Back in Austria...in less than 6 months =D

Well, yesterday we got back from a super fun Christmas trip to Austria. We started off in Vienna, then went to Salzburg, then returned to Vienna before coming home. Here are some random thoughts/notes from the trip:

*I loved getting into the Viennese coffee culture. My favorite drink was the einspänner, which is a double espresso with whipped cream. Absolutely delicious! But they have a lot of different coffee drinks, which all at least looked good. I got a drink every day, sometimes twice a day, so this week I need to slowly decrease my caffeine intake so I don't accidentally get a caffeine headache or something.


*They LOVE pretzels there, apparently. There's a pretzel stand pretty much everywhere with all different kinds of pretzels: regular, chocolate covered, cheese, pizza....so many types! I'm not a big pretzel person so I didn't experiment with them, but it was definitely interesting

*As New Years approached, stands selling pig figurines and other pig merchandise started appearing everywhere. Apparently, pigs are signs of good luck in Austria.

*They're really serious about Christmas, it seems. Both Vienna & Salzburg were very decorated

Below are pictures that I took that I really like:

View from the castle that overlooks Vienna.

Mirabelle Gardens

Lake near the town of Salzburg

(me playing with our new Bamboo thing)