Final Evening at the Harfenwirt

Friday 15 August 2003. It's our final night at the Harfenwirt Hotel in Niederau, Austria.

All ready for our last meal. It was taken by one of our waiters, who had taken to us after one night when I went to the bar to find him almost beside himself at a French lady who had bought a bottle of red wine and was demanding "Glass! Glass!" She was already holding four glasses and behind the bar the bemused waiter was shouting "You've got glasses!" "Non! Glass!" was the response. It twigged with me. "Glace?" (ice?) I said, "...pour la froid?" (for cold?) She turned with a dramatic gesture "Oui!" she said, drawing the word out to at least a dozen letters longer than it should have been. "Avec la vin rouge?" (with red wine?) I asked doubtfully. "Oui!"

Almost every night we had played a few games of rummy on the hotel veranda. After the event described above, the female members of the French party had taken to waving and cooing at me every time they passed. Very disconcerting... "Ah oui! Bon soir!" [nervous laugh]. Fran thought this hilarious...

Another of the British couples had thought playing cards a good idea to fill the night and bought a pack in Austria only to find there wasn't a single card with a value under seven... "Did the pack not feel thin?" I asked. "No," came the reply, "I just thought what a bargain they must be at the price!"

The waiters all made a fuss of Mum, possibly for the simple reason that her loud cackling laugh annoyed the French...

Night falls on Niederau and the Harfenwirt. It was a shame that there weren't more lights on in the bedrooms, it would have brightened the picture up a bit. Mum, Dad and Fran are standing near one of the lights but you can't see them. They are peering into the dark saying things like "Where's he gone???"

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