I think there is a general depression - weather in particular - over Europe at the moment. Yesterday, Tuesday, turned out to be solid rain all day. It looked promising to start with but after about 10.00 am there was nothing for it but to admit defeat, turn the heat on and spend the day with a book or two. Which is what I did. With the help of a dictionary I got my head around a book about the war and Hartheim in particular.
The story is basically that before the war the castle was occupied by a convent of Sacred Heart nuns who looked after physically and mentally handicapped children there. Once the war started they were shipped out so that 'adaptations' could be made to the castle. Once completed the children were brought back; they are described as being all excited at coming back to what was for them home. The bus drew into the inner courtyard and they were marched straight into the gas chamber. They had lived there previously and were the first group to try out the new facility. After that they came in by the lorry load. It took four hours from entering the place to going up in smoke. What can I say?
It has been an interesting experience learning all about this. But its time to move on now and get back to the composers in Vienna. I did make one decision and that is that the timetable needs to be flexible. There is no point in moving on if that means packing up in the rain. I should really have gone to Vienna today but it was very damp this morning and I put it off till tomorrow. However I did go out for a drive and not entirely unintentionally ended up in Vienna. I wanted to see how complicated it would be getting there. It's pretty straightforward really. The book says to leave the motorway a good 30 miles before Vienna and come in from the north. I couldn't see why that would be necessary. Now I know and it's good that I figured it out in advance.
Vienna looks great and Klosterneuburg to the north of the city, where the campsite is, looks really good, as does the camp site itself. I drove back through the middle of Vienna and the reason for the big detour became clear. The roads are all wide and one way, which is fine. The problem is that they all seemed to be divided into four lanes. This would be ok if everyone were driving golf buggies but the lanes are just about wide enough for a car. Add lorries, busses and trams all of which seem wider than the available space and it's like being in a fairground - good fun but I wouldn't want to do it with a caravan in tow. It would be fine if there were three lanes but four is pushing it a bit. The one thing it does seem to do is make everyone drive quite slowly. If you drive briskly you would be sure to hit something! Vienna looks big and pretty exciting!
The weather forecast according to Google looks to be impriving now over the next week so it's all looking quite promising after a fairly wet couple of days. Breakfast outside on Monday morning in the sun was basically the last bit of seriously proper weather there has been.
Anyway, it's 5.30 pm. Much of the major packing is done for tomorrow. But there's no real rush because the site in Klosterneuburg closes for lunch at 11.30 am. So it'll be a leisurely start and I'll stroll up there in the early afternoon.
More news tomorrow - providing the internet is not to expensive. It has been great here listening to Radio 4 all day over the internet at no extra charge.
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