Niederösterreich Tour

On Saturday, Elsa, Josef and I made a nice little tour through Lower Austria stopping in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Hohenlehen and Lunz am See.  The sun was shining and I got to see Austria in all its glory - mountains, hills and valleys.

Josef und Ich in Waidhofen an der Ybbs

One of the main sites in Waidhofen is this tower, which was built in 1532 when the people of Waidhofen, at precisely 11:45 a.m., deafeated the Turks.

Stopping for lunch (leftover schnitzel) up on the mountain at Hohenlehen.  This is where Josef will be taking the school students this week to practice cutting down trees.

 The cows didn't disturb us too much, mooooo.....

Elsa and I resting on the 180 year old tree (Josef counted the rings so we can say with certainty just how old it is) 

After lunch, we drove on to Lunz am See and took a little electric boat ride around the lake. This, of course, was followed by ice cream.

 

As you can see, it was an echt schöner Tag!

We've also been cooking and baking every day.  Needless to say, I think you'll all be impressed with what I can do when I get home!  Elsa and Josef made us a cookbook of their (and our!) favorite Austrian recipes so now I'll be able to recreate all of the recipes anytime we'd like.

Lately, I've also come to a few new realizations, including, among others:

• I no longer find it unusual for people to drink a beer at noon
• An after-lunch coffee break is second nature now
• The Austrians have a good thing going with their handshakes.  There's never that ambiguity of how to greet a person. You simply ALWAYS shake their hand when you arrive and when you leave. It's understood. It's simple.

It's hard to imagine that we'll be leaving in just two short days.  I really hate to think about it, and the anticipation seems almost worse than just saying goodbye and getting it done with. There have been simply far too many memories and good times had to sum up the whole experience. I best not write too much now or I'll start to cry just thinking about it. We've grown a lot this year, and we will often and fondly think back on our time here.

Chances are good that you won't hear from me again until we're in the States (we arrive Wednesday night).  Thanks to all of you who have been faithful readers!  It's been a great year :)

Love, Angela

How have I been spending my last days in Austria?

Snuggled up by a warm fire, that's how.  The weather has been nothing but miserable for the last several days, and, quite frankly, I'm getting sick of it.  Some people have been blaming it on the volcano, but I'm not sure if I buy it.  Regardless, it's no fun.  Fortunately we've moved over to Elsa and Josef's now so we've at least got some luxuries like a TV and dishwasher - not to mention, good company.

At 6:00 this morning Michael left for Belguim with the men's choir. I heard part of the sending off ceremony included beer with breakfast.  Hopefully they can still sing at the EU Parliament this afternoon! Today is their only official concert on the program. Then they have four days to explore the country. I must say, ich bin sehr stolz auf ihn.  (I'm proud of him) for joining the choir and really becoming part of the group.  It's been fun for me to meet the men in the choir too. They're quite the family.

On the home front, tomorrow's another Austrian (rather, Catholic) holiday - Corpus Christi.  That means no work, no school for the Austrians. This is literally the 5th or 6th holiday in the last 30 days.  We finished up at our schools on Monday, but the school year goes into early July.  Last weekend we cleaned out the apartment in Pöchlarn, so things are slowly winding down.

Along the Danube near Grein.  

 Riding bike in Vienna.

During the last holiday weekend (Pentecost, May 22-25), we spent some time in Vienna and also toured the Mostbirnhaus in Lower Austria. This relatively modern museum took us through the process of making the 'Mostviertlers' favorite drink, Most (an alcoholic cider, usually pear cider or sometimes apple) which you drink like wine. We also enjoyed some richtige spring weather in Vienna and rode our bikes around the Ring Street until our legs fell off.  Then we took in a concert from CSB/SJU, the choir is touring Europe at the moment, and also went to a recital of another teaching assistant living in Vienna.  In the evening we went to My Fair Lady with Matthias at the Volksoper and got to sit in those fancy box seats that line the side of an opera house.  

One of the other highlights from our time in Vienna was Dialog-im-Dunkeln. Basically what it is is an exhibition where you experience daily life as a blind person experiences it. You're led by a blind or visually-impaired tour guide and walk through simulated daily experiences, such as walking through a park, crossing the street, ordering a drink at a bar/cafe, etc. You learn how to use the walking stick and really become in tune to your other senses. Our guide said we rely on our vision for about 80% of what we do. We chose to do the tour in English and lucked out being the only two to sign up. We figured if we can't see, we will at least want to understand what's going on in the dark. Our guide was from Croatia but has been living in Vienna for 19 years working also as an opera singer.  She really got a kick out of Michael and me, and we got a kick out of her too.  The tour was half in English, half in German because she had just started learning English.  We had a great time helping each other out with words we didn't know, and she was insistent on me learning how to pronounce the German "ü" sound.  She even went so far as to try to form my lips and mouth and push in on my diaphragm but to no avail.  I think she would have given me a passing C grade, but I still have some work to do.