#peilstein

Winter Colors I | Peilstein

Winter Colors III | Peilstein

Winter Blacks I | Peilstein

Winter Blacks III | Peilstein

Winter Colors II | Peilstein

Winter Blacks II | Peilstein

Winter Life  | Peilstein

Last weekend I did another Alpenverein hike. I was telling one of my colleagues about my participation in Alpenverein hikes and she laughed at me like I was insane. This is because Alpenverein hikes are stereotypically something that only elderly people do. But we all know I have an old soul, so I think I fit right in with my older hiking companions. Upon arriving to Bahnhof Meidling to head to the trail head, I knew my colleagues words were right. Erin, Kelsey and I brought down the average age of the group by a solid amount (a fact that our fellow hikers did not allow us to forget!) we got on a bus in Mödling and started our hike to the Peilstein, a huge rock formation in Niederösterreich. Once in NÖ, we headed up to the ruins of ancient castle. In classic Austrian fashion, nobody cared about the castle and we didn’t even stop to look at it (Austrians are too spoiled with history). Instead we trudged on to the Hütte where we could take a break and have some warm soup and cold beer after our first half of the hike. After leaving the Hütte, we continued down the mountain. On the way, we entered into a beautiful clearing, where you could see the snow covered alps in the distance and plenty of small villages nearby. Once again, our old Austrian companions didn’t stop to look at the view– but insisted on trudging on. It wasn’t until we came across a few white flowers, that all of the Austrians finally decided to stop. Here they practically lost their minds about two local plants– the white flowers symbolizing the beginning of spring and the wild garlic that they would all use in their recipes sometime tonight. Erin, Kelsey and I gave each other inquisitive looks as all these Austrians were crawling around in the brush either to pic garlic or takes pics of the snowbells. The hike ended with us heading on to the worlds smallest train and heading back to Vienna. Honestly, what a wonderful way to spend a Saturday :)