Gruss Gott!

Hello everyone! After a few days in beautiful Prague we took the bus to Vienna at an astoundingly cheap rate. Prague was not on,y beautiful but the people were wonderful and the food cheap - except of course if you act like a tourist and buy stuff right in the old town centre. Which we did on account of it was a fantastic hot ham on a spit roast, and potato, sauerkraut and bacon. Nom,nom! The Czech Republic is also known for it's beers and we sampled quite a few of them, in training for our event at Oktoberfest now less than a week away. And let me say, Vienna, or more precisely Baden where we had a training camp yesterday led by Karl's cousin Fritz, showed us that we face fairly strong competition from the locals. In fact, I think we realized we might not have the goods, when we staggered home on the tram after a day which began at 11am with the last bottle ever of Tante Gretti's home made wine. That was accompanied by a generous slice of her hand made apfelstrudel. Nom nom nom! Fritz then took us to a local biergarten for lunch and a few ales. Pork, dumplings, sauerkraut, schnitzel und salate washed down with a half litre of beer. After such a huge meal, we went for a walk which turned out to be a bit of a hike up to the ruins of a castle through the woods dominated by tannenbaum - fir trees - and of course, the climb rewarding us with magnificent views across the valley over Helenental, guarded by its own castle ruin. The castle dates to Roman times and is one of three perched strategically to afford views across the plains for miles. It was a beautiful day and easy to see all od Baden and surrounds, once you climbed the six storey tower to reach the ramparts. The castle itself is overgrown with plants but the old rooms can easily be seen and also the chapel. back at Tante Greti's, we had a coffee and more home cooked delights, giant jam cookies and more of the strudel. But then the serios training began. Fritz led us to a Heurigan which is a bit different to a pub In that it is a family run wine bar which serves traditional home made food and their own wine. The Austrian tradition is to keep the glass full, and Fritz made sure of that. Red wines, white wines and then some snacks including a rather nice paprika dip with pretzels and home cooked burger. Few more wines, some very sweet traubensaft - grape juice and blackcurrant juice, and thanks to some skillful manoevring we managed to say goodbye and find our way back to the tram. Our next session is on Wednesday beginning with Tante Greti's schnitzel special. Weather is beautiful at the moment with 30 degrees yesterday and similar expected for today and tomorrow. We are off to wander the streets of Vienna this morning and then down to the river tonight to the Prater for a pork knuckle. Until next time, Chuss!