Sunday, Sunday what should we do? We had an invitation to a birthday party at 3 o'clock, but what to do till then? Why not having a look at Prater, the big amusement park in Vienna? I think, everybody knows the Giant Wheel, which is one of the emblems of Vienna. The weather was beautiful and so we started our walk in Prater in good mood, nosy about what would await us and which attractions Hjördís would like to try out.
I made them try out my old favourite, the 60 years old Hochschaubahn for kids, where you take a trip through the Austrian Alps. Afterwards we had a look at the highest merry-go-round in the world, where the tower has a height of 117m and the passengers are in around 95m height, enjoying a wonderful view over Vienna from their seats. Actually, you'd have to pay me a huge amount of money to try that one! I'm not so much for heights.
Ingólfur and Hjördís tried to crash into as many others as they possibly could while driving the electric crash car. Think they had quite some fun there.
Next thing to try was the Donaujump, where you take a trip in a boat and splash as much as you can ;-) Afterwards the Wildalpenbahn was tried, but I think it was quite a wild ride, at least if you judge after the faces of Ingólfur and Hjördís afterwards.

Well, we took a break and helped ourselves to some Langos, which is a kind of fried dough with a huge amount of garlic on it. It is actually just good as long as it is hot, but you don't dare to throw away the rest of it.
After a quick shower we were ready to join Philip in his birthday party. When we arrived, he was still asleep, so there was a chance to hide his presents, as he wasn't supposed to open them straight away. Soon he woke up and then we just had to wait for the last guests. Both great-grandmothers, all grandparents and even his uncle and aunt were there to congratulate him. Well, we actually didn't stand a chance after he had opened the first presents. He got a monkey, which I already named King Kong after he was used to scare people in Philips new car garage. At least we were allowed to play with him with his new stuff ;-)
My brother was playing with Philip and Hjördís and while watching the wild game, it popped into my mind that it must have been similar, when my Uncle Thomas was playing with the bunch of us. Now I understand why we had to do that in a special room.

In the evening we met my friend Rita and her little daughter Amelie and had some ice-cream together. We had a nice chat and it was good to meet them.

It was a very amusing and good day, we really enjoyed!  

Well, we haven't been blogging for some days, but there's a good reason for that: we were out of connection ;-) We used the last days to travel a bit around Austria.
Wednesday we started our trip and went first to visit our friend Margit in Liezen, where she works at Josefihof with training Icelandic horses and teaching their riders. She showed us their stable and their riding hall. Would be great, to have something like that. At least I wouldn't say no, if somebody would offer something similar to me!

Afterwards we went to Hallstatt to see the salt mines there. People have been mining for salt in this area for more than 3000 years. The mine we visited is still in use and there will be enough salt for at least the next 200 - 300 years! If you'd like to get an impression about what is going on there, visit their homepage http://www.salzwelten.at
I think, the highlight of this tour was the 64m long slide, where they took your speed and a picture of you. At least Hjördís liked that best ;-)

Then we had a quick look around Hallstatt, stopped in the salt shop to get some souvenirs and had a short picnic at the parking place and continued our trip to Waldviertel, where my parents own a summerhouse at a very beautiful and well hidden place. The house itself is partly overgrown by plants, so it starts to be more and more part of the surrounding garden. It is a paradise for wildlife, a lot of birds and other small animals have their home around the house. Well, the neighbour's cats actually move in when my parents are there, too. Always good to have a secure food source, isn't it?

After a good night's sleep we went to the forest to collect wild mushrooms. I actually found some quite in the beginning, so I had hope to find a few more. Hjördís found a frog, but refused to kiss him. So we don't know if it was a prince or not.

Well, to say the truth, we were not really successful in finding mushrooms, just got a few. But nevertheless we had a really good walk through the forest.

In the afternoon we practised the art of archery. My dad has always been a bit weak for that and so my brother and I learned quite early how to use a bow and an arrow. We were pleased to see that my dad finally got himself a good target so we could tryout his crossbows too.

When Hjördís saw what we were up to, she really wanted to try too. The moment it was her turn, she was a bit shy in the beginning, but then tried and did it really well.
We warmed up with the small crossbow, which is actually more a toy compared to the big one. After trying the real thing we switched to regular bows and tried our luck with that. Not so easy.

On Friday my parents joined us and we had a good time together. At lunchtime we grilled nice steaks, nearly too much, but in fact too good not to finish them. Hjördís liked them too and finished hers and a load of potatoes too. I was surprised, how much food could fit into that little person!
To digest all that food we played Kubb, the Viking game. Ladies vs. Gentlemen. Actually it is not easy to hit and throw over these wooden farmers. After playing quite a while (would have been good to have a referee.) and having reached 2:2, we decided to have dinner to recharge our batteries. I think my mum hit most of the farmers in this game; somehow, she managed to throw quite specially. Unfortunately, she couldn't show me how, otherwise we would have won, no question ;-)

Saturday we spent mostly inside, as it was raining quite heavily. We played some games, took care of my old computer and made more space in the bedroom. My dad was sent out to grill our lunch and afterwards we soon started our trip to Vienna.
The rest of the day we were lazy at home and trying to find out, what we actually liked best about the last days.