Our last weekend in Graz

Our last weekend in Graz was pretty much a blur of activity.  When you realize your time is almost over you tend to try to fit in all those things that you thought you'd have plenty of time to do when you first got there.  Friday was the kids' choice, Saturday we did something Sue had been wanting to do, and Sunday was my choice.  And almost all the activity was with our friends Loulou, Renato and their son.

Friday afternoon was a visit to the Children's museum, one of Henry's favorite activities.  The museum was organized around architecture inspired by nature.  I wasn't able to go, but Sue bought a book related to the exhibit and it was very interesting.

Friday night Grace and Henry stayed over with Loulou and her son.  It was Henry's first sleepover and it went great!  They had dinner, watched a movie and actually went to bed at a fairly reasonable hour.  In the morning they had breakfast, made a cake and had a puppet show.  Loulou kept them through lunch.

Saturday afternoon we went to a "sculpture park," which was pretty diverse.  Some were the typical "I really don't understand how that is art" (and that was from Renato, who is a musician, and for some reason I thought he'd cut the artists a little more slack!).  But some were pretty interesting (my favorite was a plane crash sculpture), but nearby there was this unusual balloon that inflated and then "popped" at regular intervals, all the while with a whistle like a plane coming down for a crash.  But the two sculptures didn't seem to be "related" in any way.  There was also a sculpture by Yoko Ono, but that was pretty much in the first category of "art."  But it was cool that it was a park in that in between the sculptures were some pretty large open spaces.  The sculpture park was near a very large lake.  So, after the park we for a swim.

Sunday we went to Kessellfallklam, which was a small waterfall hike, just right for our two families.  What made it really cool was that the hike involves climbing 40-some stairs and ladders to make it over the ravine formed by the waterfall.  It was a nice hike and there is an "adult" version in the same area of Austria that we will hope to hit next time.

Afterwards we did something that all the adults were looking forward to:  we went to a Buschenschank.  A Buschenschank is a small winery, where they sell their own wine and only serve platters of wurst, cheese and bread.  You can hear more of my raving about Buschenschanks in last year's posts, but suffice it to say that all of us like these.  And our visit almost didn't work out because the one that we usually visit was closed.  So, we sampled two others on our way to the one we settled on.  The determining factor was the Spielplatz (playground) for the children.  Has to be just right and not in the direct sun.  The place we ended up at met all the requirements, not only with its Spielplatz, but also the view and the look of the place.  You'll see when I post a picture.  And the weather was ...  just ... perfect.  A perfect ending to our last weekend in Graz.