Austria

June 17 - July 14, 2009

This year we decided to go on vacation in Westendorf Austria. It was Samantha's third visit, but a first for Christopher who had never met Uri yet. Uri is 85 years old and we were a little worried that she would get stressed out about the visit (we don't need much but old habits die hard and Uri thinks that a full blown meal must be served every 3 hours when you have guests!).

The weather was... rainy. In 4 weeks we only had one single day where it *didn't* rain. Often it was cloudy all day (which is frustrating when you're in the mountains and have no view!) but othertimes it cleared and we actually had some sun during our hikes. Either way, we always had our rain gear along and it was never used as much as on this trip!

Despite the weather we still managed to have a packed agenda most days. We did a lot of hiking and Samantha impressed everyone in that she did all the hikes by herself, most days achieving 15 to 20km with a lot of uphill and downhill. And then she still had energy left to play at all the playgrounds and "theme parks" we visited. The theme parks are a relatively new phenomenon in Austria. Restaurants long ago realized that if you have a playground at a restaurant, kids will happily play for hours while the parents consume vast amounts of food and drink. Now the lift companies have caught on and invested heavily in creating themed parks and trail systems to lure families up the mountain in summer to play and hike. The parks and playgrounds are absolutely free and you could just as easily hike up the mountain yourself, but of course the lifts rake in the money as most people choose to take the lift up instead. We spent quite a few days at various parks such as Hexenwasser (witches' water), Triassic Park, Ellmi's Zauberwelt (magic world), Filzalmsee and Alpinolino.

We all had a great time and despite the weather the 4 weeks just flew by.

  





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