That's a really nice country you picked! I like going for a hike in Austrian Alps - hiking is the other passion I have. Regarding learning german, for the beginning just make sure you can say "Biergarten", "Servus!", "Schnitzel" and "Kaiserschmarrn" - the rest is coming step by step ;-)
Genau :-) Oh, and be patient with us Germans/Austrians speaking English. We are trying really hard, but it doesn't come easy to us... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0lWICH3rY