Well today’s been an interesting day! I had a nice morning with the family eating breakfast. Then they left for church and I was finishing up getting ready for our outing to Salzkammergut. I managed to miss my bus by about 2 or 3 minutes… not thinking that it was Sunday. When I looked at the schedule, the next bus didn’t leave for another half hour. That would’ve made me late and quite possibly miss the trip. With the family being gone, and having no other options, I walked; fast!! I couldn’t remember how to get to the river from the house (which would’ve been shorter) so I followed the bus route. I was hoping that as I got closer to downtown and more bus lines converge I’d catch one… I finally did but it was only for 3 stops, which is maybe 5 or 6 blocks. I then got off in the center of town and booked it across the river to the platz where those of us staying with host families were getting picked up. I was about 10 minutes late, but the bus wasn’t there yet… I was thanking my lucky stars!! I completed a 3-mile walk in 50 minutes. I was really hot by then despite the chilly morning, and my calves were burning. It was very nice to sit on the bus once it came.
It ended up being a beautiful day; very comfortable with a light jacket or sweater. The only time it was really cold is when we were up on one of the mountains for lunch.
We started at Mondsee, which is a town along the Moon Lake. The main attraction of this town is the large cathedral; which is where the wedding was filmed for The Sound of Music. The church at the Abby in Salzburg is not only too small for a film, but people are not allowed in it. Mondsee is a quaint little tourist town. There is a story/ legend of a dragon at Mondsee. He only ate virgins. Once he had eaten all the virgins in Mondsee he moved onto Salzburg, and died because he couldn’t find any there. The PG version is that after eating all the virgins in Mondsee he fell off the mountain into the lake and died, which is why this lake is so much warmer than the others. In reality it’s just a shallow lake.
Next we drove by Wolfgangsee. This lake and town are named after the St. Wolfgang and is one of the deepest lakes in the region. The story says that Wolfgang, a bishop, had left town to find himself again, he needed to be closer to God. He was followed and bugged by the devil. Finally Wolfgang took a hatchet and said that wherever it landed in the woods he would build a church. He eventually found the hatchet alongside the lake and built a church. Sometime ago the original church was destroyed (I think by a fire) and was rebuilt on the same spot.
After stopping to take some pictures, we drove up one of the mountains for lunch. It was quite the drive… just switchbacks all the way up. Some people had to move to the front of the bus. It was pretty rough for those who don’t do well on winding roads. Near the top we stopped at a farm. This farm has been in the same family with the same last name (familienname) for a few hundred years. Everything on the farm is homemade and completely organic. The cows are only fed hay and grass. Up on the mountain, the grass has a lot of naturally grown herbs among it. This gives the milk a different quality. The cows produce milk with a higher concentration of fat (around 5% vs the cows don in the valley that only produce a fat concentration of 3-4% which doesn’t seem like much, but it is). We saw how where the make the cheese, milk the cows (which are never fenced in) and where the cheese is aged. There was one new calf in the barn, which he was selling to another local farmer that our group got to name. As a group of singers, we named her Pamina (the leading soprano in Mozart’s The Magic Flute). The lunch was delicious and completely filling. It’s now 8pm and I’m still full. We had some of the homemade cheese (which has won Gold just about every year), homemade meats, sausages, butter, and warm bread. I still can’t get over how absolutely wonderful that meal was.
We had one more town we stopped in Hallstat. This town is along another lake (Hallstätter See) and as the mountain is right there, there is not much space for building and cemeteries. This town is famous for it’s bone room. As there is not space, and the gravesites are so small, a body will be buried without the head. The skull will sit in the sun to bleach to a nice ivory color then placed in the bone room, sometimes it will be painted by the mortician. Different symbols mean different things: roses – love, ivory-honor... and so on. After ten years the body will be replaced with a new one, I’m not entirely sure what is done with the one that was in there.
After walking around and seeing the bone room, a couple of us went to a café. I had café diplomat. It was coffee with eggnog and completely delicious.
On the way home we passes the headquarters for Redbull.
I got home just as the family was sitting down to dinner, not that I could eat anything. Then the girls and I were playing (really they were chasing me and at times, I, them). I do hope I don’t end up with a black eye tomorrow because I one point a heel connected with my eye. Once Lisa was put to bed, Laura and I sat out on the balcony and sang songs to each other. She sang in Deutch, and she dictated to me which language I should sing in. A couple of time she had me sing in Deutch, but mostly she asked for English.
Don’t be surprised if I come back to the States saying “Ja” (Yah: meaning yes) and “Super” as these are said all the time over here.
Well, I now need to relax. I definitely got my workout today between my 3-mile speed walk this morning and walking all around the Lake District today (hiking up goodness knows how many stairs). I hope your are all having a wonderful Sunday (or Monday as the case may be).
Cheers!
