Christmas in Vienna

My last week far from home comes to an end, before a new era starts in our life.

Therefore Vienna is a nice place with all its Christmas markets around the town.

1978

Between my company's and our riding stable's christmas parties on Friday and today I went to Austria for the 30th birthday of my old mate Steffi. After riding the Alpine Coaster (a kind of roller coaster in the snow) we went up the mountain above Bludenz to party in a very scenic mountain hut of the ski club.



Tony and Steffi filled the guests with delicious local food and drinks,...



...local friends guided a torchlight procession...



...and triggered some fireworks.



Just before crawling in our sleeping bags Tony and me escorted Steffi circling around the hut barefooted in the snow, which seems to be a local tradition when getting 30 without being married, at least somebody told her to do so. :)



In the morning I hiked back to the cableway enjoying the nice mountain panorama.



What a great short vacation in the mountains. Living here does not look like bad idea.

Berchtesgaden Alps

We are on a week long holiday to the Alps near Berchtesgarden. We went hiking, but its very rainy and cold and the snow still covers most of the higher trails.





But independent of the weather I love the mountains and especially running in the mountains. Below you can see a face shot of myself right after climbing one of my running hills.



On one of the last days we went to Salzburg to the zoo and met our new favorite animals, the cute Alpakas (see here).

A hut in the mountains

We just came back from a nice short trip to Austria. Toni celebrated his 30th birthday in the mountains, so we also used the trip for a small hike and a visit to the Bodensee on Sunday.


The party hut in the mountains...


...with this wonderful view!



A small hike next day, Lea is checking the path :)

Rain & Sun

The weekend was fun. The trike tour on Saturday in the Alps was still rainy, but on Sunday the summer came back shortly for our sailing & pedalo trip on the Bodensee. Alltogether it's been a nice weekend with friends. See some photos at Marc's site.

Weekend at the Bodensee

This weekend I will be at the Bodensee with friends amidst the flood warnings and rainy weather. We planned to ride trikes on saturday and in sailing on sunday. I'm sure that we will have fun anyway.