Day 4

Monday July 7th

Today we were up early. I had breakfast outside again, I could get used to this decadence!

Our trip today was to Wattens, the home of Swarovski crystal, followed by Rattenberg, the glass capital of Austria.

I only visit Wattens now so that I can visit the largest Swarovski shop in the world and also the VIP lounge. I have seen the Crystalwelten many times and it is too 'arty' for me.

Only Swarovski members are allowed in the lounge and there are special advantages to this. There are complimentary refreshments but also a display of all the Swarovski annual editions. I was pleased to see that I had five full collections, 15 years worth. 

The young ladies there are always very welcoming and members get a special gift for each annual visit. This year is a beautiful blue stone with eagles etched on it, particularly relevant to me because of Horus. UI even bought something here, something I have never done before.This year I took some photos to show how stunning the Crystalwelten shop and lounge are.

There were many English people there today as the was a Shearings coach trip from the UK.

After this we went to Rattenberg. I shop for all my glass here every year. This year I can bring home so much more because we are not flying, so I think I went a little mad. I have bought vases and glass flowers, I just couldn't resist them!!! I had expected it to be busy, but it wasn't. What was funny was hearing the voices of people from the north of England, that Shearings coach trip seemed to be following us!

The town of Rattenburg is very old, medieval I think, so it's lovely to see all of the old buildings. Many of them are now shops and they go straight back into the mountain.  It's amazing walking inside as it becomes quite cold when you get deep into the back of the shops.

We left wonderful Rattenberg and made our way back to the farm and off course, Cafe Schmid. I hadn't eaten any lunch in preparation for today's choice, banana split. These are enormous and are two bananas on a dinner plate with four scoops of ice cream, whipped cram, chocolate sauce and strawberries. We had this quite early as we intended going out into the village for dinner.

When we got back to the farm, we had surprise visitors. Our friend E, the daughter in law of our hostess, came to see us with her two girls, one 4yrs old and one 8 months. We were amazed to hear that E had been dangerously ill very recently. She was now fully recovered but to look at her I would never have guessed that she had been so ill.
It just shows how you cannot guess what the future holds for us all!