Two weeks in Austria...

June 11-24, 2016

The girls are finished with school for the year and we're off to spend TWO weeks in Austria – visiting Opa and just breathing the clean mountain air. Oh, and perhaps taking in a few sights along the way. 🙂

First stop- Munich, Germany.

How about a soft pretzel the size of your head?

Guess who flew in from the USA to join us on our two week adventure?

It's cousin Lily! She flew – by herself – from Chicago to Munich, Germany. Okay, now we're ready for the adventures to begin…

First stop: Liechtensteinklamm in Sankt Johann im Pongau located in Salzburg, Austria.

Dinner at Mark's favorite restaurant in Sankt Johann- Oberforsthof

As her name might suggest, Lily loves flowers…picking them, turning them into sweet little bouquets or pretty flower wreaths.

Driving to Veitsch via a stop in Hallstadt:

Hi Opa!!!!

Opa made bows, arrows, and a target for the girls to shoot at:

Mariazell:

A short day trip to Mariazell to visit the beautiful church and buy (and eat!) Pirker lebkuchen.

Stop in Seewiesen for a short walk:

Lily's handcrafted flower wreath:

Back at Opa's place:Sketching beloved (mostly) Marvel super heroes…

Hike up to Hohe Veitsch:

Another flower wreath created by Lily:

(Many hikers along the way were quite impressed with Lily's wreath-making talent)

We're getting close to the top of the hike!

Oh my. It's so foggy here at the top of the mountain that we can barely see the Graf Meran Haus (it's a guest house & restaurant):

It's warm in here! Waiting for our lunch to arrive:

My favorite flower of all- the cobalt blue enzian:

We've reached the top of Hohe Veitsch:

Time to head back down the mountain:

Breakfast at our place in Turnau:

Kirchleitn in Turnau:

Day trip to Wien:

Stefansdom:

One night…and one night only- Grand Rapids Youth Symphony is playing in Stefansdom. We MUST listen to this concert!!!
One must in Wien: sachertorte at Hotel Sacher:

Schloss Schönbrunn:

Hundertwasser Haus:

Visiting Opa's family:

Mark and the girls are off to do the zip line down the mountain while Opa and I patiently wait at the bottom.

Zipline!!!! Can you hear the shouting?? I could certainly hear my girls before I saw them come zooming past me!

Getting instructions on the ropes course:

As they started on their first full course, it started raining buckets. However, once you start a course you have to finish it…so all four of them bravely and carefully finished the rope course before calling it a day:

Day trip to Graz:

Uhrturm…

Back in Turnau:

At Opa's place in Veitsch (Annika is wearing the t-shirt she bought in Graz):
Opa!

Sigh…another two weeks have zipped by. All in the blink of an eye. It's time to say good bye to Opa and head back towards Munich, with a quick stop in Salzburg. We wanted to squeeze in one of Lily's requests – Mozart's geburtshaus (Mozart's birth house):