Lipizzaners - day 23

We are getting good at getting up if we need to, and were on the train at 8.30 as planned with our tickets picked up, and having breakfast in Starbucks by 9.30. Just before we were able to go in, we walked through more of the area and found some other amazing buildings that we probably should have known about before. Oh well, you can’t spend time at all of them. When we got to our seats we realised how great they were. We initially wanted to go a week earlier but couldn’t get the best tickets then. Today did work out a better day for us anyway.

As for the performance – wow wow wow. They started with 8 of the younger horses which were still different shades of gray – they turn white when they are older. They just showed some simple exercises which was good. Then they had more experienced horses doing some of the complicated exercises while mounted. Then a session of experienced horses doing unmounted exercises with the horses leaping. Then a pair of horses doing synchronised exercises. Then a group of 8 experienced horses. What I was most impressed about was the leg changes at the canter, and their ability to turn tight circles leading with the wrong leg. The stallions looked extremely muscled and strong. It really was magical with each session introduced in german and english, and the use of lighting was wonderful as well. This was something I had wanted to see from when I was much younger, and I was very pleased that I have now experienced it.

After the performance we went back to Klosterneuberg (camping near Vienna) and Nico. We were trying to drive as far as we could that day to Stuttgart where Jody’s son is living. We did pretty well – 570kms after leaving at 2pm, and ended up at Augsburg in Germany. The drive wasn’t too bad, though the first hour or so was on country roads in Austria before we finally got to the A1. Then when we got to Germany we were a bit confused about the speed signs, but were pretty sure that we were on an unlimited speed road by the buffeting we got from the speed of the cars going past. Nico was trundling along nicely at 70mph (around 112kph), and cars were just leaving us in the dust. We had fun watching them come up from behind and Jody was videoing them – anything to pass the time of day! It was also very interesting seeing the number of solar panels beside the motorway. The weather forecast had not been good, but the only time it really poured was when we stopped for lunch, and nicely just after Jody had filled Nico up with gas and gone into pay. The temperature got steadily lower and was 2 degrees when we arrived at 8pm. Now it says it feels like minus 1, yikes! We had been looking at different locations today and tried to stay away from the ones that were forecasting snow. We have worked out the heating in Nico now though, and are feeling toasty warm after Jody cooked some very tasty hamburgers with mince, bacon and eggs. The campsite is very basic, but is close to the motorway so we will be on our way in the morning.

So there were no driving issues today with googlemaps, and we absolutely nailed the trains in and out. Such pros!Read more