Graz has been a surprise, it is a wonderful city to wander around, and like all cities in this part of Europe, its history is fascinating for a lad who thought Ipswich was entirely worthy of a week’s holiday and two years of schooling.

This city completes part of a holiday history circle for us as Archduke Frank was born in Graz, lived in Vienna for most of his life, often ‘took the waters’ at a thermal spring outside Zagreb, and was assassinated near the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo. His palace is still here, but is now an excellent museum showing the history of the city from the early Middle Ages. We enjoyed that place BUT completely out of left field was our visit to the City Armoury Museum. It was just wunderbar!

It was the central armoury for all of Styria in its time. After Napolean came through and beat the Austrians at the battle of Wagram the 30,000 weapons inside were simply locked up. Fifty years later everything was obsolete, so it was locked up for another hundred years. Then,  after the Russians left in 1955, it was turned into a museum. We could only visit by taking a one hour guided tour- something we usually avoid at all costs.

Some of my vast audience of five will remember the stories of our guided tours of Auschwitz and Gallipoli. In both cases we were totally defeated by the guides and their incomprehensible attempt to explain things in English as she is goodly spoked. In both cases we were ready to fling ourselves onto the razor wire in order to bring our sufferings to an end.  In both cases we made an oath to never again put ourselves through this special form of frustrating hell. This tour was nothing like that.

The guide was knowlegable of course, but, more importantly, you could sense his passion for history and a deep love for his place of employment. He has even written to Warner Brothers on a number of occasions attempting to correct inaccuracies in the way the studio has dressed and armed actors. He has taken five hour private tours for school classes just because they were so fascinated with his stories, wit and specialist knowledge. Most importantly, however, there was no hint of ASD. He was engaging and genuinely funny. I was perhaps a tad miffed when he pointed out that I would have been a goliath of a warrior in the 17th century – 5ft would see out most common soldiers – quite unnecessary i thought. However I forgave him eventually because of his funny but less pointed lines later in the tour, and because he let me play with a musket.

Graz seems to be defined by two things. The hill with the remains of a fortress atop that overlooks the old town is the geographic centre and is visible throughout the city. It is the landmark that features in much of the city’s history of invasions and the ebb and flow of Grazian power over the Mur River valley and Styria itself. Seven universities in the town define Graz demographically, it is full of students and the energy they bring. Although Lady C-S managed once again to book accommodation in the lap-dancing and happy endings district, one gets the impression of this being essentially a vibrant, diverse and tolerant city. It is certainly worthy of another visit.

Finally, it has been pointed out to me, that, in the past when travelling abroad and particularly when journeying home, the posts lack any sense of denouement – instead tend to suddenly come to an abrupt halt.

Better let you go then.

F C-S