Wednesday- This morning all of our clothes were dry which is cause for celebration! We left Wels and stopped for pecan croissants and lattes at a place with a red velvet couch and two ladies running the bakery that reminded us of Mom and Rhoda. Then we drove 1.5 hours to Hallstatt, over rivers and mountains and through lots of tunnels. There are lots of pine trees and today there was sunshine. We got into Halstatt midmorning and walked the town. Most of the houses are made of wood with shutters and window boxes with geraniums in them. The houses go up and up the mountain all joined together but with little alleys running all over underneath them. The lake is a lovely blue green color and there are swan boats and actual swans cruising around on it and we decided to get a little boat so we could too. It was such a fun time going around the lake and relaxing on the boat and soaking up the sun. I know I sound like a broken record but it is absolutely gorgeous here and we are loving it 100%. Its doubly cool for Morgan because he had planned this cool anniversary trip for us here to Austria a couple years ago and covid canceled it so we are excited to finally be here! After touring around Hallstatt and getting coffee to go, we started driving towards our Airbnb an hour away. Morgan took a scenic route to Lake Gosau, this alpine lake beneath the Dachstein glacier. We hiked out to some rocks, past cows with actual bells on! and swam out into clear blue water where we were for a while. Then our trip continued on to Golling an der Salzach where we went to some downstairs burger place for supper and then went to our place which is a hotel tonight.

Thursday- Morgan got up early and went on a hike this morning while Madison and I slept in and organized our stuff. We went down with Morgan when he got back for a yum breakfast buffet. Again, no sweet waffles and pancakes and donuts, just meat, cheese, yogurt bar, and different kinds of bread. Morgan had a destination in mind so we drove up past where he’d hiked through a bunch of little towns. We were right in the heart of ski country with lifts right by the road and beautiful green ski runs everywhere. We ended up in a little Cafe where we got hot chocolates and more pecan pastries. It was a very blustery , cool day but the scenery was tops. We drove a couple hours back to Vienna and Morgan dropped us off at our Airbnb and then went to drop off the car. We have usually stayed in hostels but with Madison along we can split an Airbnb for cheaper so we have been doing a lot of those instead. We had spaghetti and veggies for supper and Morgan brought back flowers for me:)

Some notes: 1. We discovered some kind of addictive shortbread cookies here and are going through a surprising amount. Then we stopped today and bought 2 boxes and got 2 free so yay. 2. The cows wear bells. Yes. And a little boy just like Peter in “Heidi” was walking with them in his little hat and short pants. It made us think of you Rosemary!