The Café at the Top and the Goodbye and the Bottom

 We got to the top of the trail and took a cool elevator to the bridge that led to the café. Before walking to the café I had to sneak this shot.

Achim took the camera over for a bit and got some great shots. I just can't get over the fact that this is a photo of Marc and me in the mountains of Austria! What? Look at that!

 And the hills are alive with music there if you listen closely...

I love this shot Achim took. These mirrors were so cool.

Achim took this picture of me while I was taking the picture just below it. It makes me laugh a bit because the shot on my iPhone matches, almost exactly, the one Achim took that is at the top of this post.

In this shot Achim took, if you look closely on the bridge you will see me on the bridge, 

leaning over to take the shot shown underneath this one.

 This was one of the first pictures I posted to Instagram trying to be vague about where we were, I think it worked...


Of course, Thomas was way ahead of us and waiting for us to join him at the look out pier.

They had this awesome pier that hung out over the side of the mountain. It was a tad scary and a lot beautiful!

I took the camera over for a second...

The village below and the reflection of the sky in the lake

 Then I relinquished it to another tourist to take a picture of the 4 of us.

Dude with the black spy jacket... could you move to your left just a tad?

Nope, OK, I will just try to take a different shot... but you're still there...

I then wanted to get some good shots of our friends

 No shades or shades?

iPhone

iPhone

iPhone

 I love getting shots of just shapes and things that you don't always see in the way I see them through my camera. This is one of those shots. I'm just glad they had a railing to keep my fear of heights at bay.

This picture... this is the picture I told you about in the previous post. Not only did we have a tour guide at almost every corner, but they even had one that you could put your face in so that you could remember his duties with even more laughter

After enjoying the pier we decided to get something to eat at the café.

It was so quaint... I mean the place was large, but the people were quaint... not little or dainty, just quaint. I mean that in the sense that it came across as a family run and owned place. It was all just part of the Austrian experience. I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of our waitress. She was dressed in traditional Austrian attire and she was so sweet and soft-spoken.

Hey, Thomas, act natural... I think Achim snapped before he was ready...

I know he definitely snapped before ready this time... uh, your finger's in the way dude...

We got our menus and we all ordered our lunch. Achim and I ordered the würst and fries and Marc and Thomas ordered the Bratwurst and Sauerkraut. Thomas and Marc definitely won the best choice contest that day. Mine and Achims were, basically wieners and fries... meh.

I made up for it though when I ordered the Apfel Küchen!

Since I was little my dad has talked about his grandma's apple küchen and how great it was. He would try to explain it to my mom but she didn't quite get it just right. Well, I guess because of my admiration of my dad whenever I would go to a restaurant that offered Apple Cake here in the US, I would give it a try... it always tasted, pretty much like a dry apple pie and sometimes it tasted like apple crisp. I wasn't that impressed since my mom made the world's best apple pie. I didn't think I was missing out on anything, but, hey! I was in Austria, in a region my great grandma came from. So when I saw something delicious in the pastry display labeled "Apfel Küchen," I just had to give it another try.

When they brought it out to me, it looked nothing like apple cake I'd been served in the US before. In fact, it actually looked like a (drum roll please) cake! Not a pie or a crisp, but a cake. My heart fluttered with excitement to try something that my dad remembered so well and had such a memory of his grandma for.

I took one bite.

Mmmmmm.

I took another.

Ooohhh mmmm.

Marc was looking at me by now wondering if I would share. Thomas and Achim were surprised at my excitement and joy in such a thing as Apfel Küchen.

I let everyone who wanted to, take a bite... which was only Marc, since Thomas and Achim don't seem to be fans Apfel Küchen.

Then I remembered, "Oh, I need to take a picture of this so that I can show my dad that I tried real Apfel Küchen.

It was as big as the plate... I was enjoying it too much to remember the picture before it didn't look as pretty. I did enjoy it though, and was actually one of the highlights of my vacation. It made me that happy.

We love Snapseed for editing our iPhone pics... just more fun 

Marc took a few snaps on his phone before we headed back down. On the way down Thomas and I were cursing ahead and Marc and Achim walked slower behind. To be honest, I hate hiking down hill because it hurts my knees but I didn't even notice this time because Thomas and I were talking the whole way down, and frankly, I didn't want Thomas to win... I'm kind of competitive that way...

Once we were altogether again we teased each other about who was fast, who was slow, who was old, who was young... I like the older and younger argument because I'm the youngest... 

Anyway, on our way to the parking lot, we heard a lawn mower. Now, remember this is a cute little village with cute little people and cute little yards and cute little houses. So when I saw this cute little lady mowing her cute little lawn I just had to sneak a shot from the hip and it turned out pretty good.

 Isn't that just cute?

Gives you an idea too just how beautiful it is there.

We talked a little on the way home in the car but it was a bit of a somber mood knowing that we were just saying "goodbye" to Achim when we got back down in Fushl.

photos Marc took from the car on the drive back to Fushl

It was a sad goodbye and Achim asked us not to walk him to the car so the goodbyes didn't have to drag on any longer.

I know that it took weeks for me to put it all down here in the blog, but our time with Achim was too short. We were sad to know we didn't have more time together as the 4 musketeers and he would have to get back to real life while we continued to have fun touring a country he lives in. It's pretty crazy to be continents away and then be right in the same country and not be able to see each other.

It was tough to watch Marc and Achim tear up while saying goodbye and not knowing how long that goodbye would be. I'm not sure if I teared up only because I knew I'd miss Achim or if it was hard watching Marc say goodbye to a dear and treasured friend.

We decided to drown our sorrows in ice cream so we walked to the market down the street from our hotel and picked up a few things. Marc got a photo of us on the way back to sit on the benches behind our hotel, near the church.

Marc got some great shots of this church with his phone and the clouds just add to the beauty.

After sitting around and chatting for a bit we went went to dinner at the hotel restaurant. I got the local FushlSee Trout, Thomas got the wienersnitzel and Marc got the meat and sp atzel (pasta) that was called Morhenpfandel (or something to that effect, you say it MORE-EN-FENDLE, sort of... you need to add the little german dialects in there... anyway). Remember the word "Morhenpfandel" because it holds some significance for later posts...

We all enjoyed our dinner, but Marc was especially thrilled with his Morhenpfandel. My trout was good as long as I didn't look into its eyes.

After dinner we had dessert... and I can't even remember what it was called. Dang it! I'll ask Thomas later, anyway, it was really good and we all shared one.

After eating all that food we decided it would be a good idea to go for a little walk before hitting the pillows.

Thomas led us to the dock on the Fushl See and we snapped phone pictures of the late sunset and other points of interest.

Thomas liked this scene so much that he requested I take a professional picture the
next night so he could hang it on his wall at home. You'll see that in a later post too.

just the lamp posts lighting our way

It was a restful end to a fun-filled day.

When we got back to our hotel room I got this picture from home:

It was Spring picture day and Lindsey and her sister got Baby all dolled up for the day. This made me smile really big and I tried to reach through the screen and squish her... Adorbs!