It’s our first full day in Graz. We haven’t made a plan, so we think we’ll just walk around the city and explore as much as we can. The day surprisingly turns into a unique pub crawl. With so much great food and drinks, Graz begs us to overdo it a little today. 

I wake early to work. Oh my goodness, I want this apartment. It’s nicely laid-out so the common spaces are separated from the bedrooms. Everything about this place is lovely. Lillian wakes first and has breakfast with me. Then Oly. Both are in great moods this morning, and they play well together. I work for a few hours while they play. Stefan has to move the car and returns with the best cup of coffee I’ve had in months. I almost forgot how much I love a good latte. It’s from some amazing hipster joint called Buna.

The kids take a bath in the nice big bathtub. They are so happy. We’ve had a shower instead of a bathtub for several weeks now. It’s fun to see how little things like that make a huge difference for them.

About noon, we finally leave the house in search of food. We go to Frankowitsch, recommended by NYT’s 36 Hours. It’s a deli with small open-faced sandwiches. The large patio is packed, but we manage to secure a small table. I order inside at the counter. There are so many delicious-looking sandwiches that it’s hard to choose. We get a selection and then return (twice!) to order more. The kids’ favorite is the “meat salad”, which we think is a ham, cheese, mayo combo. My favorite is the roast beef. I get the obligatory glass of Prosecco, which is really good, and Stefan enjoys a Campari Spritz. We’re happy to see Campari is popular here, and it feels like the last remnants of summer.

We look around and realize that most people select two pieces each for lunch. In total we had 15. We had to try them all, right?!

We walk charming old town streets and up a hill until we reach the entrance to a cave. It’s a strange tunnel built toward the end of WWII to shelter 40,000 civilians from bombings. The tunnel goes downhill and even has a club off it at one point!

At the bottom, we turn right to enter a new tunnel. This one leads to the super fast elevator to the top of the Schlossberg mountain. Here we find the Fairy Tale Train!

We have to wait 20 minutes, but eventually we are invited to take out seats on the train! There are only two other people, and the conductor agrees to make the automated recording in English for us. Yay! It’s a 30 minute ride through old mining tunnels in the mountain. It’s a bit strange with incoherent connections between parts of old children’s stories and odd decorations throughout the journey. But the kids are enraptured. At some points the train stops, and the kids shine a flashlight on parts of the tunnel for a reaction. It’s entertaining, and I’m really glad we do it. I will note that it is pretty expensive (27 Euros/family).

After our fun tunnel adventure, we ride the glass elevator up to the mountain top. The view from here is so nice. There’s also a fancy-looking place to have drinks right here. It looks perfect for a date.

We walk up the hill to the beer garden. It also has a really nice view, only it feels far more secluded. This is the place to drink away an afternoon. Stefan and I each get a nice local brew, and the kids get special apple juice produced here. Lillian is impressed by the little apple pieces still floating in her drink. The white juice is much more popular than the dark one. The kids call the dark one black wine.

We continue walking up the hill to the old fortress. There is no longer a castle or fortress up here, but we walk where it once stood. Even Napoleon couldn’t defeat it, so he had it destroyed once he overcame the Hapsburgs in 1809. The Austrians seem very proud of it (even though, again, it is not still standing here). The walk up here is calm and beautiful.

Now we walk back to the funicular, which the ticket seller called a cable car. This is the third funicular for this trip, and the kids are stoked. It’s new and really nice.

We meander across the river, walking down streets with quirky shops to another great church. Just down the road we discover the best beer shop in Graz, Bier Boutique. In addition to an interesting international selection, they carry several beers from at least 4 local breweries. Stefan and I try two, and the Saison is really good! The kids play mommy and doggy, complete with Oly fetching a wand with his mouth and returning it to Lillian.

As we wander back across the river, we stumble upon a playground! The kids go nuts. It’s a small space, but there are several families here.

We go home for a short rest before dinner tonight.

We made reservations tonight at Der Steirer based on its recommendations on TripAdvisor. It’s a nice place that finds that perfect balance between fancy and casual. We didn’t feel like we were being too loud or anything, but I could also imagine this being a nice place for a date. That’s a rare find. And the food is very good. We order red wine with dinner, and it’s not so great. But maybe the trick is to stick to white wine in this region. All in all this is a wonderful place, and we all have a great time together.