Faschingdienstag - Fat Tuesday - Carnaval - Mardi Gras - Shrove Tuesday

Happy Faschingdienstag! Today is the last day before the beginning of Lent. Here in Austria, people celebrate this day by dressing up in costumes and eating krapfen (donuts). All over the world people celebrate with parades, pancakes, costumes, masks and trinkets. All of this celebration and excess comes before the fasting time of Lent.

Alexa and I decided to celebrate in style! We started off our day with apple cinnamon pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. I then got her dressed up in her Tinkerbell outfit and we headed to the Grottenbahn high above Linz to celebrate Faschingdienstag.

 
The Grottenbahn is a dragon train that runs in a circle under the Pöstlingberg (the Pöstling Mountain). The Grottenbahn itself follows a small circular track with dwarf scenes on each wall.

After riding the Grottenbahn around three times: 1st time the dwarfs on the left are lit up, 2nd time the dwarfs on the right are lit up and the 3rd time the entire cave is colorfully lit up; we ventured down into the mini village. The mini village is a child sized miniature replica of the city of Linz from 1900. There are also fairytale characters in the hallways, or the streets of the town. It is so cool!

Alexa had a blast running around a city that was her size!

We ended our Faschingdienstag with mini cheeseburger sliders, roasted cinnamon sweet potatoes and corn. It was a delicious, food and fun filled day!