Austria Trip June 13-16, 2011 Graz

So our next stop was Graz, Austria. It is the second largest city in Austria but that is definitely not what made us want to visit it. It's old city is one of the best preserved in all of Austria. It was a city that made you want to walk up every street just to see the different architect and art work.

 If you are stuck in a city with no place for a yard this is definitely a cool idea.

 This is the city hall building.

 Elise wanted to stop and watch every fountain that we came to and usually was not so happy to leave. I think she is part fish.

 This is the staircase up to the remains of a castle. Although the castle was destroyed there is still the original clock and bell towers as well as gardens at the top.

 Elise wanted to climb every stair but we compromised and let her climb a few stairs and then she had to be carried again. Otherwise we would probably still be in Graz. Our little miss independent.

 Looking out over Graz.

 The Clock tower.

 The Bell tower.

 The only part of the castle that remains. They use it to preform plays in.

 I thought this Gazebo was very pretty.

 I think the gardens were one of my favorite things. I love flower gardens with paths and benches throughout.

 This is a man mad island on the Mur River. It was built for a fair and then people liked it so much that is was left. It is kind of a shell like shape that has a walkway connecting it to both sides of the river and it has a cafe in the middle.

 I don't know if Elise liked to watch the water or herself in the glass more.

 We were walking past the cafe and I think Elise all of a sudden realized she could see herself and what she did her image copied. It was very funny.

 Cog trains going up to the castle. The easy way to get to the top, boring.

 The painted house. I knew there was a painted house somewhere that we wanted to try and see but there were so many cool buildings that I was just taking pictures and then when we got back to the hotel I remembered the painted house and thought we had missed it but when we looked through our pictures we had in fact seen it there were just so many cool buildings that it didn't stand out as much as we had thought it would.

 Elise loved riding the city buses. We also just bought a bus pass in Graz instead of trying to use the car, much easier.

 This is actually a cemetery but the building looks really cool.

 These reminded us of the Seven Dwarfs, very cute but a picture of them is much lighter and cheaper.

 Our hotel