Hapsburg - Renaissance Trip - Day 16, More Trial By Steps!

Austria - The Sound of Music - The Hills Are Alive - Climb Every Mountain.

Wife and I have to do something outdoorsy right?

So based on careful research we determined that the Kesselfallklam in Semriach would be just the ticket. It was touted as the sort of beginners way to see the mountains of Steiermark.

Yup, seems to be Kessel-Fall

Hmmmmm

This seems to be important information

Sure wish I knew more German to know what it says

(Afterwards I did some translation to determine we were hiking a kilometer with a 230 foot climb over 52 bridges and ladders! Oops)

Ah yes a nice bucolic hike in the hills

Nice water

And then there be those 'bridges and ladders'

And climbing

As Wife goes off to some distant Xanadu

Maybe a little action to capture the true flavor

And then of course there is the way down

And one last Austrian Gastronomic post

We've had our fair share of frustrations when we've been out in the country. Clearly this is not the season and lots of places are closed or if they're open, there aren't many people there and you catching whatever for your meal.  Wife really had a hankering for goulash and was really tired of schnitzel.  The first three places we stopped at all had nothing but schnitzel & wurst options and were conspicuously lacking in folks. I suggested we go back to the rental and then take the tram into Graz center for an early dinner where we were sure to find what we wanted. Then as we were heading back we found this place in the town of Friesach with a ton of cars in the parking lot - a good omen.

The menu clearly had goulash on it. 

You got this a la carte and then got some potatoes on the side. The meat was very tender and the sauce was really, really good. It had a strong paprika flavor but was not overly spicy. The underlying broth in the sauce I think accounted for that. I would have loved to see how they made it.  I ate way more than I should have mopping up that sauce with bread.

I also want to comment on this places 'mixed salad'

Mixed salad in this part of Austria at least means a composed salad with five components - a lettuce salad, a potato salad, a cabbage salad, a bean salad, and a cucumber salad. Most of the ones we have had use a single dressing for the whole salad. This version had different dressings for each component which (in my opinion) added to the enjoyment and complexity and yet I felt the five flavors all harmonized. 

We're leaving Austria tomorrow and heading down to Udine in the Fruili section of Italy before continuing on to another rental outside of Padua in the Veneto (the area historically controlled by the Republic of Venice during the Renaissance) where we meet up with Honorable Pu and the majority of #2/2B clan coming in from Hong Kong. Crazy!