best yet. Still no vegetables but we are getting used to that now. Another German lesson from the waitress so I can at least say a few basics which is good. Auf Wiedersehen.