Zell Am See, Austria

 We are here today:

 And here:

 And here:

 Here too:

 And we won't forget here either:

 This is Zell Am See, Austria

You can find it on the map here:

It's a lake/town/skiing area about 45 minutes south of Salzburg that we'd never heard of before and only a 4 hour drive from our house by way of a windey, windey mountain road.  

When we started out we weren't sure if all the responsibilities we were leaving behind would make this trip unworthy to be taken.  As we turned on white knuckle hair pin turns (with cliffs on the other side and no guard rail) on a dark rainy night in the mountains and settled on eating at McDonalds in Lienz rather than eating real Austrian fare (I won't go into details as to why) we really wondered if we had made the right choice to come.  But McDonalds serves Bubble teas, Lemon Cous Cous Chicken Salad and those cute little yummy european macaroons.  And this town, Zell Am See and the surrounding area, will forever be etched in our minds as a most spectacular, lighten your load/change you on the inside kind of beautiful.  It was, no exaggeration, the perfect day.  

It was cold and rainy day today but, really, that added to the ambiance.  The area, in the summer time, is known for it's hiking and adventuring in the mountains but because of the weather and our lack of gloves etc. we decided to take the fairy boat ride across the lake and then follow the trail around the lake back to the town by foot, staying lower in altitude.  Here we are waiting for the ferry:

The clouds weren't nearly as thick as they look in the pictures.  In fact, my pictures are UGLY by comparison to the real deal.

On the ferry we heard a Romanian couple speaking English about a festival that was going on across the lake.  We chatted with them about it and decided to follow them over there.  I don't know if it's just this time of year or what but in Italy (and now in Austria) there are festivals going on EVERYWHERE!  So far, things to do here seem to just fall in our lap.

 We stopped to play in one of probably 20 parks in the area and take a few pictures.

 This days portion of the festival was a feast in Thumersbach a little town on the lake.  If I had a recommendation for anyone I'd say to stay in Thumersbach if you can.  It's the perfect mixture of small, quaint town but still on the water and part of the local happenings.  Nowhere in the area is a bad place to stay, however.  

We found the festival by the sound of the bold, bellowing horns:

these guys really set the tone.

The MC of the event must have been really funny because everyone kept really cracking up when he's speak between songs.  We sure wished we could understand him.

Food was everywhere:

 A cheese vendor from the mountains, 

 Bladl gefult served with the kind of Sauerkraut that even a sauerkraut hater appreciates 

(the kids loved it)

 and Apfelrad'l.  The woman who fried these up spoke great English and was really warm and friendly with me: 

She said that both of the above dishes are traditional Austrian foods from the region.  We really feel like we stumbled on a gold mine being here today.  The food was drool worthy.  We went back for seconds on both of the above and I am surprised they didn't have to roll us out of there.

I was gutsy today and took all kinds of pictures of strangers.  I loved seeing all the traditional clothing on everyone and I wanted to capture the moment.  I lost some really cool ones actually because my camera was acting up.  (grrrrrrr;)

This crumbly yet moist vanilla chocolate cake was delicious as well.

mmmmmm...fry daddy;)

The sincerity of her smile shows how much fun we were having!

 The kids REALLY loved it here.  They got along perfectly, laughed a lot and explored almost 'til the point of annoyance.  It was so nice to have them smiling sooo much!  They both said they loved it here a lot more than Venice.

 Seconds on the fried, marmalade laden dough...

The jump castle in back for us to work our food off on.

Here are some of the sights we encountered as we walked around the lake:

 This is what most of the hotels look like...bowling over with flowers.

 An apothecary/herb display advertising the festival (it lasts for a month).  It's called the Bauern Herbst festival in case you ever want to go.  It focuses on the herbs of the area.

 One of our many dream houses that we saw today.

 Next time we definitely want to rent a canoe or a kayak

 Yep...we had fun!  

We only walked around 1/4 of the lake (approximately 2.5 miles) and we hit four parks.  Not four measily little parks but four spectacular, gorgeous, infinitely inventive parks for the kids to play on.

 This one had a boat swing and was right next to the camp ground that we're for sures going back to next summer.

And this one had this cool free swinging see saw thing that I took a dozen pictures of so that Joey and I can try and recreate in our back yard.  I'm hoping he'll stick with me on this one because this thing is AWESOME!

 Pretty, huh

 And this, of course, adds to the perfectness of the day.

 Everything is covered in green here.  Even the trees are 50% covered in green moss which I absolutely love.  The grass here is such a gorgeous bright color and is speckled and lined into free formed squares by deep green trees.  There's no place in the world like the Germanic countries...no place.

 After our fly by too fast day in Zell Am See we decided to drive over to nearby Kaprun (8 minutes) and have dinner.  When we pulled into the town we noticed a castle and a church immediately too our right.  Joey took our picture at the castle overlooking the church and the small valley above.

 I think this photo of Georgie is so sweet.

 And this one of Isaac you just want to jump into and roll down the hill with him.

We walked a quarter mile to find a good restaurant and kept having to tell Georgie to "come on already!" as she was lagging behind talking to herself and picking wildflowers.  She put together this little bouquet for me which I was rather impressed by.  She takes after you MOm;)

 We found our dinner at Tafern.  We literally chose it out of the line of 15 others and had no idea that it was rated #1 on trip advisor until just now when I linked to it...hah!  Lucky Day!  And I can see why it would be.  It was AMAZING!!  We also happened to walk in as the only guests other than a rambunctious wedding party there for drinks before their wedding up at the church/castle that we'd just been too.  It was such an educational experience watching all their wedding customs/traditions that were really cool.  I could do a post JUST about that.  

