AUSTRIA - DAY 1

We decided that going up the mountain was the first order of business today, so after breakfast we caught the bus to the cable car station. We could just hope that the rain would not dampen our spirits of another morning in the snow. Up we went to the first station of Seegrube, 1905 metres high. There we changed to the second cable car. As we headed up the rain changed to snow and we ascended into the clouds. We arrived at Hafelekar 2256 metres up.

We immediately ventured out of the station into the snow. It was so quiet up here, apart from the girls squealing and giggling, we basically had the mountain top to ourselves as we set out to build the best snowman we could build.

The snowman became bigger and bigger and it felt like it took forever to build. Other people came and went and took pictures but we worked on, intermingled with snowballs being thrown and slipping and sliding on the ice to create the best snowman ever. He looked awesome when we finally finished. We can just hope that he is still up there greeting the people as they come out of the station and venture off into the snow.

Poor Captain Australia got buried in the snow but he soon got over it and he even happily made a snow angel with Angelique. This place was amazing. There was only about 10 people up here, unlike when we went up Titilis, and it didn't cost a cent to spend the morning playing in the snow.

We decided to call it a day once we realised how wet the girls had got themselves so we headed into the station and all enjoyed a hot drink and wonderful Austrian cheesecake. We headed back down to get on with the rest of our day.

We arrived at the bottom to a gorgeous sunny day. We decided we wanted to catch the cable railway so we boarded and zoomed off down the mountain. We went from the start of the line to the other and exited just around the corner from the Imperial Palace our next stop.

Inside the Palace, or Hofburg as it is known by the locals, we were exposed to the life size paintings of Empress Maria Theresa and her family of sixteen children. Sad to say, they were not a very attractive family. After her husbands death, Maria Theresa had the palace furnished as a memorial to him, who she loved dearly.

We left the Imperial Palace and boarded a bus bound for Swarovski Kristallwelten. There we entered the giants head and saw wondrous things. It was a place where crystal, merged with art to create some great if not bizarre pieces. We wandered through and then spent ages looking at all the beautiful crystal figurines in their showroom. We didn't escape empty handed and left with several bear figurines for the girls.