On Tuesday (23rd) we took a train to the Neusiedlersee, which is south of vienna. Half of the body is in austria and the other half in hungary. We rented some bicycles from the train station and rode about 35 km to Rust, a small little town where we overnighted in a guesthouse, along a bike path that circumnavigates the entire lake.
I thought the bike ride was beautiful and a lot of fun. It is such a cool way to explore a country that you can't get by foot or by train. 
It is in the province of Burgenland which is famous for their wine making, so we passed a lot of vineyards which were dormant for the winter.
Some people were clearing their plots of dried sticks and such. Burgenland is relatively flat (like the bike path), and is definitely not the mountainous austria which we encountered later in Salzburg. 
We also passed through some marshy swampish areas.
And we even walked up to a little platform to look out over this pretty golden landscape.
The area is also an aviary for birds, so we saw quite a few of them and also signs such as these, warning cars of potential duck crossing!
Of course we also saw the lake and the (largely dormant) play areas around it as well.
And we also rode right through many small little towns.
I guess I was a bit overambitious and thought we could do the whole 130 km in two days (although we had the time to do it, our bodies were not as cooperative).
Rust is a charming little town. We went to the main square where we had some local white wine. And we also saw some storks!
And we also saw some storks! Every year around this time storks come here to breed. The town actually builds nests and puts them on the chimneys to encourage them to come. See it?
Storks are pretty.
We had some dinner in an austrian restaurant (ben ate schnitzel!)
The next day we had breakfast at our pension and walked a bit around the town before heading back from where we came. Our pension had a really big bunny rabbit for the coming easter time right outside our room.
I had to work on Thursday and Friday, but it was actually a special two days for me because I taught a lesson on Buddhism to 11 of the religion classes at the HTL Kaindorf. The religion teachers liked it and i think i got the students to be interested and laugh a bit as well. I am sad that my time there is ending, only 3 more weeks at each school!
Ben and my big trip around Austria began on Sunday (28th). We first went up to Kefermarkt which is in the province of upper austria. It was about a 3-4 hour train ride. We stayed in a guesthouse which has brewed its own beer since some ridiculous time like 1500. The beer was delicious!!
We also had some good bread and different types of cheese with our beer. The guesthouse was right next to an old castle. (the white building)
Our room had a view of the castle even! 
We walked through the castle, but it isn't preserved as a castle anymore, rather the different rooms are now business and art studio spaces. We also walked around the little village where we saw that some people had already put up easter decorations, such as decorating their tree in the front yard with decorated eggs
and also these little bunny things! 
We also played in a playground. Watch ben go!
We also saw the so called "Flügelalter", a winged alter made of wood. It is a great feat of craftsmanship, although the church itself kinda freaked me and ben out. It was cold and dark and weird.
But this painted fire hydrant cheered us up.
The next morning we made our way back to the train station and went to Linz, a "big" city of about 150,000. We walked to our hostel, but we got there too early, as check in wasn't until 6pm, so we walked into town and walked around the main square with its massive central pillar called the "Dreifältigkeitssäule" (Trinity column) and into some back streets until we found a little place to sit outside and have a drink and snack. After sitting there for quite some time we walked to the river (Danube in english, Donau in german) and lied on the grass. Then we went to the art museum, where we saw an installation of modern art (where i accidentally electrocuted myself) and also some paintings and videos. By this point we were able to check in to our hostel. After settling in and chillin for a while we went to a rock bar with bad wine and poor service and then went to a mexican food place, where burrito meant tortilla folded over and quesadilla meant tortilla folded over and fried. It was quite good (especially the margaritas!) but a bit untraditional.
The next day we wandered around the city a bit
, hiked up a little ways above the city to a castle where we overlooked the river.
We also went to the free city museum where we learned about the history of Linz. We both found the time of Nazi occupation the most interesting. Hitler called Linz the culture capital of the Reich and said it was his favorite as well. He renamed the central plaza to "Adolf Hitler Platz" which is now just called "Hauptplatz" (main plaza). We saw some pictures of the Hauptplatz strewn with Nazi flags all around, and it was really interesting to juxtapose these pictures with how it is now (otherwise unchanged). Same cafes and buildings. We had some pizza, watched some chess
and then bought some amenities. The next morning we went to the ARS Electronica Museum which we had heard was really cool and modern with lots of up to date technology and virtual reality. Well...one floor was pretty boring hands on puzzles which had little to do with technology, and we didn't see any virtual reality really. But we did get to sit in this big hall and see a demonstration of a new 3D interactive gaming technology and also got a 3D tour through our universe all based on satellite pictures. That was cool.
