Austrian Alps Fishing Trip

Yesterday Justin and I arrived back in Germany thoroughly exhausted from what had to be the BEST trip we have taken! It was a four day fishing trip up in a remote mountain area of Austria. It was absolutely breathtaking. The water was crystal clear, the air was clean and the food was delicious! There were seven of us on the trip so we took a small van. The drive took about 7 hours but the last two hours were spent winding our way, switchback after switchback through a mountain pass. I have no idea how I didn't get car sick...

The lake at the top of the pass 

The trip was designed for mainly fishing but we were able to sneak in an afternoon of hiking. We mainly fished the lakes and ponds in the area and I was so proud of us because both Justin and I caught our first trout by fly fishing! Fly fishing is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be luckily this OLD gentleman took pity on me and spent most of a morning attempting to teach me the basics. I say attempting because he spoke very little english... Luckily he knew German and Spanish so by using my broken tex-mex spanish I sort of figured out what I was supposed to do. After he gave up on me he turned his attention to Justin and I think Justin actually learned a lot from him!

Our hotel in the distance during our hike

Hiking

Justin's trout, caught with a fly he tied himself

He was really slimy so I had a death grip to keep him from dropping 

Me attempting to fly fish  

First catch of the trip! 

Our room

The view from the hotel restaurant

No fishing trip is complete without beer 

Our fishing buddy for the morning was a cow that kept trying to steal our bags  

On the drive back home we stopped and rode the longest Alpine slide in the world! The slide was a blast although I'm not so sure if Justin had as much fun, he was a little apprehensive on his first time riding a ski lift... It was the perfect way to celebrate Justin's 26th birthday and recharge our batteries!