Holiday in Austria

I went this last week to the Merl Family Reunion in Eisenerz, in the heart of Austria. Beautiful! We stazed in a Familie und Jugendlichegasthause, so a family and youth guest house. I stayed in the room with Koko, Patrick and the boys, which was great except for waking up in the middle of the night to a little Phinny crying. I was also awakened by two excited little boys in the morning, between 6.30 and 7am! Besides that though, it was really lovely. I got to see Patrick´s family, I was particularly glad to get to see his parents ´Mama and Papa´, Crystle and Harry. They are great!!
We went for a hike Monday. Patrick brought the kinderwagen up this ´short-cut´which ended up being a huge, steep climb up the side of the mountain. I don´t have the best pictures of helping him, but I put this one on here to give you an idea of what we did. I helped him carry the buggy up, first with Phinny in it, as he was sleeping. Whew, a great work-out. When I get the pictures from Patrick´s brother, I´ll put a picture of me hauling it...quite funny!
There were so many delicious Heidelbern, or blueberries. We took many a breathers to pick and eat.
I had a ´beauty night´ with the little girls. We are posing Napoleon Dynamite-style.
We spent 4-5 hours at the Leopoldsteiner See, a very ´frisch´ lake, aka, freezin´cold!!! I went in once, which was enough. =) I got sunburned as it was a lovely day.
We went on an ore mine tour, some of the finest ore comes from there. We went down into the mine so we had to wear the rain jackets and hard hats, then rode on a huge truck. They have been mining from this area for hundreds and hundreds of years!
I left with Patrick´s brother and sister-in-law, Michy and Anita back to Gramastetten, close to Linz for the night. I had planned on taking the rest of the week to go visit friends in Switzerland, but it would either be €450 for a rental car, (not including gas and country fees), or €250 to take the train over and then back up to Bonn. Neither of these was really an option financially so when I found a ticket directly to Bonn for €59 I couldn´t pass it up.
Disappointing, but alles gute.
Now, I´m back in Bonn. I went for a long bike ride today, though it would have been much longer had my bike not gotten a flat.
So, there you have it.
I will now go meet some friends at Frittebud for a cheap, yet delectible, burger and fries (good thing I biked so much today!)
Much love to all from Germany!!!