Graz

A friend of mine had been born in Graz before moving to Australia as a child but in 1982 I did not have a chance to visit it and report back. This time my excuse was that I had met two Austrian backpackers in Scotland in 1982 and decided to drop in on one of them this time. He, his friend and I ended up spending the day together and stayed out so late carousing that I never used my hostel bed but slept overnight at his family home before leaving the next day. I remember meeting his mother, seeing a jar on the window sill and asking, in my schoolboy German: Ist daß Honig am Fenster? It was, and she was pleased that I knew at least one sentence in German. In the photo, the two boys are sitting on the wall.

The Schloßberg clock tower seems to look a little different now.

I can't be sure if this is from Graz or my next destination.

At this point in the pictures I'm not sure how I got from Graz to Hannover to W. Berlin. There was a border Bavarian alps crossing on a cog railway. The Garmisch-Partenkirchen line could be it, but then why didn't I take more photos as the scenery is spectacular. I suspect it was an obscure crossing that I cannot trace at the moment.

I don't think I know the woman, she was just sharing the same gondola with me.

I do remember one moment from the trip. A German tourist was using one of the very first camcorders, expensive at that time. The conductor admired it and probably said I couldn't afford that. Sparen (save for it) was the German man's answer.