Early autumn holiday, 2 October 2024

Graz, Austria

We woke up this morning to grey mist over Lake Balaton, and it only cleared when it started raining. 

We stopped at Tesco in Balatonboglár as I hadn't bought tomatoes yesterday, and needed to rectify that, plus one or two other things. Including a 9-volt battery for the smoke alarm, which has taken to randomly going off when there is no smoke at all around. And it is not the CO monitor, either - that's separate. So we assumed that the battery needed changed. Sadly, it went off again this evening, again for no apparent reason. Googling by the Swan Whisperer tells us that they are prone to do so in high humidity - and today has been nothing if not humid! It has rained the entire day, although it has stopped now, at 19:30! 

We discovered, slightly to our horror, that the road to Graz would take us through Slovenia, and we didn't have a vignette. However, a few minutes' work in the last rest area before the border soon rectified that. It was €16 for a 7 days one. The SW said it was expensive, but I pointed out that you would get about 5 km for that on a French motorway, and I didn't mind paying. The difference, of course, is that he pays for French motorways....

So we continued to drive through a very wet Slovenia and into an even wetter Austria, and finally arrived at this Reisemobilstellplatz on the outskirts of Graz. For some reason I wasn't feeling great - not sure whether car-sickness, or what - and all I wanted to do was to flake out. Even the SW didn't want to go out! So we both flaked out on the bed and fell asleep.

The rain is away now, but it is dark and neither of us feels like going out. I hope it will be dry in the morning so we can have a quick look round Graz before heading on to Vienna tomorrow.

The picture shows the view through the rather wet skylight at about 4.00 pm this afternoon!