Austria #thehillsarealivewiththesoundofmusic

We are in a popular ski lounge in Tyrol, Austria but in the summer people come here for summer outdoor activities.

Our first morning we had a lovely breakfast with fried eggs and bacon. At 10:00 am we went next door to get our bikes for the tour. We all had mountain bikes which I don't believe I ever been on before. Thank goodness I do one spinning class a week because we had about 3 steep hills to climb. Before we went on the hardest hill the tour guide grouped us up and told us that if you can't do anymore hills it was time to turn around because the next one is very challenging. I got everyone fired jump by bringing everyone's hands in and we did a QUACK, QUACK, QUACK chant (might ducks- we did this also yesterday on the bike tour in Munich and now I guess it's the groups theme chant).

I conquered that hill alright... It was not a race but if it were I came I'm 3rd and the first girl! Chris was like 12th place. Everyone was a hot mess! From that moment everything was down hill, literally. What an amazing downhill ride... Took my breath away and the beautiful mountains that were surrounding us was... simply amazing! Chris and I ended up singing sound of music tunes. At the end of the bike ride we had a Austrian BBQ awaiting us. Austria BBQ is not like the US BBQ. It was a few sausages and a baked potato... It was really good!

We had about 5 minutes between excursions. Chris did not join me on this one which was paragliding! I was so nervous. We had to take taxis up the mountain and then we met our guy that we would be strapped to. My guys name was Diddi! Diddi and I went up the cable car to the very top of the mountain. Unfortunately it was not smooth sailing at the beginning, when it was our turn the winds went strange and we ended up crashing into each other before the jump. So now I have grass stains on my travel pants. The second time around was much better. We had to run off the mountain and eventually the parachute lifted us far and away! It was a cool experience. He asked me if I liked roller coasters and said yes and shortly after that we were doing 360s And other crazy sharp turns in the sky. I videotaped most of it and will add it to this post later on because I need to do it from an actual PC. I'm still alive! I don't know what came over me when we landed and I had a mini panic attack and had a few tears ... I felt like an idiot because all my tour mates were hugging me. I was just real shaken up! Needless to say when someone ask me if I ever would go paragliding my response will be...been there done that, no thanks!

After that we had a few hours to spare so Chris and I walked around town. Nothing is opened because it was a Sunday. We walked to the local trout farm. People from our group were there. You can fish in the pond and if you catch a trout you have to kill it right away. Then once you catch it you give it to the cooks and they serve it up!

We had another delicious Austrian dinner and headed to bed around 11. Probably will be the most sleep we will have.

This morning we got in the coach at 8:30 and headed to do some white water rafting. We were in the raft for about 2 hours. It was a level 3 rapid so it wasn't too complicated. Our rafting guide seemed to have a drill sergeant personality because he would yell out "forward please , stop". The rafts behind us all got up and made a circle and the raft guide turned the raft around. Our raft guide said he would not do that because we all came here for one thing, rafting. So that was a little off putting. I did end up getting out of the raft and swam in the River. Very cold even with a wet suite on. I will say Chris looks pretty good In a wet suit! ;)

We are on our way to Venice so stay tuned!