 Any who, back to the food:  Salad with house dressing and fried farmers cheese...could have eaten just this and walked away a new woman.

 Whatever I just said about the salad...well, same goes for this Garlic Cream Soup, the best cream based soup I've ever, ever had (no lie).  Sprinkled with house made croutons and garlic chives...yummm!!

 Spinach Dumplings drowned in butter and sprinkled with fried arugula and parmesan shavings.  GUys, I'm not exaggerating, this was...oh man, no words.

Spaetzle like my brother makes but with more cheese.  Soooo good but almost too heavy for me.  

Be warned...We're apt to talk about Zell Am See for years to come with great reverence.  And if you come for a visit (please do) we're bound to try and talk you into coming here again with us!  We can't wait for our next excuse to go!

xoxo

Merbacks heart Austria...off to Salzburg tomorrow!!

Happy Birthday Papa!

For our Papa!!

We love you Papa/Dad...more than you know.  Your name is mentioned every single day and that is no lie!  Juliet wants to go to Papas house.  Isaac wants to go fishing with Papa and Georgie wants to live by Papa...Joey and I want you to come visit!  We could use your German as well as your calming smile.  Come soon!

xoxo

We are without internet for a couple of weeks and I feel like I have a million thoughts to jot down that I am losing by the hour.  With these few spare minutes using the wireless at the Community Center I won't get much down.  In two weeks I will be more regular.  Heres a tid bit so that I don't get too far behind.  

Lake Barcis

 Crystal...and I mean crystal, clear waters, mountains, green trees

meandering river beds with rock bottoms feeding into the lake

 cold water, hot weather, a dreamy campground

and Italian bathing suits;)  

LIttle girls up to 11 years old don't wear tops here.  And I was the only one...I repeat, the only one in a one piece!  No matter the body type, the fat, the cellulite and the wrinkles, it wore a two piece;)  (I'm not talking about this woman...she looks fine.  The picture is to show the little girl who is probably 6.  We saw two girls who were much older without a top on.  It's totally normal here.  I guess why not?  They have nothing to show.?)

Next weekend, to Austria! 

Italian Exploration Day!

We've decided to distinguish one day of the weekend as our family exploration day so, no matter how small (or how big), every Saturday or Sunday we will at least take to the hills and hike a new trail, eat at a new cafe, try a new flavor of Gelato, drive the roads of a new city (even the teeny, tiny ones) or see a new church or castle.  With all there is to do around here we shouldn't have any trouble.  Believe it or not three years is beginning to sound rather short so we're already feeling that there is no time to waste!

On our first adventure we hiked to the Castello Di Caneva, the commune that our little town of Sarone is a part of.  If you're "hiking" on driveable road do you still call it a hike?  The map sure did even though almost the entire path was paved and driven on somewhat regularly by compact little Italian cars.  But it was steep so I say it makes the cut;)  The kids did excellent despite having an early morning (Isaac had a nightmare and decided he needed to wake Georgie up to watch cartoons with him since they have a television in their hotel room...note to self:  never allow TV in kids room!)  Georgie was carried a few times, Juliet never wanted to be even though we demanded it and Isaac did it on his own like a champ.  They all seemed rather invigorated by the acres of grapevines:

The ooodles and ooodles of fruit trees (every yard has at least 3 of them but most have a small vineyard):

The interesting smell of horse manure coming from random, ancient barns in the neighborhood:

Wildflowers galore!!  This one is our favorite because it looks like a snowflake.  Snowflakes in summer, how charming:

and of course, the cozy family conversation and picture ops;)

We made it to the top to discover an ancient cobblestone path and wall surrounding what looked like a more modern castle (which translates to not as cool).

At some point it was turned into a cathedral and now I'm not sure of its purpose.  We know they have a festival there every July that you have to dress up in Renaissance clothing for;)  We'll definitely be there next summer!

The yard of the castle was filled with graves of what seemed to be the relatives of the original "royal" family.  We're still not sure how the Italian royal line plays out in small communes like this but I'm getting to the bottom of it on Wikipedia.

All in all we decided that walking the streets, no matter how steep, is a great way to explore Italy.  If we had driven up to the castle we would have missed the very best part of the experience: peeking around bushes, taking pictures of vineyards, sampling far reaching fig branches and eaves dropping on Italian family conversation.  Every corner is of interest.  But the view from the top isn't all that bad either!

p.s.  I signed Isaac and Georgie up for Italian Swim Camp;)  Very nervous for his first day Isaac spent the entire drive their holding back (and releasing a few) tears.  I told him that this did not have to be a flaming success but rather was his first Italian Experiment.  He was just there to observe and prepare for his first days of school.  I went on to say that he didn't have to learn a single Italian word if he wanted to and didn't have to make a single friend if it intimidated him.  Most likely he would never see these kids again (the camp is 30 minutes from our town).  I think it helped.  I paced around nervous all day after I dropped him off (he's our sensitive child so...)when I picked him up he was grinning from ear to ear!!  Yay!  "How was it I asked?"  "It was Awesome!"  Phew!  What a relief!  

On the other hand, I didn't have to worry about Georgie at all because the night before swim camp started she broke her arm.....grrrrrr!!  But man was she a tough little trooper!

xoxo

Ash