The Scenery and Food of Austria!

From September 5th through October 2nd, Agnes and I traveled to Europe to visit friends and relatives and see some of the beautiful sights of Southern Germany (mostly in the state of Baden-Württemberg) and Upper Austria (Oberösterreich). As you might expect, I took many hundreds of pictures, and thought I'd share a few of them with you. This first collection deals with the scenery and our culinary adventures in Austria ... first, the scenery ...

We traveled to the summit of the Dachstein, which offered incredible vistas of the Austrian Alps stretching away into the distance around the five lakes of the region ...

Of course, Agnes and I needed a happy snap at the summit, reached by two heart-stopping cable car rides ...

Our friends Alois and Steffi also took us to see the incredible Gosausee, in which the towering mountains are perfectly mirrored in the utterly still water of the lake ...

We didn't just go into the mountains. We also visited the Wachau valley along the Danube River. Composer Johann Strauss celebrated the river in his beautiful waltz "An der schönen blauen Donau" (translated as "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" and better known in English as "The Blue Danube Waltz") ... as it happened, the Danube was greenish-brown rather than blue, at least while we were there ... 

We also stopped at the picturesque town of Dürnstein, which is notable for its beautiful church tower ... as far as I can remember, the only one I've ever seen that was painted blue ...

The town of Dürnstein sits up above the Danube, and is reached from the riverside promenade and parking areas by a picturesque (some might say, "eerie") stairway ...

In the town of St Wolfgang, we enjoyed lunch with Alois and Steffi at a restaurant on the shore of the Wolfgangsee ...

... and after lunch, it was recumbent ... uh ... incumbent upon Alois and I to enjoy a nap in the sunshine ...

We also visited the scenic town of Gmunden on the Traunsee ...

We didn't just gawk at the scenery and pose for pictures. We also did quite a bit of eating, and encountered some interesting new dishes, such as Stecherlfisch ... seasoned fish baked on a stick or - as I like to call it - a troutsicle ...

It looks a bit hideous, like something Count Dracula might serve at his Halloween buffet, but was absolutely delicious.

We also went (twice!) to Huemer's Mostschank, a wonderful little restaurant in Bad Wimsbach ...

Most is the German word for a delicious hard cider, and I imbibed quite a bit of it while munching through some of the marvelous home-made cold meat and sausage platters offered up on the menu ...

Agnes and I enjoying the dinner and company at Huemer's with Steffi and Alois, and Alois's cousin Konrad and his wife Anneliese ...

And, lest I forget, I also had the chance to enjoy a "halbe Haxe" - half pig's knuckle with Knödel (dumplings) and sauce, washed down with a good Weizenbier ...

Here's one last image to round out this quick summary of our visit to Austria - my attempt at a panoramic photo from the summit of the Dachstein ...

I took more than a thousand pictures while were were on our vacation. I'll share a few more of them over the next week or so.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo