Stefan was friend we had met year back when we lived in Arizona. He lived in an apartment in the same complex and we spent a lot of time hanging out at the pool together. Several years back he moved back to Austria. When we planned the trip, I coordinated with Stefan to spend a couple of days visiting. He was currently working in Switzerland and only home on the weekends, so we arrived Friday and stayed until Monday. It turned out to be a great stop.
Stefan’s girlfriend, Mirina, met us at the train station since Stefan was running a bit late from work. Once he arrived we split between their two cars and headed to the little town of Tyrol. His little home town was about a mile wide with mountains on both sides. The maintains lined the little city of 900 like walls, they were sheer cliff mountain. It was cold and the top of the mountains were covered with snow, there was waterfall everywhere you looked. It was absolutely beautiful.
Stefan and Mirina took us to a local ski resort for the girls could play in the snow and Elizabeth and I got to climb on glacier. They supplied the winter clothing! When we went down the maintain they had a surprise for the girls taking them to a horse farm. Kaleigh was absolute beyond herself, she was never going to leave. The only reason she left without being upset is they promised to bring her back to ride the next day if the weather was nice. That evening Mirina made us a wonderful traditional Austrian schnitzel meal. It was great to have a home cooked meal with friends.
The next day Elizabeth and I decided to separate. Her and Mirina were going to take the girls to the horse farm and playground, while Stefan and I hiked up a little valley trail. The hike was great. We hiked up a trail that lead to a local restaurant on the top. The hike started off like no other, the first several hundred meters we walked with an elder couple walking their sheep down the road to a new field. Stefan, obviously, knew them and had a chat. Further on the way up, we ran into one of his sisters and her family who were hiking up to have a drink. After getting to the top a quarter of the town had the same idea, it is just something they do. The hike up and back was a several mile hike and it felt great. I was a bit winded at points, but the view, the air, feeling, it was somewhere I could have stayed. At one point, you could look down on the town and it looked like a single neighborhood in a tiny little valley.
The girls had a great day too. Kaleigh got to finally ride her horse and Brooklyn played with the animals all day. We arrived back all tired, but Mirina spoiled us to another meal.
I wish we could have stayed longer it was a wonderful stop. We all relaxed and really calmed down from all the traveling. We hope that once we are back to the US that Stefan and Mirina we come stay some time with us for we can repay the favor. It was not only nice to have home cooked meals, see a familiar face, but they also let Elizabeth and I keep the winter jackets…it is starting to get colder.
Note: The town is so small the house numbers are by when the house was built. The third house is the town is address 3, it has nothing to do with any location!
We will be going back to this little town. I fell in love with it.
