Marilyn and David's Wedding Anniversaries.

Ninth, in September 2011, on the Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club trip to Austria in the 1976 Daimler Double Six Avon-Stevens Convertible.

Day Four, Saturday 3rd September.

The final 193 mile leg of our marathon drive across Europe to the wonderful Gruner Baum Hotel at Bad Gastein in Austria. We left the Fussen Hotel for the Fernpass and immediately joined a traffic jam which persisted all over the pass. In fact our overriding memory of Austria is how much traffic there was. A wonderful clean fresh country, but lots of traffic, road works and tractors! The weather was sunny and warm and the journey quite easy. We stopped for petrol just after coming off the Innsbruck motorway and found a very peaceful café behind the garage which was perfect for our lunch stop. The final part of the run climbed up into the foothills of the Alps and we wound our way around the valley to the very secluded Hotel complex. Sparkling wine was presented to us as we checked in: all very civilised.  Our room was in the annex that houses the spa complex. The accommodation was spacious and very well appointed, with balcony looking up the valley towards the mountains.

We had arrived in good time to be able to have over an hour enjoying the outdoor swimming pool. This was a lovely relaxing reward for all the travelling. A champagne reception was held later beside the pool, hosted by the Blumschein family who own the Hotel. It was during this that we were handed our "route books" for all the activities taking place over the next few days. A huge amount of effort must have gone into the preparation and planning for these events. An excellent dinner was later served in the main Hotel restaurant. Our cars were resting in a specially reserved area behind the Hotel.