Travelling Austria: Mariazell

On Sunday morning I was still half asleep when I heard my man beside me move and get up. It was still very early and I thought that he as just going to the bathroom before he would come back to bed and return to sleep. We had a bottle of red wine the night before and went to bed rather late. 

As he left the door open and we live in a really small appartment I heard him rumbling around in the kitchen downstairs. He made coffee. I was still very tired and really wanted to have some more sleep, but second later he stood beside the bed with a cup of coffee in his hands, wide awake and grinnin: "The weather is beautiful outside. Let's go for a ride!"

See, my man is a biker. He loves motorcycles. They are not just his hobby. Ever since I met him (I've known him years before we fell in love) he is obsessed with them. Since a few months now he works in a motorcycle shop. It's a big store and he helps the guys who sells the bikes. He loves it. And the plus side of it is, that he can borrow whatever motorcycle he wants. So he chose this one for the weekend, as he thought it would be a comfortable bike for a day-long trip. 

So he got me out of bed, we had an enourmos breakfast, got dressed in our motorcycle gear and off we rode. 

I'm with my man for 2.5 years now and before that I never sat on a motorcycle. But after my first ride I was hooked. I'm not driving myself but I love to sit at the back and ride along. 

So we started to drive through the beautiful Austrian countryside. Austria is a raher amall country, you can cross it in a few hours. We live in the very east. The landscape is flat. There isn't a hill in sight and the view over the fields and wineyards goes for miles and miles and miles.

As we drove on, the landscape started to change. The fields weren't filled with sunflowers, corn, vegetables or grain anymore. The hills grew taller and we saw farm houses, cows chewing on grass and sheep lying around in the sunshine. 

Our destination was Mariazell. It's a famous place of pilgrimage for devouted catholics and somehow established its reputation for a great meeting point for bikers. 

I'm sorry that I haven't hot any pictures of the landscape. It's rather difficult to whip out your camera while driving 120 Km/h but I got some pictures of Mariazell. It's amazing how different this part of Austria looks, compared with the part where I live. The architecture is different. The clothes are different. People speak a really different dialect. All within a 4 hour drive. That's what I love about my country. The closeness. The variety. The beauty of all those different regions! Living in a small country really has its advantages. You should come and see for yourselves!