Austria

 Next in our alphabetical journey through the world was Austria.  In the center of Europe, it was also the epicenter of World War I and the seat of the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Video List

• Geography Now Austria
• Geography More! Austria - the Austrian section of this video ends at 3:16
• Top 10 Places to Visit in Austria
• 10 Best Places to Visit in Austria - a little slower and more polished than the previous video, but we actually liked the earlier video a bit better because of its faster pace
• Visit Austria: What You Should Know Before You Visit Austria - nice overview of some cultural differences between the US and Austria, as well as practical info
• 7 Tourist Mistakes (Visiting Vienna) - a little slow but helps you feel like you are getting to know the city of Vienna

For the food, I checked out this blog post on the 20 best Austrian dishes.  We felt like we got a little bit of a taste of some of the dishes like schnitzel and knodel when we had our Czechia meal, so I decided to go for #1 and #3 on the list: Viennese Apfelstrudel and Vienna Sausage. 

I had had Vienna Sausages as a child and knew I liked them, but this was a totally new experience for my kids.  The texture threw them off, and none of them were a big fan of them, but I didn't mind finishing off the extras.

 I found a recipe I liked for the apfelstrudel and thought I would give it a try.  In the interest of time, I took their suggestion and used a premade puff pastry.

I tried rolling the pastry instead of folding and sealing as they recommended, so it came uncurled a bit when baking.  But the final results was still quite delicious!