Mountain biking and trout fishing

On our second day in Hopfgarten, we got to go mountain biking in the Alps. Talk about the perfect cure for a hangover. The air is so fresh and clean. It's invigorating. We biked for 25 kilometers, half of which was up hill. Going up hill was a little rough at times, but the views made it oh so worth it. We stopped at one point to get water from a spring. It was the best water I have ever had. Hands down.


Once we got to the middle of the bike ride, we got lunch. Lunch consisted of sausages with honey mustard and a baked potato. SOOO GOOD! After lunch, the rest of the bike ride was down hill. It was so fun to just fly down the mountain especially after a hard ride up the mountain. On our way down, there was a cow just chillin' by the path, so we stopped for some photos.


After the biking, a few friends and I went to the trout farm, which is a place that enables you to not only catch a trout and kill it with a club, but also cooks the trout up for you on the spot. This was probably the funniest experience of my entire trip. I will tell you why, and illustrate it for you, but I guarantee it will not be nearly as funny as it was in person. Anywhoo, here goes.

We get to the trout farm, and just walk around like idiots for a solid 15 minutes trying to figure out where we get tickets/fishing poles and bait. After finally finding the ticket counter, I decided to just be a photographer for the day and not fish. The boys got their poles, some corn for bait, a bucket, and a wooden club. After baiting the hook, Kevin (having not fished since childhood) was a little confused about how to cast. I told him what to do, and the big fishing day was off.


After about 3 minutes of fishing, John caught his trout. He reeled it in, and having no idea how to go about killing the fish, held it up on the string and swung at it with his club like a pinata. Having very little luck with this method, he then attempted to lay the fish on a pedestal and hit it that way. But the fish kept jumping around. Then, out of no where came an old Austrian man to take care of business. The man held the fish down with a cloth in his hand, and whacked the fish with one fail swoop. Lo and behold, the fish was finally dead. After the killing, the old man was kind enough to put the dead fish back on the hook so John could take a picture with his catch. Too funny.

Next up is Kevin. After all the drama with the first catch, we had learned how to do things properly. Or so we thought. Kevin catches his fish. He puts it on the pedestal. As he goes to hold it down, the fish jumps, and Kevin jumps too...and screams...like a little girl. Giving up on holding the fish down
he just begins swinging. First he just knocks the air out of the poor fish. Then, one more hit. Yeah. It's dead. But wait! The old Austrian man couldn't let the Kevin have the final blow. He creeps in again to give the fish one last hit, sending blood flying and knocking the fish into the gravel on the ground. Now, he takes the bloody,
gravel covered fish and puts it back on the hook for a picture.

All of this happened in the span of about 15 minutes. It was a whirlwind of jumping, screaming, laughing, and fish beating. After all this commotion, we sat down for a beer while the fish got cooked. I tasted a little bit of it, and it was uncommonly good for cooked trout.