Back from Austria

Though it's been a good 7 days in Austria, both Adrian and I agreed it was about time we went home. We missed the girls and couldn't wait to get back to see them.

Last Saturday, we woke up very early to catch our morning flight at 8am. Louisa kept waking up in the middle of the night to ask if we were leaving yet as she'd wanted to say goodbye to us. At 3am, both the girls came into our room and insisted on sleeping with us. I'd have brought them back to their room if we weren't going away. So the 4 of us squeezed in the queen bed. I woke at 5.30am, followed by Adrian. We were careful not to wake the girls up but I thought they'd be really upset if they woke to find us gone. But Louisa woke a while later and Lavigne followed suit. I was relieved they got to see us before we left but was worried about them waking so early and then have a bad day. Louisa started to tear when we brought our luggages downstairs and said she didn't want daddy to go to Austria but Lavigne seemed fine. I felt really sad myself. My mother-in-law gave them the 1st present I'd prepared and Louisa stopped crying and said she'd wave us goodbye at the window. The taxi came and we left. I couldn't describe in words how I felt at the moment. There was a dull ache in my heart. I'd left my babies behind to go on a holiday.

I felt slightly better upon reaching the airport. Everything was smooth-sailing as we had checked-in online the previous day and didn't have any luggage to check-in. Both Adrian and myself were at a loss of what to do. We were suddenly kids-free and so free. It felt strange. Then we found out the flight was delayed. Hence it was quite a wait. We flew to Munich and the first thing that striked me was the strong stench of smoke in the air the moment I stepped into the airport terminal. Other than that, it was very clean and modern. We then took a train to Innsbruck where Adrian's conference took place.

Our hotel room had the most fantastic view. We had a good view of the Alps but unfortunately the room's safe wasn't working, so we requested for a change of room. The view for the other room faces the opposite side of the Alps, still mountain-view but not as nice. Nonetheless, it was a great hotel with superb service from the restaurant staff. I'd never encountered such first-class service in any hotels before. All the staff were extremely polite and attended to all our needs, but 2 of them stood out. They were from the Philippines and my were we pampered. Hot tea/coffee brought to us, freshly-squeezed orange juice served and replenished constantly, cutleries changed for different courses (it was buffet-style breakfast but ala carte menu was available), we were asked if we were happy with the food, endless 'thank yous' and 'you're welcome'. We were so pleased we nominated them both for their first-class service and we were not the only ones. I saw other guests filling in the cards as well. They must have received many commendations.

When Adrian was at the conference, I went sightseeing alone. I'd forgotten what it was like travelling without children. It was so hassle-free and quick. No long preparation or much packing needed. I took it easy and visit places of interest till about 4pm before heading back to the hotel for a workout at the gym. Adrian would return to the hotel for a shower and then we would walk back to the old town for our dinner. Everything was leisurely and relaxed. But in my mind, I'd think to myself, oh the girls will be doing this and that at such and such a time. Even when I was shopping, I'd be looking at things for the girls. Austria is such an expensive country. Cost of living is very high. I wonder what's the average income.

I had the most fantastic time when we went for an Austrian Folk Show. We were nearly turned away as we didn't make an advance booking. The show was fully booked by tour groups that evening. We waited and just before the show started, there were a few extra seats so we were able to get our tickets. I think the highlight of the show was when they sang the songs of all the different countries where the audience came from, together with waving the national flags. We were both very surprised when they showed the Singapore flag and sang the song 'Singapura' (we were asked where we came from when we entered the hall, no wonder!). Silly me took pictures instead of videographing that segment.

Adrian's conference dinner was held at a mountain-top. As it rained that day, it was very chilly up where we were. The food, other than the soup, was quite disappointing but I had good company. I had initially dreaded attending this dinner, thinking to myself what conversations could I hold with all these computer whiz. We sat ourselves at this table full of Japanese. Being a fan of all things Japanese, I had a lovely evening chatting to the girl sitting next to me. Adrian, on the other hand, was bored stiff.

Our 1.5 day trip to Salzburg was more rushed and hectic. Since we had so little time, we wanted to cover as much as we could. There were the usual historical sites and I'd wanted to visit some of the places which were shot in 'Sound of Music'. We took a river cruise and headed for this place called Hellbrunn. Can I say that it was a wet-tastic visit. The 'trick fountains' built more than 400 years ago had me and alot of other visitors drenched. There were secret water jets everywhere and though I tried to be careful, I got sprayed on several occasions. Other places we visited were the Salzburg's Cathedral, Mozart's birthplace and Residence, St Peter's Cemetery, St Sebastian's cemetery, Mirabellgarten, The Benedictine Convent of Nonnberg, and several other places where scenes from the 'Sound of Music' were shot. If Innsbruck was expensive, Salzburg was even more so, or at least for the souvenirs. Things in Salzburg were almost double of what they cost in Innsbruck. Our hotel room is very nice, too bad we were not able to enjoy much of it since we were out most of the time. For the first time, our plane home actually left earlier than scheduled. What a nice change!

Both the girls coped very well without us around and we were very proud of them. I think my presents and little notes to them everyday helped. I must also thank my inlaws for looking after them and our friends for bringing Lavigne to and back from school. It had been a very good holiday.