Austrian Weekend

We have dear friends who live in the Bregenzerwald region of Austria, which is the northwest corner, and probably one of the prettiest places we've been. We stayed at our friend Susanne Kaufmann's hotel, the Hotel Post, which her brother and our friend Oskar designed.  Below are some of the highlights from our weekend:

Above: Hotel Post and the bathroom products from their Susanne Kaufmann line

Small town of Schwarzenberg, home to our favorite restaurants the Hirschen, Adler, and the little cheese shop.

 













































 Getting a dirndl in Andelsbuch

The cheese shop in Schwarzenberg

Hotel Hirschen, not just a great restaurant, but a lovely place to stay.

A local in Schwarzenberg, just doing his thing (this was not for tourists or tips).

One of our places to pick up gifts is the Hirschbuhl shop in Schwarzenberg.

We happened to be there on a day when the cows returned from the mountains (marking end of summer) to go home to their farmers and stables. It was pretty amazing, waiting for several hundred cows to arrive in the town square.

Our friends took us for a Sunday 'walk', which actually meant a 3 1/2 hour hike up a mountain. It was amazing, and I was so proud that Clara made it the whole way...especially with all of us in completely inappropriate shoes.

This was the guest house, Edelweiss, that we had drinks at after the climb up the Kanisfluh mountain. I loved the rooms there--they were so well appointed, and a 2 bedroom family room was 65 euros a night, and includes breakfast.  If you're really keen to stay there send me a message and I'll dig up the card...as they don't have a website.

Heidiland

As we drove through Heidiland (in Switzerland near Austrian border) we knew we had to go to the touristy Heidi Museum since Clara would love it, but we also wanted to find a place for lunch that was not a tourist trap. I asked Matt to drive up this mountain, just to see where the road took us. Turned out to be a good move, because we ended up in this little tiny town called St. Margarethen, which had maybe 10 houses, and lots of cows, and crazy views of the mountains. Talk about a real Heidi experience. All you could hear was the jingle of the cows' and goats' bells, and the views were amazing. We found a farmhouse that made the most perfect homemade lunch, and sold their own cheeses, butters, jams, and stuffed fur toy rabbits.  Then we headed down the hill to the town of Maienfeld, the official 'Heidiland', but also home to some of the best pinot noir we've ever tasted. If you get to this area, make sure you buy some to try, and some to bring back, because finding Swiss pinot noir in the States is not easy, and it's way more expensive...And the Heidi Museum and gift shop were actually pretty cute--goats wandering around (some of them butt the tourists, Clara included), nice Edelweiss cotton scarfs in the gift shop, and a pretty walk to and from the parking lot.

Above pictures all from the Buura Beizli farmhouse lunch stop.

All those inside shots are of the Heidi Museum, and were taken by Clara.