The Old and the Restless

Show those teeth! Now that Megan is back at work, Thomas goes to daycare at a local school. I wonder if they sing this song there.

We decided to leave Vienna early to bicycle the Wachau (the very picturesque section of the Danube River Valley that starts 60 km west of Vienna from Krems to Spitz to Melk). So, we selected a B&B recommended by Rick Steves in Krems, punched in the GPS coordinates and drove there. Surprise! When we arrived, the B&B was only a hundred meters from the town square at Stein where we had stopped for lunch and seen the 10-10-10 wedding assembly line! [Mediaeval Stein and Krems are now one city.] That afternoon, we rented bicycles (at 5 euros for 24 hours each) from the municipality (with a lot of help with German translation from a former Denver resident who had returned to Austria). Our first stop of the afternoon was to take a picture in the now deserted Stein square with our three speed rental bikes. Each bike had a functioning headlight and tail light as well as a dual braking system. Safety was the watchword. Notice my bare legs! The temperature dropped markedly during the almo...

One of my memories from our first visit to Vienna (42 years ago!) was listening to a summer Strauss concert in the city park followed by coffee and dessert at a local coffee house. I wondered if I could find the Strauss statue again. It turned out to be right next door to our multi-story hotel this year. Nothing in the surrounding area looked familiar since there were no high rise buildings in Vienna in 1968 and there are many now. Different Viennese composers are honoured by statues in the Stadtpark. Here is the front of the elaborate monument to Strauss. And the back. Alas, it was too cold to have an outdoor concert. The principal "fans" of the Strauss statue are these ravens. The males of the species are interestingly bi-colored while the females are "traditional black". There were quite decent cafes in the area (at a couple of which we ate breakfast). But, other than locating the statue, I could not reorient myself as to where we went so long ago.

The "reason" for our trip to Vienna was to celebrate the retirement of the Secretary General of the new IAA. I had recruited him some 15 years ago in late 1995. The Executive Director of the IAA chose a private room in the elegant Hotel Sacher in which to have dinner. To reach the private dining room, we had to pass through a lounge decorated in what seemed to be red velvet covered furnishings. Almost all IAA Past Presidents came to the dinner, most with their spouses. Shown in the group photo (behind the wine glass) are eleven of the Past Presidents, the retiring and incoming Secretary General and the Executive Director. Not shown in the picture are the slices of Sacher Tort that finished the meal. In my remarks, I joked both that the retiring Secretary General had only taken seconds to consider whether or not to accept the position while the Executive Director had to give up her "first born child" to get her job (since she was recruited to take over the position s...

Sandra and I spent almost all day Monday with four of the spouses of delegates touring the huge outdoor Vienna market. Needless to say, the experience was a new one for this non-shopper. The market went south from the city ring in the middle of an extremely wide (and fashionable) street. It was set up as two long rows that ran for a kilometer or two (or three - it was huge!). The first row (seen here) consisted of nothing but restaurants. At about 12:30, people appeared "out of nowhere" to fill the restaurants - each of which had a limited menu based on fresh bought ingredients. The second row consisted of an immense collection of stalls at which everything edible was sold in groups of stalls selling similar items. First, were stalls selling every imaginable type of wine vinegar by the flask. Next door, was a collection of assorted wine vinegars sold from the barrel. Notice how the barrels of wine vinegar are stacked. Then, came a series of stalls selling mushrooms (farmed an...

Here is the scene of the crime. Sandra and I arrived at the town square in Stein on the Danube just after noon on Sunday and were seated at the tables at the Rathaus cafe (with the red umbrellas) for lunch. As we arrived, a bride and groom emerged from the Rathaus (town hall) and proceeded to the centre of the town square to toast themselves and (maybe) 20 guests. Then, the bells on the church started pealing and all "marched" the 30 or so feet into the church. This was followed by another bride and groom exiting the Rathaus to the centre of the square to have wedding photos taken. I said to Sandra "Isn't that strange! We almost never have weddings in Canada on a Sunday. Why don't you take a picture?". She didn't think it was appropriate. Then, after 30 minutes, the church bells began to peal and the second bride and groom plus friends went inside. This was followed by yet another bride and groom plus friends exiting the Rathaus to have wedding photos ta...

Forty-two years ago, we visited Stift Melk (Melk Abbey) during our one month European tour with Maureen and Ramsay. Then, we toured buildings and museums. Now, we look at the sights and try to stay outside as much as possible. Stift Melk is an immense Benedictine Abbey that was burned by the Turks during the siege of Vienna. It was rebuilt into a Baroque masterpiece. Finally, it was restored within the last decade (paid for by selling the abbey's Gutenberg Bible to Harvard University!). Here is the view from a mile away as we approached the town (which is in the valley between the fields and the abbey) We stayed at the Zur Post Hotel as recommended by Rick Steves. The recommendation was so strong that he recommended eating in it even if we didn't stay there. He didn't mention that the restaurant is so popular that reservations were necessary. Luckily, we had priority as hotel guests to eat what turned out to be a fabulous meal. Our spacious room was on the second floor to t...

Sandra and I first heard of Lech, the most upscale ski resort in Austria, from our friends Mary and Ann Reynolds over 40 years ago. Their descriptions were so striking that we made a mental note to go there when we had the chance. Lech is in a "hanging valley" surrounded by high mountains above the Arlberg Pass in western Austria. Back in 1968, when we drove through the Vorarlberg (the province the "other side" of the Arlberg Pass), the road was very demanding with steep roads and many many switchbacks. Today, there are tunnels and great roads under the pass. We exited the tunnel just before the top of the pass and continued up a side valley to Lech. The next morning, we set out early for a mountain walk above the town along the shady east side of the valley. Lech has only about 1000 inhabitants with over 7000 hotel and bed and breakfast rooms. The accommodation is in clean decorated hotels and renovated residences. Here is one as we climbed out of town. Once we le...