Its so good to be back - Return to Vienna

Our train was quite delayed and to make matters worse we jumped on a tram which was traveling in the wrong direction so didn’t arrive at Anja’s place until after 10pm. Anja and Claudia were still up, of course, and happy to see us. Anja even heated up some apple strudel with Vanilla sauce when we arrived, one of Damien’s new favorites. We chatted for a long time and eventually made it to bed after saying goodbye to Claudia, as she is off to see her family in Stuttgart in Germany so had to leave at 5am in the morning. The following day we got up at a reasonable time and packed a bag for the weekend. Anja was taking us to her family’s weekend house in the country. This is in Puchberg am Schneeberg which is a beautiful valley just west of Vienna. The mountains are beginning to flatten out here but there is still plenty of snow in winter so that they can ski. We discovered there are also plenty of mountains to climb. We arrived at the house and Anja gave us the grand tour. Anja’s father and grandfather built the house in the 60’s and there is evidence of her grandfather’s pride in the house and love of collecting everywhere. The basement it full of old hats, musical instruments, old photos, beer steins and an antique iron collection amongst other things. We could have happily spent hours there exploring the assorted collections. We finally dragged ourselves away, Damien wearing a traditional Austrian hat and had lunch, then set out to hike for a couple of hours. The first stop was a lovely water fall which fed the stream which runs past the house. The walk took us through fields, up steep forest paths and had some nice views of the surrounding mountains. Finally we made it back to the house and everyone collapsed. Much later I found the energy to cook dinner whilst Damien and Anja made some apple strudel. Just as we were serving up Anja’s parents Barbra and Ozzie arrived. They are very nice and kept us entertained with stories of their lives and families. Barbra is originally from the USA and met Ozzie whilst studying at the Vienna University. Apparently they had an English German dictionary to help them through their first date. The strudel turned out very well so we all went to bed with very full bellies.
The next morning it was hot, proper hot, although this may have been helped by the fact that we didn’t get out of bed until after 11am. We had some breakfast then headed off on another walk up one of the mountains to a ski hut where we had lunch. The Austrian food is very heavy but so good. Damien and I shared a pizza toast and soup then went back for some Kaiserschmarrn which is a thick pancake which is shreaded and then served with plum sauce and sugar, it was so good! Anja had a lentil dish which was served with a dumpling and bacon which was also delicious. On the way back down the mountain we all regretted eating so much and that was when Anja had a phone called from her parents informing us that they just bought a whole lot of meat for a barbeque and they hoped we were hungry. We managed to get Barbra and Ozzie to wait a couple of hours for dinner but then we had to eat again. There were chicken drumsticks, meat patties, steak, and about five different types of sausage. Luckily we managed to convince Ozzie not to cook everything because it was all very good but we were all so full. Damien and Anja insisted on serving up the left over apple strudel which defiantly tipped me over the edge.
Sunday morning Damien had promised to cook his famous eggs in bread for breakfast along with the leftover sausages. I don’t think anyone really needed another big feed but it was good. After that we packed up and sadly headed back to Vienna. We could have easily spent a week at the house as it was so lovely and the valley was just beautiful. Back in Vienna we pottered for a few hours and then headed out again to meet our friend Sandra who we met when we were in Scotland. On the outskirts of Vienna there are some small wineries known as Heurigen, where families grown small plots of grapes and make some wine which they sell in their yards. We went to one called Prager and sat in an outdoor booth surrounded by grape vines. The wine was very nice and so was the schnitzel but unfortunately we were chased away by ravenous mosquitoes. Monday morning we said one last good bye and thank you to Anja before she headed to work. Breakfast, pack and off we went, on our way to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic.