Vacation time in Austria

Well, the vacation is sadly over now.  It was very fun to see the Starrs and meet their delightful children, we were particularly happy that the kids all got along together so well.  It would have been a difficult couple of weeks if the kids were sullen and fighting the entire time.  Instead, the time was spent asking Mike and I inane questions.

The biggest chunk of the vacation was spent in Austria.  We rented a nice house near Zell Am See, an area which we had heard pretty good things about.  The drive from our place to the house was supposed to take 4.5 hours according to Google maps and my navigation system.  I figured it would be 5.5 hours, but neither my own estimates, nor the electronic devices figured on

• German Traffic
• German car accidents
• German construction

So, our 4.5 hour drive took a little over 8.5 hours and we were all very tired of sitting in the car.  The kids actually held up better than the adults in my opinion.

 

By the time we arrived, I think it could have been a run down shack and we would have been thrilled as long as it had a place to get out of the car.  Instead, we were treated to a house that lived up to the expectations pretty well.  Here is our first view of the place, just outside of Maishofen with mountain and hiking trails beginning right out the back door.

 

 

Here is the other side of the place with the sun room and garden.

 

 

One more look from just up the hill, so you can see that we were a little bit out of town, with a nice view along the valley.  This is just what I like in a place, close to civilization but far enough away that you can ignore the rest of humanity if you want.

 

 

Foolishly, I did not take too many photos of the interior, but here is one of the living room.  The whole place had the “mountain hut – Ski lodge” feel to it and was very comfortable.  There could have maybe been one more couch in the living room for the number of bottoms we had to sit, but the kids were not really staying still long enough to worry about sitting down anyway.

 

 

Here is the view from the porch.  This range of mountains is known as the “stone sea” and we were treated to a very nice view of it.  In the evening as the sun goes down, they look very red and ominous, but in a good way.  So the first impression of our holiday place was totally positive and everyone was pretty excited about spending a week in this spot.  There was very clearly more activities available than we had time to do them, so we would be spending every evening choosing the most promising way to spend the next day.