We had breakfast up on the rooftop lounge called CUBUS. The bottom floor was kinda cool as well with some exhibits about the brain and eyeball, but overall I think we both thought the San Diego Space Museum/ Reuben H Fleet Center/ Exploratorium in San Francisco blew it out of the water. AMerika Fux Yah!Anywho, we then traveled about an hour by train to Salzburg, which was just as beautiful as I remembered it. We went up to the fortress with the funicular train and walked around up there.
We had a sweet audio guide tour of the rooms. Ben liked the cannons.
The view from up there of the surrounding mountains was amazing.
I love mountains!! We saw some people playing bach with some traditional instruments on the street. We walked around the main streets,
through the plazas,
and went into a store selling hand made easter egg ornaments. This is traditional in austria as well as germany to decorate eggs and hang them on trees and small bushes. All of the eggs were really beautiful.
They even had ostrich eggs. We walked along the river admiring the surrounding hills (this is where Sound of Music was filmed by the way) and also through the main park. Here is ben looking like a male model in the park:
Here is me with a sweet unicorn in the park:
I still think the park in Graz is the prettiest one i've seen in Austria. We went a bit outside of the city center to the "Augustiner Brauerei" where they brew two types of beer. You basically take a "stein" (the cups to drink out of) of either .5 Liter or 1 Liter and then go get it filled.
My half liter looks like a baby compared to ben's liter. Then you sit in one of 3 huuuge halls at big tables that you all share. The beer was alright, but the atmosphere was great. We had fun. Afterwards we stumbled over to an indian food restaurant (yes the same one we ate at, dad!). It was delicious. We slept well in our hostel room.
The next morning (April 1) was the first day that many things in Austria opened, including the Schloss Hellbrunn, a small palace which is famous for its waterworks. It was developed during a time when it was fashionable to be melancholy (according to the signs) and so this was developed as a fun diversion for nobles. Now it is very touristed, but it was lots of fun. The humor that the prince who built it had is quite absurd and amusing. For example, this stone deer head (where water spewed out of the mouth at the guests) and notice the big foot at the bottom of the pillar.
This picture needs no explanation:
There was also a small stage with lots of moving figures that would entice the visitor and then when the play was over water would spray them from behind.
There were lots of little absurd figures around too.
But the best part was the table. The prince would sit at the head of the table and the guests would sit around in the other chairs. When the prince wanted, he would turn the water trick on, and water would spray up from the chairs and all around them as well. Some brave souls in our group helped demonstrate this trick.
There was also a little room with these figures going around a central stone making weird whistling noises:
We then took a train/bus to Krimml in Salzburg land. While we were on the bus it started snowing, pretty heavily. When we got to the guest house everything was covered in snow.
The house and our room were really cute.
We went out into "town" and had something to eat and drink. The town was pretty cute. The next day we woke up to sun and snow covered trees and mountains.
We walked to Krimml Falls which is the largest waterfall in Europe and part of the Hohe Tauern National Park!
We hiked all the way to the top (there are 3 levels) in the snow.
By mid day much of the snow had already melted away. But you can see how much there was in the morning.
After our hike we had a lumbumba (hot chocolate with rum, yum!) and then bussed to Zell Am See, a town on the Zeller See in Salzburg land. We stayed in a hostel right on the lake which was beautiful.
View from our room:
We did some hiking up in the hills.
We saw hella frog eggs too!
We also saw many skiiers. This was the last week that you can go skiing in austria, so lots of people were taking advantage of it. There wasn't much snow, but just enough to get some runs in. Since it was easter, there was a lot of easter bread and colored eggs around:
Zell am see also had a Friedrich Hundertwasser sculpture representing the 9 States of Austria.
It wasn't as cool as other Hundertwasser stuff that I have seen in Austria, but he is a cool austrian architect you should check out if you don't know.
Our final day we traveled to Bad Gastein, which seemed like a dying city. The main reason we went there was to go to the Thermal Spa, which takes it's waters from the radon filled mountain springs, which is supposed to have healing properties. Ben and I had fun swimming in the pools, playing in the waterfalls, sitting in bubbles, going down slides (only meant for up to 8 year olds), and also going in to the sauna (although ben isn't much of a sauna fan). In Europe, sauna and spa culture is big. And they have no problem mixing genders and being naked around eachother either. It is actually more awkward to be wearing a bathing suit than being naked in these areas. I liked the older men just chillin naked in their chairs reading. It's so...different (ben adds "hairy").
