Austria Days 7-9

Sunday - Vienna. Willy and Hermi took us with our friend Karin. We did a driving tour of the main sights around the center of town, and stopped for lunch at a large beer garden (some claim it's the largest in Austria), Schweizerhaus in the Prater amusement park. We had stelze (roasted pork knuckle) and real budweiser (from Czech Republic). We had a very good lunch. We took a quick ride in the ferris wheel with great view of the city, and purchased the obligatory tourist tchotchkes in the shops there. After the park, we visited Steffansdom and downtown Vienna. Finally, we ended the day at Schönbrunn castle touring the interior and the sprawling grounds surrounding.

Once we left Vienna, we drove to the Wachau wine country to meet Tanja, Andreas, Rolf, Ingrid, and Miles. We stayed in an Austrian bed and breakfast in Langenlois - a recently-updated home that was over 400 years old! Dinner was in a cool little gasthaus that was decorated in hundreds of clocks.

Monday we visited the Loisium winery and it had the most interesting wine tour I've ever been on. It started with a fountain light show worthy of Las Vegas -- Katie says it was like something from Willy Wonka. It was informative, but took a lot of liberties with what was relevant to making wine.
After the winery, we visited Dürnstein - the one-time prision of Richard Lionheart. It was a quaint little tourist town that seemed stopped in time (surely not on accident). We enjoyed apricot schnapps, visiting the little shops and old buildings, a beautiful church, and a great cafe for lunch (goulash!). Finally, we visited the Basilica of Maria Taferl. We took a quick tour of the church (almost everything was gilded and the organ was beautiful!) and had a brief chat with the priest in little bits of english. Afterward, we took in the great views of the surrounding valley and stopped for a little espresso and sweets. A great end to a good day touring. We took the scenic route along the Danube back to Linz for the night.

Tuesday we took a day trip with Rolf, Ingrid, Tanja, Andreas, Miles, Katie and me to Gmunden. We visited the Gmunder Ceramic factory (very famous Austrian ceramic company) and purchased a few souvenirs. We then drove through town to see the sights (the Schloss Ort castle in the lake was very memorable).

Once we left Gmunden, we drove to Wolfgangsee to tour the town and get a late lunch. Beautiful views of the nearby lake and some shopping ended the afternoon and we headed back to Linz taking the scenic route along Attersee - a large and beautiful lake nestled in the mountains.

We had dinner at Ralf and Popsy's house, friends from the farmer's market (they had a large beautiful new home). The new home is in the hills overlooking Linz, and as the sun went down, the views were quite good. Rolf is a collector of things - most notably, instruments (over 100 guitars in his home studio!). They were great hosts and we had dinner in their basement bar (complete with dj stand, brass rail, pool table, juke box, and booth tables). A fun evening with new friends!

As with the rest of the trip, Miles has been a great sport about having an inconsistent schedule (sleeping and eating), and has been a lot of fun to have along. It's been fun watching Kate's family here interact with him too. I get the impression they're really enjoying him.