Local and Neuberg

30/12
Today we were going to go to Graz, but we slept in as Uschi and I were fatigued from the trip and niggling ailments. We never got to Mitzi's place until 10:00 when we had meant to get there at 08:30.
As the day was gone we decided to just do a local. We went to the ruin on the hill, but didn't climb up to it. It was about -6C and slightly breezy. Noticably chilling to the body and the most uncomfortable I have been on the trip so far. For a short time the cold is not a problem but after a little while a persons extremities begin to sting a little.
The three of us walked around the area below the ruin and we worked our way to the site of the Pengg works which used to be the old railway station.
Near here, where there is now a nail factory, was the site of Christines old kitchen, where she worked for Pengg for 13 years.
Auheim Villa is nearby and is the Pengg family home. One of the existing associated buildings seems to be used as a storage building and maybe has the heating furnace for the Auheim/gallery complex. This particular building was where Christine lived for most of the time she worked in the kitchen for Penggs.
She noted a number of times that when she started work at 08:00 she only had to be up about 5 minutes beforehand. This seems to have been the happiest time of her life.
Because Christine couldn't climb to the ruin, we decided to put it off for another time.
We went and had lunch at the cafe near the goat statue of Aflenz, then went to Neuberg to see the munster.
On the way we found our way blocked by many cars and buses, which upset Uschi. The area around there was thickly covered in snow. We got to Neuberg and spent some time in the munster. Unfortuneately the Kreuzgang was closed. We then decided to go to the old town of Kapfenberg and set the Tomtom for a direct route. After travelling only a short distance we stumbled on the Hundertwasserhaus. Uschi had been desperate to see it, but couldn't exactly remember where it was. We took some pictures in the late afternoon light.
Shortly after this we found the route blocked by a police car. An accident ahead. The policeman said the detour would add about half an hour to the trip. Into the Rax area, but it actually added more than an hour and it was dark by the time we got to Kapfenberg. It would have been quicker to retrace our path through Thoerl.
So we didn't look at the old town, we just grabbed some food (and fireworks) from the Spar supermarket and went back to Mitzis. Mitzi was inordinately pleased as I organised a simple tea of eggs, cheese, turkey and brown bread for us and the kids.