6 Austrian Adventures

We loved Austria. Completely, absolutely loved it! I have come to realize that life is generally better while being surrounded by gorgeous scenery. Like, if you have to do certain things in life anyway; breastfeed, change a poopy nappy, entertain a toddler, or listen to a chorus of whinging from the kids, how much better to do those things with the Alps in the background!! ....with a yodeler.....in Lederhosen.....and a cow bell ringing.

Austria was a wonderful blend; consisting of the level of perfection and beauty that we had seen in Germany, combined with a more relaxed and easygoing vibe than it's more regimented neighbour. It was like the younger brother. It had its own unique flair and special talents, but is sometimes dwarfed by the bigger, more imposing sibling. We found things a bit more flexible, and a bit more easygoing in the 'little brother' territory of Austria. That was our impression anyway. And come on, a country where they wear adorable dresses with aprons and lederhosen out and about has got to be cool! Well, my version of cool anyway ( I'm a total sucker for any kind of fancy dress! ).

I thought it would be fun to show some of the things we got up to in beautiful Austria.

1. Sommerrodelbahn.

There were two main things that I had found on my internet researches before we arrived in Europe that looked particularly fun; German Christmas markets, and the dry summer toboggan that goes all the way down a mountain!

I knew these toboggan runs existed in Switzerland, but I was very happy to discover that there was a sommerrodelbahn right near us in Maria Alm. It's not particularly cheap for a family of 7, but we had a free pass as part of our handy tourist card, yay! They only run them when there has been no rain for at least a few days because of safety, and we weren't able to take baby Bo, but we chose a nice sunny day and planned on taking turns. Unfortunately the day we selected was a popular one, and for some odd reason, the place was overrun with tourists, particularly Arabs. I got chatting to one lady in the line and discovered she was from Dubai!

Rushy had to be with an adult, so he was lucky and got to go down twice, once with Ross and then with me. Ross was also lucky, he got a good solid run down the mountain as he didn't have many people stopped in his way. Amira, Bo and I waited excitedly for them to appear!

Finally Amira and I had our turn with Rushy. It was so much fun!! Although, we had a few pauses.....the Arab tourists liked to stop and take selfies along the way, and text, or chat...!!!! Aargh, so frustrating! And there was a bit of an art form to it. If you went too fast, you ran the risk of crashing off the edge. Then you had to walk your sorry butt all the way down the mountain carrying the toboggan! There were lots of sharp corners, hills and tunnels ( plus tech obsessed tourists ) along the way. So we had to stop and start a bit, but we still absolutely loved it, and we got a good run at the end!

2. Liechtensteinklamm.

We went to the 4 km long gorge in the mountains called Liechtensteinklamm, it has walls up to 300m! This activity was part of the time in Maria Alm when we got carried away with the walking thing. It was fine, not exactly the amazing, blow your mind stunning vision that Pinterest promised, but maybe that's just because it was cloudy and drizzly. We sort-of enjoyed the walk and seeing the waterfall at the end. Probably the most exciting and memorable part was when we were walking back to our car; the heavens opened up and unleashed a torrent of rain upon our heads!!! Just like in Salzburg, it came on so quickly and without any warning! It was one of those moments when we laughed because it was just so crazy!