Austria trip, Part 5: the last day

Sat on the bank of the Schloss moat for a while and
watched the clouds go by.


Erin and Rand have gotten me hooked on Carbon Leaf. I'm curious: has anyone else out there heard of this group?

(Trip report continued from Part 1, Part 2 Part 3, and Part 4. Also check out my gradually expanding Austria trip photo album.)

And so we come to my Last Day in Austria.

While the others went out to tour castles and small towns, I decided to stay back at the Schloss. I knew I'd be missing out on wonderful sights but I decided that I wanted my last day to be different, taken at a more leisurely pace.




Painting in a stairwell at the Schloss.


So I spent the day wandering the Schloss and its grounds, exploring nooks and crannies, snooping through the bookshelves, walking in the forest, absorbing as much of the place into my senses and soul as I could in these last hours.





After getting together with Allison and Jodi a few nights ago, I realize I should clarify something I said in an earlier trip report post, that if I had only one afternoon in Paris and a choice between spending it touring the Eiffel tower and sitting in a cafe people-watching and sampling local cuisine, I'd choose the latter.

I'm NOT saying that I'd prefer avoiding all tourist attractions, and that I want to spend all my trips sitting in cafes. :-) The cafe example was exactly that: an example, not an itinerary item.

What I meant was that everyone has a different approach to travelling, and mine tends to lean toward exploring a place on my own at my own pace or with like-minded friends rather than automatically going through a checklist of "must-see" tourist attractions and careening through as many as I can in what little time I have, just to be able to say I saw them.




A tree with personality. I must put it in a book someday.


It was with this underlying intention that I opted to hang out at the Schloss on the last day. First thing I did after everyone left was to have a last long soak in the tub; we were leaving very early the next morning so there would no time to wash up. I did a bit of packing. Then I went wandering.

Here are some of the photos I took:





Lot of fruit and nut trees around the Schloss. Especially chestnuts:





Found this odd arrangement of rocks in the forest behind the building:





Also kept finding tennis balls in the oddest places, like along a trail in the woods:





And on a window sill:





There's a moss-overgrown tennis court, but I'm still curious about the story behind these tennis balls. Hm, reminds me...I must look up the German word(s) for "tennis balls."

I also chatted with some of the staff in German, which was fun (and one of my trip highlights). They wanted to know more about my drawing: did I do it professionally, for instance? Perhaps illustrate children's books? No, I told them, it was just for fun. But I wrote down the URLs to my online comics as well as to my Blatherings, where I told them I'd be posting a report.

At one point I ended up sitting on one of the outdoor couches near our picnic spot from earlier in the week, beside the moat and the weeping willows. The couch was wonderfully soft and cushions so inviting that I lay down and watched the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the leaves above, the horses grazing in a nearby paddock. Dozed off for a while, a warm breeze caressing my cheek.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, really.





I finished off my day by having a sauna; I think I was the only one of our group to use this room during the trip. VERY nice, reminded me a lot of the one at the cottage except it was bigger. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall for a while, soaking in the heat.

I was sorely tempted by the giant hot tub, but by then the others were returning to the Schloss and it was nearly time for dinner.

As had become the ritual that week, we all shared our day's experiences as well as writing them down in the "Schloss Nachrichten", a daily trip diary I had set up for the group. When we got back home, I would send everyone a copy as well as a CD of all the photos I had taken.

For me, the day was one of the highlights of my trip, and the perfect way to end the trip. The Schloss was a magical place, and the Countess and her staff were wonderful. I would go back in a heartbeat. And I love Austria; it's definitely one of my all-time favourite places to be in the world.

Thank you so much, Arline, for masterminding this trip!

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