Whole wheat pancakes

For brunch, we made these fairly healthy, but easy whole wheat pancakes:

2 cup organic whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp fine sea salt

2 eggs, well beaten

2 cup organic fat free milk

2 tsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp organic cane sugar

Reutte and Ehenbichl, Austria

Our visit to the small towns of Reutte and Ehenbichl (Austria) was another highlight of our trip to Europe last summer.

Reutte:


Ehenbichl (a 30-45 minute walk from Reutte):


From our balcony at Pension Hohenrainer, in Ehenbichl, we could see the ruins of Ehrenberg Castle.


We hiked Ehrenberg (Mountain of Honor) and were rewarded with spectacular views.


The Ehrenberg ruins are visible in the distance in this photo taken atop Schlosskopt, another ruined castle nearby.


The view of Ehenbichl, from the top of Schlosskopt.

(If you squint really hard, you can see our hotel, Pension Hohenrainer, in the bottom right hand corner.)

After a tiring day of hiking, we had dinner at the hotel. I started with the Tirolean soup -- ham and breaded meatball in a savory broth. The chives that garnished this soup were cut by Ms. Hohenrainer, the hotel's friendly owner and our cook, shortly before this soup was served. The rest of the meal was just as delicious as this soup looks.

Apple Strudel a la mode

We had a very pleasant stay at the Gutshof zum Schluxen, in the small town of Pinswang, Austria, on the German border. We hiked into Germany to visit the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles. For dessert that night, we had warm apple strudel and vanilla ice cream. (Can you spot the camera man in the spoon?)