Top of the Mountain

It was Tessa's last weekend with us, so we wanted to spend some special family time together. Our 2-hour car trip took us to Mariazell, a little town and well-known pilgrimage site in Styria. As it was the weekend of Pfingsten (Pentecost), we saw large groups of people on their spiritual journey. We did enjoy the peaceful atmosphere by the basilica amongst the pilgrims. You could sense their feeling of accomplishment, friendship and contentment.  

However, our main reason for us to come to Marizell was the mountains. The first day we cheated and took the gondola up the Bürgeralpe (1266 m) instead of walking. As this doesn’t fly for two consecutive days, we climbed to the top of the Gemeindealpe (1623 m) the next day. From both places the view was spectacular, it feels like you are flying up there! The landscape underneath keeps on changing depending on the shadows of the clouds. And you can see soooo far. Also the nature in the mountains is beautiful, everything so fresh and green. The kids discovered lots of little treasures along the way (snails, rocks, leaves etc.) and learned the names of different flowers and trees. The cool, crisp air feels great on your skin when you take the quite strenuous hike up the mountain. To our surprise, Pascal teamed up with Tessa and lead the charge up the mountain! He chose to take the steepest section (the pictures under the chair lift) and barely needed to stop to rest. 

Other highlights of our weekend-trip were the traditional Pirker Lebkuchen (gingerbread), in the summer also served in the form of ice cream, the fantastic flower meadows, and the scooter ride down the Gemeindealpe, which is almost as fast as going down the lift - if you dare. And of course the random stuff that you could never plan but which actually are always such fond memories of any vacation: playing on the bike racks with an adventurous toddler, finding a 'Bine' sign, and bringing home a bouquet of wild flowers.

 

April in Brussels

So Sabine and I got a long, long, long, long overdue free weekend together. We spent it in Brussels to see Lizz Wright perform. Her first song was a Neil Young cover "Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you were......" She sang it like it was her own words. Very cool. Brussels is a music city (like Vienna), but unlike Vienna classical music is not the thing, rather jazz!

The other thing we discovered in Brussels was - Africa! Really! The stand out food for us was an Ethiopian dinner, and Ethiopian coffee, and Sabine got a nice African necklace at the flea market. And then we went to see a jazz concert which is an African-American art form in origin. Hmmmm.

Actually Brussels has a particularly BAD history with Africa. They plundered the Congo, with no mercy and treated the Africans with less regard then an abused farm animal. The one place you can see the 'evil' manifest is in the palace de justice! It is an overwhelmingly large building (for a time the largest building in the world by some measure like offices, etc.), and the thing is very impressive in the same way Darth Vadar's death star might seem. 

Inside the palace

A detail I found in of the palace de justice was this sculpture in the waiting area of a random office. I think, rightly so, Brussels does have a sense of guilt over its African adventure.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast http://www.leopold2.be/en/home/ outside the main city but not far by subway. The owner was very nice, and the house looks like his work in progress, and was tastefully decorated in a modern style.

Another reason Brussels' appreciation of music far surpasses that of Vienna's is breadth of scope! In the subways they play music, the first time I noticed they were playing classical music (not such a big surprise, but pleasant). The next day they were playing jazz. The third day some kind of pop R&B! And all the music was tasteful, considered not top 40 hits, but interesting music selected from the whole broad spectrum of music out there in the world. Very cool.

And to add to Brussels' eclectic tastes, they also celebrate comics! There are comics painted on walls all over the city. We also saw a strange exhibit of art brut and the fantastic figures typical of the art.

Sabine poses with a nice little old monster lady we bumped into.

As far as things to do goes, it seemed necessary to visit the Atomium, a huge structure resembling an Atom of the ball and stick model. You take an elevator to the top where in the top ball there is a rotating restaurant. The whole thing is kind of cheesy, I guess, and smacks of when we all thought the future would hold such promise (you know: free energy from the atom, flying cars, robot maids, etc...). Actually, this feeling of hope in the future reminded me of my 60's childhood, the Apollo rocket to the moon, all the hope for fixing all the ills in our world. It's a nice feeling, although even then this positivity/innocence was shadowed by the assassinations of MLK, a president, the brutality and pointlessness of the Vietnam war, etc... Nonetheless it would be nice if we could all dream like that again.

In front of the Atomium (get it 'be' welcome...)

Down the stairs is the beginning of the old city.

The Sweetest Gift Ever

Last month, the girls surprised me with a very unique present for my birthday. Tessa and Anika had both put their talents together and created a masterpiece - at least in my chocolate-crazy eyes. Tessa designed a huge cardboard-Wonka chocolate bar and a colorful poster where she “immortalized” a story that Anika had thought of. The story was built around chocolate bar brand names and even made sense -to me. Here it is: 

Dear Mama,

I bet you are wondering how we got this BOUNTY of chocolate. It is so special that we had to fly to Willy Wonka’s secret factory on MARS. On our trip we went to a new planet called DUPLO (Scientist have not discovered it yet.) I bet you can’t guess who we met there ?!! LEOnardo da Vinci!! He is not dead!!! He lives in space with his cute little KITKAT named TWIX. The problem is da Vinci has terrible MANNERs. (He’s NUTS!!).

We also got to see the MILKY WAY. It’s a very popular tourist attraction; they even sell milkshakes and cow souvenirs, but we thought it was CORNY. The best part of our journey was getting to see the Wonka factory. We’ll bring you along next time!

Happy Birthday! We love you to the moon and back, literally, we saw that, too!

Thank you, family, for making my birthday so special!

Aggstein - Wachau

Took a little trip to Aggstein castle on a beautiful spring day. Perfect blue skies, and fresh green all around us. The trees on the mountains are especially beautiful in their greens. There is the dark green of the evergreens, contrasted with the fresh almost neon green of the newly sprouted leaves. You can see a little of this in the photos, but the sparkling clarity that was the reality is hard to represent in a photo. And down the middle of this is the at times deep green, at other times sparkling blue of the Donau swiftly running its course through the mountains.

Mountain High

The week before Easter we made a car trip through Austria to Switzerland (to visit friends), then back into Germany (Heidelberg, to visit friends), and on through Bavaria (to visit friends). On the way to Switzerland we overnighted in Innsbruck. The city is all about mountains. Down every street you see snow capped mountains. Before we left we took a Gondola to the top of one of the mountains. Wow!! First, there is still plenty of snow, way up top, even in April. Second, it was a perfectly sunny day. Third, it's like you are in heaven way up on top of the mountain. You can see forever, over three or more distant snow capped mountain ranges. In fact you feel like you are above the mountain ranges looking down! It's as if you were standing on a cloud! A small airplane flew past us standing on the mountain edge, and it was BELOW us!

Not much was going on this late in the season, but that added to the pleasure as we were not in any crowds. A bar, and ice cave were open behind us, and the bar was pumping out chill trance music. The sun was so bright and warm you could sun bath in the snow!

As an added pleasure we played with a big black dog. We threw him snow balls to fetch, and in general chased each other around. The dog was pitch black, and if it wasn't for his playful mood I would have taken him as some kind of evil mountain spirit.

We want to go back to the mountains this summer. It's such a mind blowing experience standing up there. So peaceful, so free. Gotta do it again.

Just across the Border

Typical house front in Sopron, Hungary

Poor one-eyed kitty

Little rascal Pascal

Saint George church

Colorful facade

Static moment

So many words to say "No parking"?!

Last weekend we took a trip to Sopron, which is a little Hungarian town near the Austrian border less than an hour away by car. The little streets and even the main plaza with the fire watch tower and goat church were deserted on this Sunday morning. Over all, the town had a flair that reminded me a bit of Italy, however a somewhat run-down version of it. One acquaintance we made in the main square was a one-eyed cat. I was wondering what had happened to her. Despite her injury she was very sweet and trusting. While the rest of the family petted the cat for quite a long time, I took a short walk and discovered a few sights of surprising charm. Sopron will be worth another visit in the summertime!

