Slow Down Sunday

Sunday brought church and a general slow down in our activities. We had hoped to have lunch in Hallestatt but parking was impossible to find after dropping the others off to look for a cafe.
Instead Christopher and I picked everyone up and drove to Gosau for lunch.

After lunch we went swimming in the Hallestatt lake

and then played D&D until late.

Five Fingers

Charlotte had enough of hiking so she and Caroline returned to the mountain top cafe for eis (ice cream) while Claire, Christopher and I hiked down to the five fingers, a platform jutting out over the lake valley with five options for picturing the view.

On our walk back to the cafe we enjoyed watching four people parasailing on the mountain updraft, two of which are pictured behind Claire here.

If you're brave enough you can look down from a finger.

The hike back offered stunning views.

But ice cream from the cafe was picturesque as well.

Welterbespirale

A second cable car ride took us to the mountain top but not yet to the summit - that would require more hiking - but included the chance to explore a mini glacier on the way.

We all made it to the Welterbespirale, an artistic, metal platform spiral which offered a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains, valleys and lake. The spiral stairs also included signs pointing to world heritage landmarks such as Machu Picchu and the Grand Canyon with the distance to each.

Ice Cave

Our second day in Austria was dominated by cold and heights. We'd purchased the lower and middle cable car rides to take us to the ice cave and summit of the mountains above the lake. The ice cave required a steep climb from the end of the first cable car ride to the cave entrance.

We were added to a large Hungarian tour group (seen exiting the cave here),

as we mistakenly skipped the tour group assignment off the cable car but it was interesting to hear German and English spoken by the cave guide and Hungarian spoken by their party's guide.

The ice forms in the cave because of the cold air in winter chilling the cave rocks and the melting water in Spring pouring into the cave and freezing to the cold rocks.

The highlight and symbol of the cave is this ice tower which was only 5 meters tall when first discovered.

The view from the cave exit (higher than the entrance but the original entrance when discovered) is beautiful.

Our first dinner in Austria

Having established that cable car tickets cannot be purchased in advance, we returned to the house, picked up the rest of the family and drove to nearby Steeg to enjoy a dinner at the Welterbewirtshaus Steegwirt. Here we noticed that many in this town wear the traditional lederhosen for men and drindl for women (not pictured).

Selfies in Hallestatt

While the others tested their full stomachs Caroline and I stole away to check on the ice cave tour times. Returning, we made a stop in Hallestatt, across the lake and around the mountain from our rental. I admired the falls,

and Caroline admired the art (we would later but one of these chickens),

but we both adored the city.

Morning Gold

 For our first morning in Untersee we decided to explore and hunt for breakfast.

A short walk took us into the town of Au,

where we struck gold finding a backerie and shamelessly enjoyed dessert after breakfast sandwiches.

The mountains are accented by flowers in bloom everywhere and a quiet electric train that serve this idyllic valley.

Austria - Untersee

The remainder of our day was spent driving to Austria. Our airbnb was off the Hallestater See (Lake) but across from the popular town of Hallestatt itself which is about an hour Southeast of famous Salzburg. As we approached our destination the mountains were a sight to see and we worried a bit that the brochure exaggerated our view. We were not disappointed.

Sedmpány

Vladimír very kindly led us to the birthplace and childhood home of Caroline's paternal grandmother

 where the present owners generously showed us the interior and all the renovations they have made.

Before we left, they gave us some 12 cups of plums, half of which we baked into a pie.

We also met a very sweet half cousin of Vladimir's and Caroline's who lives next door.

Additionally we stopped at the grave site of Caroline's great grand parents, the parents of Mary Kovarik nee Bílkovà.

And Vladimír's relative:

Vladimir, Jane and Adam

We followed Vladimir to his home to meet Jane and found Adam, Vladimir Jr's youngest son, swimming in the pool.

We enjoyed homemade lemon, mint sparkling water and snacks while Vladimir told us about his bee keeping. He has four hives at home and more at his cottage.

He collects honey and also offers bee hive inhalation therapy, something he studied extensively.

We learned, too, that Vladimir was part of the delegation that came to Ames, IA after the revolution to study agriculture techniques. As we left, we were given a wonderful gift of honey, which, by this this writing is a quarter gone as we've all enjoyed it in our tea.

Morning in Český Brod

Vladimir brought us breakfast from Jane and joined us in the available dining room on second floor of the pension (our room, room #2, was on the third floor). We ate homemade coffee cake with tea and coffee available from the pension kitchen.

Vladimir then walked with us around the town square where upon we ran into a former US military man, and his son, who served at Fort Bragg, NC (near where we now live) and lived for a time in Palatine, IL (and was familiar with where we used to live).

He now lives with his Czech wife in Chesky Brod. What a small world! 

On to Český Brod, Czechia

We'd always planned to visit the Martinek's but we were unsure when because we left our final planning until very late despite Claire working hard to organize our trip for us. Then we discovered we were arriving a day later than expected and had to shift the trip by a day. To make matters worse we relied upon the car navigation system to get us to Český Brod and we were led to the wrong place also to find the road closed from that town directly to where we wanted to go so we had to find a new way that was not clear on the map. 

Five hours later than expected we finally arrived to find Vladimir, Thomas, and David patiently waiting for us. Vladimir had arranged a very nice room for the night for us and let us to a restaurant for dinner.