Graz; Monday, 26 February, 2018

I’d packed the night beforehand, so I could make more of the Monday morning. As I didn’t have to checkout until 12 and my train was half an hour after that I decided it would be easier to spent the morning in town then quickly head back to the hotel, grab my bags, and checkout in time for the train.

So after a quick breakfast I headed over to the Schloßbergbahn, only to discover that yes it was re-opening today, but not until 10am, and it was only 9:20! So instead I walked back to the Schloßberglift and caught that up to the Schloßberg to have a little wander round. By the time I got to the upper station of the Schloßbergbahn it was a couple of minutes before 10, so I was able to get the first train back down to river level. As it was the first train since maintenance had been completed the car was spotlessly clean – including the front window from which I could get the amazing views over the city as the train descended. Given another couple of trips the window would almost certainly have been smeared with fingerprints!

Back down at river level I walked down to the Graz Museum and had a long look round their exhibition on the history of the city, before it was time to head back over to the hotel, collect my luggage and head for the train.

The train journey on the way out had been exceptionally comfortable in a modern train. Sadly, the train that was supposed to be forming my service had broken down and would instead be starting from Vienna – so to get everyone there Austrian railways had fished some much more elderly carriages out from a depot somewhere and called them into service. Unfortunately, they hadn’t had time to check that the heating was working correctly, so the more than two-hour journey back to Vienna was scenic but chilly.

Back at the Hauptbahnhof it was a simple cross platform change onto the train back out to the airport and my flight back to Heathrow, even though I’d planned to end the day at Gatwick.