A Winter Wonderland Welcoming

I made it back to Austria safe and sound on Jan. 12.  I was surprised to see not a speck of snow on the ground in Vienna, but as I approached the town of Mürzzuschlag, there was an abundance of snow.  The snow has continued to fall from the sky since my return to Austria.

My first weekend back, I went to one of the warmer parts of Austria, Klagenfurt.  My boyfriend and I visited his mother's apartment there.  There was not nearly as much snow in that town as opposed to my town.  The first night, we went to see the huge lake in the town, Wörthersee.  It was a beautiful site to see just as the sun was setting.  Afterward, we went to the shopping center in town.  We walked through the mall and the surrounding streets of the town.  Banners of lights streamed over the sidewalks illuminating the streets.

The next day, my boyfriend took me to a sauna, Thermal Römerbad in Bad Kleinkirchheim.  The place had 13 saunas total.  It became apparent that these saunas were different than those in America for there was no need to wear any clothes or bathing suits.  People walked around nude as if it was part of the norm, which it is in Austria.  After a nice, relaxing day at the sauna, we were welcomed home with an Austrian meal, Wiener schnitzel! 

Our final day in Klagenfurt, we traveled to the top of a mountain to overlook the town.  Although there was not much snow in the town, there was plenty on the top of the mountain, and it was much colder.  We were able to see the lake that we saw a couple days before.  In addition, we could see mountains from Slovenia and Italy, as those countries were not far from Klagenfurt.

Once we returned to ground level, we traveled to the town of Velden.  It was a beautiful town with a huge lake, the same lake that reaches to Klagenfurt.  We walked around the town for an hour or so.  Then, we went back to Klagenfurt to have one last Austrian meal before we left for Mürzzuschlag.  We had what Austrians call Tafelspitz with Apfelkren.  It was boiled beef with an apple horseradish sauce.  Although I don't particularly like horseradish, I enjoyed it with the mixture of apples.