On the train! From Graz to Vienna to St. Pölten to Melk. It was a beautiful day for a train ride!
These pictures would have looked much better if the train windows had been cleaned.
I thought it would be fun to take pictures of all the safety signs and whatnot on the train. I got sooo into what I was doing, that I missed the announcement for our stop. But as it would be, I started heading back to our seats just at the right time! Phew...that was close!
More signs in the train
Signs in the Train
view out of the train from Graz to Lower Austria
view out of the train from Graz to Lower Austria .... I didn't even notice the wildlife in the field until after I took the picture!
Chilling in the living room
Breakfast is served!! Thank you, Sabine for the great breakfast spread!
Now, this is what the milk containers in Lower Austria look like. Different from those here in Styria.
Nice indoor Easter decorations
Nice outdoor Easter decorations
A view of some of the plants from the balcony.
A view from the balcony.
This is the infamous living room set we tried to help put up at Christmas. But becase of one defect on one of the boards, we couldn't finish the project then. Now that that piece got replaced, it looks great!
This is what the wall in the entry way looks like now. Textured. But they will paint it a nice light green color.
This is the entry way. It's WAY brighter and roomier than the last time we came to visit. Richi and Sabine have been working away on the house.
They'd recently retiled the floor. It looks MUCH better than before.
Again, the tulips. Need I say more?
Gottcha!
I spy something red with black dots....
these flowers were a bit past their prime, but they look really cool. I forget the exact name, but it was something like Emporer's Crown.
The tulips were amazing!
cherry blossoms
They have planted and tended so many beautiful flowers in their yard. A photographer's paradise!
Richi and Sabine have a great idea for these guys...but i'll have to tell you another time.
Painted Flower Pots
Nicely decorated Easter tree.
the garden is divided up into many tiers. this is a view from the house looking towards the neighbors.
I wonder what kind of flower the blue one is.
This sign on the main door speaks for itself.
You can see how much isn't left of the original castle in this picture. If only these walls could speak...
The view was really nice. Notice the vineyards on the side of the hill and closer to the river.
Richi and Sabine enjoying the view :)
Dürnstein was built around 1100. As you can imagine, it's seen a lot in its day(s). More notably, from December 1192 to March 1193 the English King Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned here following the 3rd Crusade.
Thomas and the Ruins of Dürnstein.
We've almost made it to the top!
a ship on the Danube
An old Lower Austrian Iron...guess who I took this one for?!
Decisions, decisions.
I tried to get a picture of her dirndl, but she was just too fast!
Thomas offered to taste our wine before our waitress poured us ours. (normal for any good wine establishment) Notice the local flair she's wearing...yes, a dirndl
The names on the right hand side are the special names given to 3 specific types of wines in the area. We had one of them. Don't ask me which one. I just remember that it tasted good! (maybe it was the Smaragd or the Federspiel)
This was my glass of the excellent wine that Richi and Sabine suggested!
And these are the spreads we put on our bread: The orange one is Liptauer (the first of its kind that I've actually liked!), the yellow is an egg spread, the white was an herbal chessey spread, and of course spreadable meat/liver. No thanks, I think I'll pass on that last one.
We got a great selection of local and fresh breads. These are the local "rolls" called "Wachauer." (this area along the Danube where we were is called the Wachau)
Come on. Does this pictures really surprise you?
tom's uncertainty matched with my thumbs up...isn't it great how we can contradict, uhm, I mean complement each other?? :)
but without the flash, it seemed to not be enough...
the flash was clearly too much light for us...
Tom and Richi's mom opted for some red wine
Richi and Sabine had been to this place before, so they reommended a wine and we orderd some mineral water and food to go with it.
On the way home we stopped by a so called "Heurige" to sample some of the local wine.
homemade bread in the background and homemade cake in the foreground
Birthday Cake!
Pouring out the drinks
3 layed cake: raspberry, cream and cake-iness!
Richi and Sabine enjoying cake and birthday juice!
Richi checking out his birthday presents
Thomas enjoying the YUMMY, YUMMY birthday cake that Sabine made!
that's their car.
badminton anyone?
badminton is fun!
oooh...and it's in!
check out that vertical!
work hard and play hard
back to work
Potters
Freshly potted plant
Mutti the artist working away on her artwork. She gave us the one of the far side with the "Tree of Life."
old doorbell label
Storm trooper or moped driver?
We are go for launch, Houston.
The helmet is squishing my head!
the birthday boy!
and here's the start button
and in case of an emergency landing, this can't be used as a flotation device...
burn that rubber!
either the helmet was too small or the head too big...
view of frontmost tier from the street
Doorbell
pulling up roots, and roots, and some more roots.
Thomas got to take the moped for a spin.
