11.42 It's Good Friday. It is time for Christer to take a shower. It is time for me to start writing. It's time to gear up for a new Easter trip. There is still a lot of snow left out there. Hopefully, some of it will be gone when we return home.

13.17 Enough is enough with the preparations. It´s time to go down to the railway station here in Sundsvall.

Hope there is less snow when we get home!

14.05 On the display the names of the places where the train stops is being shown. We will go with the X2000-train all the way to Stockholm. Right now two German-speaking young ladies sat down in front of us. Is this a sign? We travel in first class, oddly enough, it is less expensive than second class. We have free coffee! A good start on the trip.

15.50 The track runs parallel to a road. Now the road disappeared and was replaced by snow-covered ground. I´ve just seen two horses. We are just north of Gävle.

17.52 Our train rolled in and we got off at the central station in Stockholm. All around us there are people carrying stuff and further afield on our bench a cellphone chatting girl is sitting down. She has only eaten a baguette today. She calculates to get at home at 20:30. Fourteen!, Fourteen!, One four ... .. fourteen!! a man cries out further away.

18.33 It's almost time for a new train. We are about to leave the Stockholm central station to travel on towards Nyköping.

19:54 We arrived at Nyköping Railway Station and went directly to Railway Hostel. There, we pushed in the gate code and was, unlike last summer, let inside. However, the code did not work for the key box. We tried again and again and nothing happened. Another gentleman wanted to get into the box. He had been given a different code than we got. The man phoned to those responsible. Suddenly the box worked again. We got into the box with the other gentleman’s code. However, there was no envelope with my name. It was one for Peter Jansson. We took it with us and soon we are about to leave room number 4.

A common starting point on our travels, Railway Hostel in Nyköping.

20.35 It has proceeded well. We bought breakfast at a supermarket which actually was open despite the Good Friday. Now we will have dinner at the Pizzeria Olympia.

21.18 There was a fire truck and a police car outside of the railway station when we got back. It smelled a little burnt and there was smoke inside the waiting room. We are now back in room 4. It is time for some studies about tomorrow’s destination.

23.25 We’ve been out in the kitchen/TV-room and watched TV (Flashforward) and talked to Ian Pearson. He is on a brief visit to the country and has just arrived from Liverpool. He's going to Västerås and Enköping. Ian whose name according to his envelope is Persson had, just like us, been to the Philippines. We exchanged experiences from that country. He also took the chance to treat us with some whisky and told us about his father who visited Sweden in his youth, and was partying only to forget his luggage here. He realised after a week at home that it was still in Sweden. We'd better tuck in and get some rest. It will be an early morning tomorrow.

Saturday 3rd of April

04.20 One step has been taken in the right direction. We’ve been able to sleep. Now, just move on.

05.04 We’ve just said hello to a sneezing man at the bus stop. We, just like him, are waiting for a bus.

05:45 Once again, we are at Skavsta airport. Here things are just the same, different people doing different things talking about everything. Something new is the fact that Christer´s backpack is broken. There is a big hole where one strap is attached.

06.34 Longdrinks, cocktails, wines, sandwiches and main dishes are something of which is offered in "The Bar". We´re sitting on a bench and are talking about the jobs we have when we don’t travel. Now they called out a flight to Sardinia, a flight we first planned to take as our Easter travel but it didn’t exist when we wanted to book earlier in the winter.

The start of yet another Ryanair flight.

07.08 Through the speakers people are advised to sit down. We are not going to do that. We are already in our seats on the airplane. It's been really good and smooth today. When will the backlash hit us?

07:30 I’ve switched seats with the plane´s saddest passenger. It is a little guy who wants to sit with his dad. However, this is just temporary. They shall, as soon as the plane lifts, sit down further upfront.

09.44 Mighty views can be seen beneath us. It is snow-covered Alps and beautiful valleys. The amount of snow is less now compared to when we flew over the mountain range on the way home from Rome in January. We just flew over the city of Graz.

AUSTRIA

10.04 Once again, Ryanair has taken us abroad. We are at the airport in Klagenfurt, Austria. Klagenfurt is located in Carinthia (Kärnten), not far from Slovenia and Italy. The radio is playing "99 luftbalons" by Nena. We are having Coca Cola and pastries at the cafe here.

We have landed in Klagenfurt!

10.44 It's sunny outside and a lovely spring weather. Now we´ve walked to the bus stop Annabichl. Here we are waiting for a bus on line 40. With it, we will travel towards the centre. Nearby are several flowershops and a cemetery.

11.06 We got off at the Heiligengeistplatz. Here I sit in the spring sun. I yawn a bit and wait for another bus ride.

11.14 A church has been studied and photographed while we are waiting for the bus. People were coming out of the church with baskets looking just alike. Did they bring them with them or have they got them inside the church? It might be some kind of Austrian Easter tradition.

Heiligengeistkirche (the Holy Ghost Church) in Klagenfurt.

11.32 We got on another bus and then left it. Now we are entering the hostel Jugendgästehaus Klagenfurt. There is unfortunately no one else is there. It is closed right now, well the reception is closed. Check in is today from 16:00. What should we do with the backpacks until then?

12.44 We just left the backpacks under a table and added a handwritten note with our names. Now we are at Lake Wörthersee and we can see the castle Maria Loretto. It is stunningly beautiful here with the snow-capped mountains, a mirror-like lake and clear air. We have also seen some who paddled and lots of people jogging. Austrians seem to be a sporty breed. Between our hostel and the lake is Klagenfurt University and a park, Europapark.

Jugendgästehaus Klagenfurt.

Christer in the outskirts of Klagenfurt.

Restaurant Maria Loretto is beautifully situated at the Wörthersee.

Sehr schön! Christer looking at Wörthersee.

13.52 We’ve relocated us a few times. There are two hours left until check-in. We need something that fills bellies and not empty our wallets. A short distance away is a restaurant but it looks a bit too expensive for us. Around us we have a park and we can see trains pass.

14.33 We are temporarily back at the hostel. Here we will check if the backpacks are around and if the place has a kitchen where we could cook some dinner later in the evening.

15.11 Our backpacks were left, but we found no kitchen. We did not find an open grocery store. Everything seems to have closed on Easter. However, we found a park bench on this long day.

Flowers and sunny weather at the Wörthersee. It's nice to travel south.

Peter is writing down his observations.

15.44 I am once again sitting down. We’ve walked through a residential/villa/townhouse area. We walked along Babenbergerstraße. There are lots of beautiful well-kept houses and everything feels much more comfortable than the more artificial Swedish residential areas. We’ve also briefly looked at a British war cemetery, which was blasted into a residential area.

16.10 We’ve finally checked into room 101. We share the room with an eight-legged rascal. It is a spider. This is a huge place and breakfast is served in the lobby from seven o'clock in the morning.

16.38 We went down again and I was called to the front desk of the girl there. There were apparently two reservations for us, one made by me in November and one made by Christer in December. Christer´s was made when we have received no response to my first booking. It was made on another website. Moreover, it was partly paid. Now we have received 20 euros. With these and other euros in your pocket, we are now moving towards the centre. What have we learned from this? One can not assume that there will be a confirmation when you book a room. It can thus be booked although we have not received any reply to our request/booking.

City Theatre of Klagenfurt.

Easter decorations along Bahnhofstraße, Klagenfurt.

Peter is copying a friend made of stone.

17.25 We’ve put ourselves on a bench in front of the city's beautiful Municipal Theatre. Behind us we have the town hall. It is calm, quiet and sparsely with people on the streets. The trees are decorated with Easter eggs.

17.50 All around us there are beautiful, old houses. We’re sitting down on the Alter Platz. Some young men laugh. The houses we see reminds us of the Slovak towns we’ve seen before but it has actually all been parts of the Habsburg Empire in the old days. There is also a monument with a cross atop a crescent moon. It is from the 1600´s and is about the fight against the Turks. The Turkish Empire reached as far as the Austrian border.

It is empty of people this Easter Saturday. The picture is from the Alter Platz.

Gifts for the First Communion.

The statue "Lindwurm" on Neuer Platz.

18.41 It is waiting room-quiet around us. We have ordered dinner. We are at a restaurant called Wienerwald. The name is familiar. Didn´t we visit a place with the same name 2006 in Bregenz? There is a chain of restaurants with the same name (http://www.wienerwald.at)

19.19 It was tasty and above all so much needed. Food is great and good for the body. Now we will drink the beers before we pay and move along.

19.58 We are all of a sudden at the train station, Hauptbahnhof Klagenfurt. Well, we actually walked to get here. Here we will buy tickets for tomorrow's trip to Salzburg. All will be taken care of by ticket machines.

Peter doing some shopping at an Esso petrol station.

21:33 Tickets were purchased and we went home. We also bought a drink at the Esso petrol station. Next.... well who knows?

22:04 We’ve been and bought some coffee from a vending machine down in the lobby. We are also having some Easter candy which I got enclosed on the trip. Some fatigue is being felt after this long day.

Our room at Jugendgästehaus Klagenfurt.

Sunday 4th of April

07.29 It is Easter Sunday. I’ve just done something I've never done before. I’ve woken up after sleeping a night in Austria. Sleep has been good. The brain feels refreshed. I don’t think I would like to know how the legs and calves feel. There were some walking yesterday

08.42 We just had some breakfast, a perfect start to the day. There were not many souls who breakfasted. There were a larger group of Czechs and a few Italians. Now we wonder about why it always feels uncomfortable to check out. Is this separation anxiety, fear of the unknown or simply laziness?

09.14 Christer has packed up his battery charger from the backpack. This is to avoid losing the batteries through the hole in the backpack. Now we are ready to go on. Our accommodation, I have only good things to say about it. What will be said about the next remains to be seen. It is time to toss up your bags and leave.

Christer on a city bus in Klagenfurt.

09.35 We are bumping around. A recorded female voice is talking about "Nächste halteställe", the next stop. We travel by bus to the city centre and will then switch to a bus that will take us the to the railway station.

10:00 We are next to track three at the railway station. We are waiting for the train that will take us to Mozart's birthplace. If we understood things correctly the train starts its journey here in Klagenfurt, which should mean that there is plenty of room when we step on board. Our tickets have no seat reservations.

10:14 We're aboard the train. It is empty and quiet in our car. Not many seem to be on the road today. The conductor told me "Tag" as he passed. He walked around and handed out the schedules for the upcoming trip.

We are waiting for our train to show up. It will begin its journey through Austria and Germany by visiting our station.

11.12 More people have climbed into the train at the station in Villach. More will board soon and it's off again. Soon it's off to new horizons. They are certainly at least as beautiful as those we have seen until now.

11.56 Our train climbs further upwards. Magnificent mountain ranges with snow visible around us. A man with a daughter and two coffee mugs have passed us. Sometimes we can see deep valleys, sometimes visible Alps, sometimes we see nothing at all. That is during the times we go through long tunnels. There are plenty of them.

12:18 It's over with climbing and riding. At least for the moment. We are in the resort of Badgastein and are slowly going downhill in terms of height.

One of the best photos we managed to take through our dirty train window.

12.59 The beautiful views, succeed each other at a pace that gives notice on inflation in its beauty. Now a lady blew her nose in the coach. No, now there was some error. A lady in the coach blew his nose, that is right, or ....?

13.05 Now, we have stopped in one of the four. We are in Bischofshofen. This is one of four stops in the German-Austrian Skijumping Tournament. We are two stops from our jump, the jump off the train in Salzburg.

13.21 We have passed the magnificent castle in Werfen. It competes with the surrounding nature of being the area's main attraction. We travel along the river Salzach.

14.14 We arrived at Salzburg railway station area. The train heads on towards its final destination in Siegen, Germany with arrival time 21.57. The actual station is under construction. In fact, the station is demolished. This fact and some misleading signs made it difficult to get out. However, we came out and also to our "favorit-chain" Burger King. We have been to Burger King in some countries at this point, Sweden, Singapore, Germany, Italy and Austria. Now we are having our lunch and are ready to move on in life.

14.32 It is time to stop walking and check if we, as the atomic clock, go right. After that we move forward.

15:00 It is time for a bench break. In front us is the River Salzach and in the air is rain. We rest a little bit before we move on. In our next accommodation an 8-person dorm await us.

15.37 There will be no dorm. We have our own room, number 214. We are staying at the Jufa Gästehaus on Josef Preis Allee 18 (http://www.jufa.at). The price is the same as for the beds in the dormitory. Thank You!

16.18 It has become time to go discovering our surroundings.

Peter is waiting for the sky to stop watering Salzburg.

16:29 We got no further than the lobby. It's raining today in Salzburg. We are waiting out the rain.

16:43 It's European Championships in capoeira in the city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira) This means that there are plenty of Brazilians in the building. Is this another sign of the future? Is this why the booking was changed to a dorm room? Probably it is so. Capoeira is a Brazilian blend of dance and martial arts.

17:22 Out in the rain is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He stands in the square that bears his name, Mozartplatz. We are in a portal that does not bear any of our names. It probably has no name at all. It is still raining but not worse than we can make our way through the city.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stands in the rain on Mozartplatz, Salzburg.

This shop has a lot of Easter things to sell.

Mozart Geburtshaus, the music genius Mozart was born here in 1756.

17:36 We are here in the old town of Salzburg and is now outside Mozart Geburtshaus, the house where Mozart was born. This house and Mozart Wohnhaus just across the river is used as museums. The rain, well it comes and goes.

17:50 We are now hiding from the rain in the mall Ava. Almost everything is closed here but it's warm here and it is not raining. We study some designer bags and scarves in a shop window. Who will pay hundreds of dollars for a small bag? Someone does it obviously.

18:09 The rain is no longer falling on us. We are indoors at the Café Getreidegasse on Getreidegasse 27. Here we will have coffee and pastries. Now we hope to be dry before walking on. Christer is trying Guglhupf, Sigmund Freud's favourite.

Christer found a red (communist?) cow near the restaurant Sternbräu.

In Austria you have to visit cafés.

19:19 We are home to get dry and think. What do we eat tonight? Where do we eat tonight?

20:17 We've watched German football on TV, specifically from the second league. Now we will seek us out on the town for dinner.

21:00 We have walked through Salzburg's old town in search of a cheap but good restaurant. The (old town) is also, like so many other places we have seen, on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Now we have come to the restaurant Resch & Lieblich at Toscaninihof 1. There is a restaurant of the smaller kind and is easy to miss. It seems to be in a wall, the city wall?

21.16 Christer heard someone/something growl behind him. We hope that there is a dog and not one of the guests.

22.21 We're back home after Christer had eaten the restaurant´s own pizza (hauspizza) and I had goulash. To it we drunk Stiegl Goldbräu, beer from this town. Now it will be nice to get some sleep..

Inside the cozy restaurant Resch & Lieblich.

One should not be afraid of the dark when taking evening strolls around Salzburg's old buildings
listening to the church bells echoing between the hills.