Hiking

Today my dad and I went for a hike up the Schoeckl, which is the tallest mountain right outside of Graz (1445 meters). When we reached the top there were these funny ramps that plunged off the side (... we later discovered they were for parachuters to jump off from)

We arrived at a large restaurant at the top, hungry & ready to eat from our hike...
... unfortunately Fridays are the day they're closed! So, now we're hungry and not very happy about having to hike back down to get some lunch :(
We ate a small snack of what we had in our backpacks: water, 1 granola bar, and curiously strong mints.
Here's the view from their deck overlooking Graz in the distance (the Schlossberg hill is just visible to the right of the center of the photo).
We walked around the bend and found another Gasthof that was open! So, we did get to eat lunch at the top afterall :)
Viel besser...


We wandered around on the top of the mountain after lunch and came across some people getting ready to parachute.

Just as they were ready to go, the wind died down and a rain cloud appeared overhead. As it started to rain they changed their mind and packed up, so we did not get to see them take off.
We decided it was also time for us to hike back down.