CUCC Expeditions to Austria: 1976 - 2023

(Date randomly guessed)

Another brick in the wall / Team me'n'he go to Berlin to see the Wall (Roger Water's not Berlin's) (Maybe it should be "The Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking") Trying to be brief, here it goes (leaving Hilda's at 10:30 AM)

[''this is a table of lifts, and I can't remotely format it in html and its pretty crap in plain ascii. Hence it's commented out, but if you look at the source in html, you can read it (if you really want)'' Ed.]

 not even slightly about caving : _To_        _Transport_ B.A.station    Foot (with Claire). Salzburg stn.  Train Autobahn near  Walk (bloody long way!) Salzburg Across border  Nice lady (in all senses!) in nice red car Munich         Bloke with little English in transit van with electric chair (wheelchair) in back. Ingolstadt     Bloke in ICM (ideal caving machine - space cruiser with loud stereo) who gave us some v. nice beer & drank some himself while bombing it down A-bahn. Middle of      Wrinkly with no English in nicish car. nowhere Nürnberg       lift in less than a minute (!!!) from strange man in Austrian national dress who got lost and confused near Nürnberg. All the way to central Berlin (50 yds from Potsdamer-Platz!) at 2am!!! Nice man in nice car with nasty music tastes - rap & similar stuff with all the "middle" removed on the graphic equaliser. (<12hrs from Salzburg) 

 Wandered around, through Brandenburg gate and then decided to go to airport (<10km away) for kip (walking). Awoken at ridiculous time by lots of noisy Pan Am staff. Wandered around Airport for a bit, Matt changed some money & wandered back to central Berlin. Looked at some sights & at V. impressive rig in Potsdamerplatz. Got some food, looked for banks - all shut of Friday afternoon (!?!) - so ended up in horrendously packed Bureau-de-change, wandered back to grassy bit full of tents across road from P-platz, sat dawn & moved on by police at about 11pm, move across road to more grassy bit, police give up & we get some sleep - chilly (_never_ get seperated from your pit!) Start queueing at about 8.30am get let in about 1.30pm, find good spot & get v. bored till about 4.30pm when music starts. The Wall starts at 10pm ish & is v.good although it needed a lot more bass. afterwards join hordes causing traffic chaos - walk toward A-bahn get tired & bored & get bus - walk a bit more - arriving at A-bahn at c. 5am. 

 Destn        Transport Nürnberg          Two mad germans in Skoda "given to them by some E.Germans" who rolled cigarettes while driving & ran out of petrol on A-bahn, without a spare tank. N.München         Blue car-like contraption (suitable for caver) with 2 germans. after 2 hour wait S.München         Informed by Munich-based hitcher that A-bahn signed for Salzburg from N.Munchen is crap & tells us how to get to S.München by using every form of public transport available in city. Walk and take tube & walk again instead. Salzburg (in fact Wait on A-bahn junction designed frustrate hitchers for more than 3 hrs, then walk back along road and deviously stand by traffic lights. Get lift in <1/4 hr all the way to Salzburg. The man is a W.German, Austrian pig breeder who drives a plush V.W. with a car phone, sun-roof, etc & hang glides & smuggles cigarettes across international borders in his spare time. a couple of exit after on road signed to Bad Ischl) Hof               About 9pm by this time & no f*cking Austrian b*stards will stop for us. Walk up road. V.tired by Hof, so kip overnight in wood. Bad Ischl         Wake up with beginnings of frostbite. Walk into town, find bus leaves at 7.15am, now about 5.30 am, so try hitching for a bit - no hope! Find bakery open & buy still-warm rolls & jam - eat 'em & feel better. Bet bus to B.I., even though timetable seems to try for B.A. Fall asleep a lot Bad Aussee        Train Hilda's           Walk (bloody hell, not more!)