So I'm a liar.

I said I would start blogging again last week, but let's just say that real life did what it does -- which is get in the way of blogging -- and I wasn't able to. But now I am sitting at my laptop and I will not talk any more about why I couldn't blog because it is boring, and instead I will share some of my pictures from Austria. Because? Well, I spent most of July in Austria -- that's a lot of time!

This year we spent a lot of time in my husband family's house in the country -- it's in a region called Niederösterreich (Lower Austria, which, despite what the name suggests is in the northeast - why do you have to go and make things complicated, Austria?)

Whatever it's called, it's full of wheat and forests and vineyards and it is lovely.

[caption id="attachment_1711" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="A wine cave"]<a href="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_0582.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1711" title="IMG_0582" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/IMG_0582.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="669" /></a>[/caption]

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One incredibly fabulous thing about Austria are the castles that casually dot the countryside. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Austria">They're so common</a> that it is relatively not that big a deal to live in one. I think that most of them are private residences (but I am not 100% sure about this) but we did visit a public one called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenburg">Rosenburg</a>.

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The reason you go to Rosenburg is to watch their bird show. It's the typical tourist fare -- trainers dressed in renaissance costume do a falconry demonstration in an actual mountaintop renaissance castle. You know, the usual.

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Sounds tame, but those birds are big.

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That one up there almost hit me in the head. I'm not even kidding!

Niederösterreich is beautiful and relaxing, but my real heart lies in Vienna. Turns out I'm a city girl at heart and not much of a country mouse. On Thursday I will share some pictures from gorgeous Vienna.