nina's aunt has a little house right at the lakeside of the neusiedler lake, and we were invited to stay there for a few days. after this pretty long winter, we enjoyed the warm temperatures outside, the water, and doing nothing. we borrowed two bikes and rode along the lake to podersdorf, where a surfing tournament had taken place the days before. so not much visitors were left, only a few that stayed until sunday to enjoy the lake too. later, after returning to the house, we hopped on a little rubber dhingy with an outboard motor. hmmm... a house at the lake, that's really a great thing. we enjoyed the time staying there, and nina even stayed a few days later, since she took some days off. unfortunately i couldn't do the same.

my brother, his wife, and my nephew came to visit me in vienna, and planned to go to schoenbrunn zoo, since my nephew wanted to see elephants, crocodiles, hippopotami, and giraffes in real life. those animals he asked specifically for, the rest was bonus. so we grabbed our camera gear and went on an educational family photo-safari trip. since it was the first warm weekend day in this year, tons of people had the same idea as we had. additionally there was also the vienna city-marathon today, so even more people going outside. but still, we enjoyed all the animals. my nephew got to see the meerkats[02-04], giraffes[06-07,09], koalas[10-11], the hippos[12-13], not so real cats[14-16], but also real cats[21-25], seals[26], and the all-time super-cute red pandas[28-29]. some reptiles[30], flamingos[31], sea creatures[32-34], and turtles[36] followed. after a short ice and ice-coffee break[37-38], we headed back to the elephant house where there was feeding time. to get their treat, the elephants had to perform loads of little tricks, which was nice to watch. after several hours at the zoo, my nephew got quite the animal overload. too much new beings, each of them a new experience. so we went home, watched the pictures taken during our trip, and went to bed early, since we all were pretty tired. yet, a fun day for all of us.