Simon's roommate, Jonas, was nice enough to let us sleep in his room while he stayed at his girlfriend's house last night so we had a nice bed to sleep in. We slowly got up at 8, had some coffee, and headed out for the day. It was raining a bit, but we weren't concerned, we had our gear. First we headed for breakfast at the strudelcafe. Yes, a whole that had many many types of strudels and then some. Luckily Simon likes to share food so we shared 3 types of strudels, meat and potatoes, mushroom bacon and egg, and a peach and semi-sweet cheese with vanilla sauce. Not to mention the egg, cheese and bacon side dishes. They were ridiculous! An amazing way to start the morning! We saw a meat shop that had all kinds of cured meats. Andy got a large chunk of regional cured ham, similar to prosciutto. We'll see if that makes it past customs. We walked through the city, it's so very quaint. Most of the stores were closed since it's All Saints Day here in Austria, which made it even nicer to walk around.
After we had our fill we were ready for a hike. Simon took us to the gondola which we took to Seegrube at 6.3kft. We didn't go to the top because of the clouds that were covering the mountain peaks. The ride up was beautiful as we flew past homes and trees that were changing colors in the fall weather. The top was pretty damn windy and cold but only for a bit until we walked on the other side of the slope. We had an amazing view of the city and the valley and Austrian Alps. We traversed a bit crossing mountain goats and getting grand views of the city where you could see the ski jump which previously hosted the Olympics.
Our next stop was a hut on the side of the mountain that is in between two avalanche gullies. I love mountain huts! We weren't really hungry from the fantastic breakfast, but we obviously had to eat something. We got some soup which was plenty, I had a fried cheese soup (Kaspressknodelsuppe) and Andy had the bacon dumpling soup (Speckknodelsuppe). Both were amazing and filling. Beers of course, followed by schnapps (pine flavored for the mountains). The sun started to peak through the clouds. Perfect timing since we were starting to walk through the trees with changing foliage. It was warm, sunny, and very beautiful. I'm glad we were able to catch autumn here since we might be missing it at home. We hiked down 5k ft back to Simon's large apartment. One last beer with Simon and Jonas before we hit the road for the 5+ hour drive to Marckolsheim France where we will be for the rest of our journey. Such an amazing day. This city is quite incredible, I will definitely be back for more hikes, skiing, and of course food.
Simon's roommate, Jonas, was nice enough to let us sleep in his room while he stayed at his girlfriend's house last night so we had a nice bed to sleep in. We slowly got up at 8, had some coffee, and headed out for the day. It was raining a bit, but we weren't concerned, we had our gear. First we headed for breakfast at the strudelcafe. Yes, a whole that had many many types of strudels and then some. Luckily Simon likes to share food so we shared 3 types of strudels, meat and potatoes, mushroom bacon and egg, and a peach and semi-sweet cheese with vanilla sauce. Not to mention the egg, cheese and bacon side dishes. They were ridiculous! An amazing way to start the morning! We saw a meat shop that had all kinds of cured meats. Andy got a large chunk of regional cured ham, similar to prosciutto. We'll see if that makes it past customs. We walked through the city, it's so very quaint. Most of the stores were closed since it's All Saints Day here in Austria, which made it even nicer to walk around. 
After we had our fill we were ready for a hike. Simon took us to the gondola which we took to Seegrube at 6.3kft. We didn't go to the top because of the clouds that were covering the mountain peaks. The ride up was beautiful as we flew past homes and trees that were changing colors in the fall weather. The top was pretty damn windy and cold but only for a bit until we walked on the other side of the slope. We had an amazing view of the city and the valley and Austrian Alps. We traversed a bit crossing mountain goats and getting grand views of the city where you could see the ski jump which previously hosted the Olympics.
