Adios Barcelona, Guten Tag Austria!

Where to begin!  The Austria leg of our trip was a whirlwind of extreme fun and ended far too soon.  We had a total of 60 hours in Austria, but only one full day.  The hours flew by like money out of the US Treasury.

We left our hotel in Barcelona around 9:30 AM for a noon flight. Nearly $100 and thirty minutes later we were at the airport only to stand in line for an hour. The Barcelona airport was a perfect example of what happens when German efficiency meets southern European laissez-faire attitude - the laissez-faire attitude wins. Our flight to Munich probably held 200 people. To check everyone onto the flight, they had one agent. I can't imagine what the line would have been like if there were more than one flight on Lufthansa around the same time.

We arrived in Munich shortly after 2:30 PM and were in the car headed to our friend's house by 3 PM. Our friend's daughter was one of our daughter's closest friends when we both lived in Arizona. They were still there when we left and had no intention of leaving. A few months ago, he was offered a promotion at his job that brought him back to his home country. When they told us, we decided we had to include them in our European vacation. Given our daughter's ages, we had concerns that they would not relate to each other very quickly, maybe requiring a full day to get over their shyness. This would mean that they would really have just one day to play together. Luckily, they were laughing and talking as if they had last seen each other just the day before.

Our friends live in Hopfgarten, about ninety minutes south of Munich in the Austrian Alps. This particular area of central Bavaria has high historical importance. It is one of the major valleys that connect northern and southern Europe and was the location of many battles of warring empires. Castles, lookout towers, and villages dot the beautiful mountainous landscape. Hopfgarten, specifically, was first recognized as a village in the 1300's. Many of the buildings, including the house we stayed in, are older than our nation. Some of them are over 1,000 years hold.

By the time we arrived at their home, unpacked, let the kids play and take bio-breaks, it was after 6 PM and time for dinner. They took us to a mountaintop restaurant that, had it not been raining, would have had great views as far as Italy to the south, including the Alpine glacier. We gorged ourselves on traditional Austrian fare which included a variety of dishes made of pork, cheese and beef. I consumed more meat in that one sitting than I have in the last several months - probably more calories, too, but it was all worth it. Austrian food is delicious! After dinner I learned the digestive palliative effects of Schnapps (the key is to not drink 13).

On Sunday we would have our only full day in Austria and we intended to make the most of it. We started the day at a medieval castle built high in the mountains. This was a hunting castle hundreds of years ago and is currently privately held by a family who still lives in it. They allow visitors to tour a small portion of the palace and maintain it as a museum. Because of the constant risk of invading war parties, all of the bedchambers had secret escape routes that led directly to the forest beyond. My favorite room was the Queen's chambers which boasted an elaborate wood carved ceiling. It took several master woodscraftsmen seven years of isolation and confinement to complete the ceiling, which is held together without a single nail. If the owners allowed people to take pictures of the castle's interior, you could see just how amazing this ceiling was, especially without the use of a single nail.

After the castle, we decided the girls would have more fun if they could stay at the house and play. So my wife, our son, myself and our niece left with the husband and did more site seeing. Our daughters returned to the house with the wife so they could play together. From the castle, those of us on the site seeing expedition visited Crystal World. I was hoping for a demonstration of how they mine and/or produce the crystals. Instead, Crystal World is a museum for art made from Swarovski crystals. I'm not a fan of abstract art. I end up visiting a lot of these places because my wife really likes them. This was no exception. My wife and niece really liked the museum.

We finished at the museum and rushed over to a silver mine that, in its prime, was responsible for 85% of the world's silver production. The castle we visited earlier in the day was a result of the wealth generated by this mine. The mine closed at 5 PM. We arrived at 4:55 PM and were able to make the last tour of the day. They had us all don hard hats and rain jackets. Only my son was exempted from the hard hat requirement because they didn't have any that small. He still wore the jacket. The tour begins with a ride on a mining cart train 900 meters into the hill through a tunnel about 4 feet wide. We then travel through the various tunnels built over nearly 1,000 years of mining for silver and other minerals. At the conclusion of the tour, we walked down stone steps originally carved 400 years ago. Steps older than the United States. I'm glad they had a hand rail.

Our day finished with another elaborate, delicious, authentic Austrian meal - this time, prepared by our hosts.

For our final day, our flight for Italy did not leave until nearly 5 PM. This meant we had until roughly 2 PM to see more in the village of Hopfgarten. This time, it was just my wife, myself, and the husband. We took a ten minute walk into the village. Hopfgarten is one of the largest ski resort towns in all of Europe. There are enough trails there that you can ski every day for a week and never ski the same slope. The hills surrounding our host's house are amazing. Our hike took us to the village church. When you admire the pictures, keep in mind this is a church in a village of 5,500 people.

Our trip to Austria was wonderful and too short. When our daughters said goodbye, they both cried. To console our daughter, we shared with her our expat philosophy: "Don't cry because we are leaving, be happy because we were here". Austria is definitely a place we need to return to for a much longer period of time. There was only one thing that could have made our visit better: sunshine. It rained all day, every day. According to our hosts, in the 400 years this village has kept records of the weather, they've never had a colder, wetter spring. It was cold enough while we were here that the tops of the mountains - a mere 3500 feet - had snow on them from the weather we experienced. Other than that, our visit was absolutely perfect.