What a surprise package the last couple of days have been. We drove into Bled and the views were stunning. The caravan park is surrounded by beautiful tall mountains that are covered in fur trees and cradled amongst them is a sapphire coloured lake. A castle overlooks the lake from a mountain top and an island sits in the lake with a beautiful white church with spire and other old beautiful buildings and fur trees. The area has an alpine feel with lovely stone cottages and trees with their leaves just turning to gold and red it is indeed picture perfect. There are wood gondolas on the lake in the shape of swans, whilst white swans float in the lake along with lots of ducks, hard not to overdo it with the camera.
We hired a couple of mountain bikes yesterday and all set off about 3.00 for a ride around the lake, just over 6 km. Annette was the dorky one with the helmet and the clip on the pants leg to stop the pants getting caught in the bike chain. (I am surprised Frank didn’t insist I have training wheels after my last effort on the bike – more about that later.) Fabulous ride, a little sore in the gluteous maximus for the oldie with the helmet but I did back up again this morning for another ride around the lake and I think another ride or two and I will be right for the Toure de France in a year or two.
NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!
We are currently sitting 6.2 klm into an 8 klm tunnel and Cal has chucked in the towel. Andrew and Frank are worrying enough for the four of us and Drew has just gone to the emergency phone to ring for help. A problem with the radiator I think. Help will be about 1 hour.
1 hour later a cute Austrian mechanic arrives with orange lights flashing and hero look about him. Andrew and Frank still vomiting, Jamie and I saying “He’s cute – better not to share that thought with the men right now!!!” It turns out to be a broken hose and voila the motor starts first go now that it is cooled down. All out of the car into the emergency bay whilst the mechanic pulls the inside of the van apart to get to the motor, he fixes the hose, follows us for a couple of klm’s to make sure we are OK then we are out of the tunnel and he has another look at the motor and hoses and then says we are right to go – no charge – unbelievable. We gave him a kiss and a koala souvenir and forced some money on him for beers and then went about rebuilding the inside of the van.
We have had an Angel in Turkey and now we have one in Austria.
Love J,A and F,A
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About Us
- Andrew and Jamie Griffioen
- Andrew and Jamie are a married couple from Brisbane, Australia. We have embarked on an overseas adventure for 6 months leaving in April and returning in October. We plan to cover the UK and a lot of Europe. To see more details, check out our posts below.
Love the last posting re the radiator hose. Makes you have faith in people. Sounds like the engine is underneath the van. By the time it gets back to Scotland it will be like a new one. Ask them for a partial refund on the hiring charges. Just remember the Scottish are very tight where money is concerned.
ReplyDeleteTake care, Peter.
Hey I must admit - Graham and I had a chuckle when we pictured Dad and Andrew when the car broke down- I'm not sure who would be the grumpiest bear! Good to hear that it was an opportunity for you to be touched by an angel - If we never had these shitty experiences we would miss out on meeting those angels :)
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