Our Bauernhof Urlaub: Part 1

At the end of May we traveled about 4 hours away to Sankt Johann im Pongau, Austria to stay at a farm for the weekend!  These "Bauernhof Urlaubs" (farm holidays) are very popular in Austria.  I found the farm we stayed at on the website farmholidays.com.  There were dozens of farms to choose from!  The farm we chose, the Maurachhof, was advertised as a "Kinderbauernhof" and it was truly a beautiful and very kid friendly place.  We really enjoyed our time there!

We stayed in a small apartment on the grounds of the farm.  The two hotel buildings were beautiful and well kept.  Here's the view from our balcony:

The farmer, Tony, gave us a tour of the farm shortly after we arrived.

Playground

Barn

We loved seeing the calves and their mamas.

Hmm...what is that pile of stuff?

Each kid was given a "pflegetier" (foster animal) to take care of during our time on the farm.  William's pflegetier was the cat you see below named Pauli.  It was cute--William really understood the concept and from Day 1, he called Pauli his cat--"Where's my cat?"  

Drew had a guinea pig named Max.  He didn't like holding him, but he looked forward to visiting him every day and making sure he had fresh water and food.

Making their morning rounds visiting and feeding the animals

Daddy helped feed the cats twice a day.  I'm allergic to cats (and pretty much all animals, hay, etc) so I wasn't sure how I'd feel on this vacation, but I didn't have any issues!

The farmers gave the kids memory books about their animals on our last day there.

They also had a special competition in which Drew participated where he was asked to draw a picture of our time at the farm.  If his drawing wins the competition, we will get a week stay for free at the farm in the fall!  Kind of a genius idea!  I'm sure the fall is their slow season.

In addition to the animals, the farm had a garage full of ride on toys that the kids could use, a trampoline, playground and water/sand area, a tree house, and a hay barn with a view!

Most of the scheduled farm activities (like making bread, a milking competition, etc) took place during the week.  Since we came on a Friday, we had already missed those activities, but the farmer took the kids on a pony ride around the property and on a hay ride too.

You could not beat the view from the farm's sand area and playground.

We also had a pretty awesome view of the cows on the hill outside our apartment.  We were sitting outside one afternoon and saw this calf nursing!  

Not pictured was an indoor kids' playroom, a sauna, and a nice breakfast room.  This place really had it all!  

More posts to come about what outings we did during our time in Sankt Johann im Pongau.