So last Sunday I went on a bike riding trip with Barbara’s extended family - her parents, 5 sisters and their families. (Although ironically Linus and I were the only ones there from Barbara’s family.) But anyway, it was a really nice day, and the family were lovely. Apparently they had been planning it for awhile, and had dubbed the trip the “Iron Mami” and had little name tags for all the family members. So we all met at a previously planned point on our bikes, and then rode towards our destination.
A little less than halfway along they had a rest stop all set up (one of the sisters went ahead in the car with the stuff), and it was really cute! There were flags, a little table with beer, champagne, soft drink, water and some snacks like fruit, pretzels, and little packets of lollies labeled EPO (apparently some kind of drug sometimes used by professional cyclists?). There was probably about 16 bike riders all up, so we got a lot of looks from other passing pedestrians and cyclists.
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| The rest stop |
I loved the bike riding - I’m not even really sure how long it was, maybe about an hour? But despite it being an overcast day, it was beautiful. Unlike the country for us, I have probably mentioned before that its a lovely mix of town and farmland all kind of in there together around here, so we rode past some lovely farm areas as well as through areas of cute little Austrian houses. I particularly enjoyed two sights from our ride past farmland - first was a farmer who had ridden his bike down to the paddock to check on the cows. I don’t think I know a single farmer that would ride their bicycle down to the paddock. Tangible proof that farming is quite different over here I think! The other was actually more sound than sight - as we rode past a field of cows I couldn’t figure out what the noise I was hearing was, then I realised all the cows had bells, that were jingling as they chewed!! So cute :) After that first one we rode past a couple of spots where there were cows with bells, and I was loving it.
When we got to our destination, which was the restaurant of a sailing club on the Bodensee, they were having an Oktoberfest there the same day. And although someone pointed put that Oktoberfest isn't Austrian but Bavarian, it was awesome. There were lots of people there in dirndls, checked shirts and lederhosen, and the place was all decorated with bunting and checked tablecloths and such. Although probably best of all, there was a folk band there playing traditional folk songs! Did make it a little hard to hear each other, but the atmosphere was great :) There were lots of (mostly older) people at the tables singing along and getting up to dance, and I had a bit of a cuteness-overload at the sight of two little boys in matching lederhosen - wish I could have gotten a picture, but it felt a bit creepy taking a photo of two little kids I didn’t know...
I also had my first Weissbier since coming back over here, which looked puny next to the 1L steins of beer some of the men at the table had! That and the apple strudel were probably the highlights, although the weisswurst with sweet mustard were also pretty great. Also my first experience of mixing white wine and mineral water was interesting, but in a good way. And yes, as I am again proving, I can’t be in Europe and not rave about food! I love it too much haha. The worst part about it was having to ride home after being stuffed full of food and drink. It was definitely a much slower trip!
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| Huge beer! |
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| My half eaten strudel... |
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| The restaurant (note little boy in lederhosen!) |
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| Bought for me by Barbara's father :) |
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| The band - they were really good! |
The other amusing thing was the group photo - we all lined up outside the restaurant, and one of the sisters took a pic first, then I jumped up to take one so all the family could be in it. As I was taking it an older man came up and offered to take it. I tried to refuse, as I really didn’t need to be in the pic too, but he insisted - to the point that after taking it with the camera we had, he got his own (fancier) camera out of his car and took a photo with that and insisted on emailing it to us. Friendliness in the extreme! It was quite funny, but just another of many times I have seen how friendly people generally are over here. (More on that in my next post).
We ended the day at the grandparents house with glasses of Moet and some bread and cheese and home grown grapes. Altogether it was a lovely day, and it was really nice to meet almost all of Barbara’s family. It reminded me of my own extended family, in the way everyone got on and all the kids played happily together. Anyway that was Sunday, and I have started writing another update already so watch out for that soon too ;)
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| The countryside |
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| Quick rest stop on the way home |
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| Linus in an awesome poncho |
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