DAY 93 TUESDAY JUNE 26 BACK TO EUROPE

We had been planning this day for a long time,  working out how we could get from Leith in Scotland to Fuschl am See in Austria in one day.  In the end we managed to do it in 26 hours. Starting at 8.30 from our Premier Inn we caught the number 10 doubledecker hybrid ecobus to Edinburgh Waverly Station where we boarded the 9.30 East Coast train to London Kings Cross, getting a free lunch served to our reserved  seats in the first class coach.  Crossed the road to St Pancras Station, negotiated the French Immigration Police (who were far less inquisitive than the English ones - Why are Aussies interrogated by the poms every time they enter England, when the Belgian, Dutch , Irish and French just give a perfunctory stamp?),  and crammed onto Second Class Coach on the Eurostar to Paris, leaving at 3.01pm.  Another mystery here - Why, when we possess First Class Rail Passes for both Britain and Europe did it cost us $130 to travel by train from London to Paris (or twice that if we had chosen First Class) in conditions worse than any of the trains we used within England or Ireland?  That is, in fact the same price we would have paid if we had bought concession tickets, so we saved nothing.
We advanced our watches by an hour in the chunnel and arrived in Paris Gare du Nord at 6.17pm.  We were then about half way to our goal.  Since it was our first time in Paris we had some trouble working out how to use the Metro to get to Gare de L'Est,  but received some useful help from two elderly French gentlemen, one who sold us his unwanted tickets and another who reassured us we were stepping on to the right train because there was no indicator board on the platform that had the words Gare de L'Est on it.  Always difficult when you get off a train in a new city and we always seem to head in the wrong direction.  At 8.05pm we boarded the City Night Line train for Munich and climbed up onto our top bunks in the Couchette while four young girls occupied the intermediate and lowest bunks.  It was a tight squeeze but much better than trying to sleep in the Day-Night seats which we could have had for nothing.  All the double suites were booked out months before.  The train pulled into Munich Central at 7.10 am and they announced that the train on the next platform was for Budapest via Salzburg with Railjet.  We had reservations on a train that was to leave an hour later but we jumped on the first class carriage of this one which gave us a very comfortable trip with lovely scenery, arriving at Salzburg 9am.  We were surprised to see very few old buildings here and wondered whether this was because of the bombing.  We had managed to get from Edinburgh to Salzburg in 24 hours and still felt OK.

LIGHTHOUSE ON THE FIRTH OF FORTH NEAR OUR ROOM

VIEW OF BRITANNIA FROM NEAR OUR HOTEL

ON THE TRAIN FROM MUNICH TO SALZBURG

ALPINE LAKE FROM THE TRAIN

ARRIVAL AT HOTEL MOHRENWIRT

LATE BREAKFAST WITH BEVAN AND VANESSA