Hoffnung

Kreuzende Pfade, Bükfürdö Hungary

Entenschwarm, Bükfürdö Hungary

Frühlingsboten vom Naschmarkt

Frühlingsboten vom Donau-Au Park

Und dräut der Winter noch so sehr,

Mit trotzigen Gebärden,

Und streut er Eis und Schnee umher,

Es muss DOCH Frühling werden.

Und drängen Nebel noch so dicht

Sich vor den Blick der Sonne,

Sie wecket doch mit ihrem Licht

Einmal die Welt zur Wonne.

...

Drum still! Und wie es frieren mag,

O Herz, gib Dich zufrieden.

Es ist ein großer Maientag

Der ganzen Welt beschieden.

Und wenn Dir oft auch bangt und graut

Als sei die Höll' auf Erden,

Nur unverzagt auf Gott vertraut!

Es muss DOCH Frühling werden.

-Emanuel Geibel

My Toothless Indian

A couple of weeks ago, Pascal had his Fasching celebration in class - a whole day of games and fun. That morning, the dressing ritual just took half the time as usual, making me wish it were Fasching every day. Before he left for school Tessa snapped that picture of us. If anybody ever wondered, why it is sometimes hard to say "No" to Pascal: It's that big, fat smile on his face.

A Czech Wedding

The musicians are arriving

Dean at the big fat Czech wedding

Mira in a harness pushes Klara in a wheelbarrow

Chained for life - in a good way

Feeding each other the first meal as a married couple

Picture wall of Klara's and Mira's adventures

Pascal had a blast - after his cake was saved

Ani was one of the flower girls

Handsome Agro got a lot of attention

So this is something I meant to do for such a long time: Write a post about Klara’s and Mira’s wedding. Just last week I went through dozens of pictures that our friend Ania had been taking and was again reminded of my tardiness.

Last year in late July we drove to Stramberk, a little town in Moravia to celebrate Klara’s and Mira’s wedding. For our weekend stay, Klara had rented a gorgeous timbered house in regional folk style near the town’s main square. The interior was traditionally furnished with handpainted wooden furniture.

Klara and Mira are both nature people, enjoying adventures, the outdoors and growing and making their own food (The latest favorite is the self-made carrot juice!!). So it is not surprising, that for their wedding the two picked a place under the open skies: a wide flowery meadow for the ceremony and a garden area for the party. Also not surprising was Klara’s choice of wedding dress: A light green gown that matched her naturally red hair beautifully. The entire celebration had been organized and was run by friends: table settings, decorations, food serving, tombola etc. which gave the party a somewhat improvised but all the more unique and pleasantly informal character.

For the actual ceremony, everyone gathered in the meadow. Mira had to take Klara’s shoes off as the bride is supposed to step in front of the priest showing her pureness. The bride’s shoe was later circled around among the guests for money gifts. Following the congratulations, the groom gave the bride a ride in a wheelbarrow –slave-like in a harness. In turn, he then got to symbolically put a chain on her foot to keep her tied to himself for the years to come. For their wedding meal, the freshly married couple spooned soup in each other’s mouths, fortunately protected by an over-dimensionally big bib.

A funny little incident happened after the wedding cake was cut by the newlyweds. Little Pascal had gotten hold of an extra-large piece of cake that was dangerously balanced on his plate. Somehow, Agro – Klara’s dog - caught attention of this yummy treat moving on two short legs and started following Pascal around. Pascal fearing for his cake moved faster… and faster… and faster- getting a little panicky. Now the chase was on and Agro was right at Pascal’s heels! As if to emphasize the comedy of the situation, the band was playing a cheerful, fast-beat, Czech song and the whole scene just seemed like a movie script. But in the end Pascal and the cake were saved.

We spent the whole day meeting people, dancing, eating too many cookies (several kilograms were baked for the wedding by the families of the couple) and listening to the Czech band playing something that sounded very similar to klezmer music. Thankfully, we did not understand the Czech lyrics, for Klara told us a good portion of the content was lewd jokes, or at the very least misogynistic. Nonetheless the music was great.

The whole wedding was really a wonderful celebration under blue skies in the green heart of nature. Very much a wedding celebration about the persons that Klara and Mira are.