In Graz

September 13, 1994

Today was a layover day in Graz, with the Hersheys. The highlights:

The four of us took a taxi to a car rental office to pick up a vehicle. We planned to use it in Graz, but beyond that we planned to travel together to Salzburg before separating again. We then swung by the laundromat to drop our clothes off and pick up the Hershey's which they'd dropped off earlier; and then to a bike store, where we tried without success to purchase a bike rack for the trip to Salzburg.

We took a trip up the funicular for a view of the city.
We parked the car and embarked on a view of the city center. It was beautiful, diverse, and crowded. We passed a seemingly unending series of beautiful facades on medieval buildings.
We went to the Alte Museum, which primarily features medieval art. The most impressive items were a grotesque pair of Bruegels, which would give Laurie nightmares later that night.

We drove back to the room so that Alan could cool off (an issue with his advanced MS condition), after first having great difficulty recovering the car because the parking lot required exact change.

We returned to the city center with the car again, to see the Glockenspiel. We couldn't find it easily, or in time for its show. Instead, we found serious difficulties driving in the old town.
We found a restaurant in old town, as well as additional driving difficulty (that is, we got lost). Afterwards, we drove back to our hotel in the dark, in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm, again getting lost.

Driving (which I did) was an unending challenge, trying to get near enough to the Glockenspiel to see its performance at 6 PM. We got close enough to hear it, but also ended up in a dead end on a narrow, one-lane street that I backed out of with great difficulty. (Trying to tour a city like this in a car is a pretty terrible idea, I know. We were doing this because Alan's MS condition made walking significant distances impractical at best).

Faced with our inability to find a bike rack for the car and the risk of snow in Grossgluckner Pass, we decided to change our plans for the next stage of the trip. Instead, we would drive the car to Salzburg with the Hersheys, leaving our bikes here in Graz. After that, we would return by train to pick them up, and then bike to Italy from here, perhaps to Trieste instead of Venice.

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