Well that is the end of our trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. We had a good time experiencing it!
We had a sweet audio guide tour of the rooms. Ben liked the cannons.
The view from up there of the surrounding mountains was amazing.
I love mountains!! We saw some people playing bach with some traditional instruments on the street. We walked around the main streets,
through the plazas,
and went into a store selling hand made easter egg ornaments. This is traditional in austria as well as germany to decorate eggs and hang them on trees and small bushes. All of the eggs were really beautiful.
They even had ostrich eggs. We walked along the river admiring the surrounding hills (this is where Sound of Music was filmed by the way) and also through the main park. Here is ben looking like a male model in the park:
Here is me with a sweet unicorn in the park:
I still think the park in Graz is the prettiest one i've seen in Austria. We went a bit outside of the city center to the "Augustiner Brauerei" where they brew two types of beer. You basically take a "stein" (the cups to drink out of) of either .5 Liter or 1 Liter and then go get it filled.
My half liter looks like a baby compared to ben's liter. Then you sit in one of 3 huuuge halls at big tables that you all share. The beer was alright, but the atmosphere was great. We had fun. Afterwards we stumbled over to an indian food restaurant (yes the same one we ate at, dad!). It was delicious. We slept well in our hostel room.The next morning (April 1) was the first day that many things in Austria opened, including the Schloss Hellbrunn, a small palace which is famous for its waterworks. It was developed during a time when it was fashionable to be melancholy (according to the signs) and so this was developed as a fun diversion for nobles. Now it is very touristed, but it was lots of fun. The humor that the prince who built it had is quite absurd and amusing. For example, this stone deer head (where water spewed out of the mouth at the guests) and notice the big foot at the bottom of the pillar.
This picture needs no explanation:
There was also a small stage with lots of moving figures that would entice the visitor and then when the play was over water would spray them from behind.
There were lots of little absurd figures around too.
But the best part was the table. The prince would sit at the head of the table and the guests would sit around in the other chairs. When the prince wanted, he would turn the water trick on, and water would spray up from the chairs and all around them as well. Some brave souls in our group helped demonstrate this trick.
There was also a little room with these figures going around a central stone making weird whistling noises:
We then took a train/bus to Krimml in Salzburg land. While we were on the bus it started snowing, pretty heavily. When we got to the guest house everything was covered in snow.
The house and our room were really cute.
We went out into "town" and had something to eat and drink. The town was pretty cute. The next day we woke up to sun and snow covered trees and mountains.
We walked to Krimml Falls which is the largest waterfall in Europe and part of the Hohe Tauern National Park!
We hiked all the way to the top (there are 3 levels) in the snow.
By mid day much of the snow had already melted away. But you can see how much there was in the morning.
After our hike we had a lumbumba (hot chocolate with rum, yum!) and then bussed to Zell Am See, a town on the Zeller See in Salzburg land. We stayed in a hostel right on the lake which was beautiful.
View from our room:
We did some hiking up in the hills.
We saw hella frog eggs too!
We also saw many skiiers. This was the last week that you can go skiing in austria, so lots of people were taking advantage of it. There wasn't much snow, but just enough to get some runs in. Since it was easter, there was a lot of easter bread and colored eggs around:
Zell am see also had a Friedrich Hundertwasser sculpture representing the 9 States of Austria.
It wasn't as cool as other Hundertwasser stuff that I have seen in Austria, but he is a cool austrian architect you should check out if you don't know.
Our final day we traveled to Bad Gastein, which seemed like a dying city. The main reason we went there was to go to the Thermal Spa, which takes it's waters from the radon filled mountain springs, which is supposed to have healing properties. Ben and I had fun swimming in the pools, playing in the waterfalls, sitting in bubbles, going down slides (only meant for up to 8 year olds), and also going in to the sauna (although ben isn't much of a sauna fan). In Europe, sauna and spa culture is big. And they have no problem mixing genders and being naked around eachother either. It is actually more awkward to be wearing a bathing suit than being naked in these areas. I liked the older men just chillin naked in their chairs reading. It's so...different (ben adds "hairy").
Well that is the end of our trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. We had a good time experiencing it!
