Today is my brother Scott's 19th birthday. I bought him a gift in Liechtenstein, but he'll have to wait until Christmas as it would cost me more to ship than it did to buy.
Jul 30, 2007
Happy Birthday Scott!
Today is my brother Scott's 19th birthday. I bought him a gift in Liechtenstein, but he'll have to wait until Christmas as it would cost me more to ship than it did to buy.
Jul 29, 2007
Hallstatt, Austria
Hallstatt Austria was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. It's a small 7000+ year old town with a population of only 945 people. It is the sight of the world's oldest salt mine, but historically it was very isolated, with the first road into the town not being built until 1890.
We arrived by train from Vienna, but as there is hardly enough room between the mountains and the lake for a town, let alone a train station, we arrived across the lake.
We crossed the lake on a ferry, grabbing some great pictures. The lake was a clear dark blue and over 125m (400ft) deep. It really reminded me of home to see wide expanses of clean, blue water, it even smelt like the river.
The city is literally built on the side of a mountain. Many of the buildings have four or more stories on the front and one, or no, full stories at the back. 
Even the central square was on a fairly steep angle.
What looks like a vine growing up the front of this house is actually a pear tree. Click on the photo for a larger version, and you'll be able to see all the pears hanging down. Wouldn't it be great to be able to wake up, open your window and pick breakfast?
The hostel we stayed in was great. It was built beside a waterfall, so you always thought it was pouring rain until you looked out the window to see the sun. On Saturday night we ate supper there, and had our choice of delicious home-made pizzas. 
Saturday afternoon we went around the lake to the Dachstein ice caves. To get to the caves you had to take the ski gondola to the top.
From the gondola building we had to walk further up the mountain to the entrance. We had to wait for the guide and killed time taking photos. In the photo below clockwise from me are Marina (Croatia), Andrew (Canada), Atilla (Slovakia), Robert (Croatia), Yashar (Iran), Katherine (England), ans Lori (Canada).
The caves were really cool, with giant ice deposits like the ones shown below. The largest tower of ice in the photo is 9m (18ft) high. It was funny to see all the people from the warmer countries slowly getting colder and colder as we progressed into the caves. Not -3°C!!
The view from the exit of the caves.
Saturday night we had dinner at the hostel then went to a Fireman's festival held in the city firehall. It was really funny because it was like something you'd find hosted at the Legion back home. The whole town was out, sitting at folding tables, with a man and his father(?) singing away to pre-recorded background music from a keyboard. The father had a tambourine and was singing Austrian folk songs and translated Frank Sinatra music, to name only a small fraction of their repertoire. A lot of the waiters were dressed in Liederhosen, serving steins of beer and sausages.
As expected, we got some pretty odd looks. But in a town of less than 1000 people, if you're not a cousin you're a stranger, let alone 30 English-speaking international students. It was a lot of fun though, and the singers loved us because we sang along to the English songs, cheered, and even danced a bit, while the locals just sat and talked, about us.
Historically, when the city had a population of 3000 people, there was no room for graveyards. So, people were only buried in these short graves around the church for a period of ten years or so. 
After that, they were exhumed and their bones were bleached in the sun for a few months on a shelf built into the eaves of the gravediggers house. Then, the bones were moved into the ossuary, but first the scull was painted with the person's name, date of birth and death, and some decoration. The skulls were also stacked in the ossuaryaccording to family groupings.
The ossuary containes over 1200 skulls alone, with the most recent being from 1997. Now that the city is much smaller people can keep their graves if they choose, and most people are cremated anyway. Only people who request to be placed in the ossuary will be, but only their skulls, as there is no more room for other bones.
The rest of the day was free time, so six other people and I rented two paddle boats for an hour. We went out into the lake, and some people went swimming. I chose to lay back in the boat and relax as the sun was so warm and the water so cold.
Wow, I'm actually done the weekend's post on Monday morning! This Friday we leave for Budapest, my last weekend adventure in a row, as the next weekend (11-12th) my friend Pat from Brockville/Queen's will be in town.
Keep up with the comments, I love to hear from everyone who reads my blog.
We arrived by train from Vienna, but as there is hardly enough room between the mountains and the lake for a town, let alone a train station, we arrived across the lake.
We crossed the lake on a ferry, grabbing some great pictures. The lake was a clear dark blue and over 125m (400ft) deep. It really reminded me of home to see wide expanses of clean, blue water, it even smelt like the river.
The city is literally built on the side of a mountain. Many of the buildings have four or more stories on the front and one, or no, full stories at the back. 
Even the central square was on a fairly steep angle.
What looks like a vine growing up the front of this house is actually a pear tree. Click on the photo for a larger version, and you'll be able to see all the pears hanging down. Wouldn't it be great to be able to wake up, open your window and pick breakfast?
The hostel we stayed in was great. It was built beside a waterfall, so you always thought it was pouring rain until you looked out the window to see the sun. On Saturday night we ate supper there, and had our choice of delicious home-made pizzas. 
Saturday afternoon we went around the lake to the Dachstein ice caves. To get to the caves you had to take the ski gondola to the top.
From the gondola building we had to walk further up the mountain to the entrance. We had to wait for the guide and killed time taking photos. In the photo below clockwise from me are Marina (Croatia), Andrew (Canada), Atilla (Slovakia), Robert (Croatia), Yashar (Iran), Katherine (England), ans Lori (Canada).
The caves were really cool, with giant ice deposits like the ones shown below. The largest tower of ice in the photo is 9m (18ft) high. It was funny to see all the people from the warmer countries slowly getting colder and colder as we progressed into the caves. Not -3°C!!
The view from the exit of the caves.
Saturday night we had dinner at the hostel then went to a Fireman's festival held in the city firehall. It was really funny because it was like something you'd find hosted at the Legion back home. The whole town was out, sitting at folding tables, with a man and his father(?) singing away to pre-recorded background music from a keyboard. The father had a tambourine and was singing Austrian folk songs and translated Frank Sinatra music, to name only a small fraction of their repertoire. A lot of the waiters were dressed in Liederhosen, serving steins of beer and sausages.As expected, we got some pretty odd looks. But in a town of less than 1000 people, if you're not a cousin you're a stranger, let alone 30 English-speaking international students. It was a lot of fun though, and the singers loved us because we sang along to the English songs, cheered, and even danced a bit, while the locals just sat and talked, about us.
Sunday morning was very relaxed. We woke up at 9, had breakfast, and lounged in the sun on the porch.
We eventually met up for a guided tour of the town. The guide was pretty funny, but spoke in rough English. She told us stories about how the nuns would give the children Schnapps to calm them down all day while their parents worked in the salt mine, making them all 'idiots'. She also said that some women in the past had up to 18 children! because there was no TV.
The highlight of the tour was the 1000 year old Catholic church, cemetery, and ossuary.
We eventually met up for a guided tour of the town. The guide was pretty funny, but spoke in rough English. She told us stories about how the nuns would give the children Schnapps to calm them down all day while their parents worked in the salt mine, making them all 'idiots'. She also said that some women in the past had up to 18 children! because there was no TV.The highlight of the tour was the 1000 year old Catholic church, cemetery, and ossuary.
Historically, when the city had a population of 3000 people, there was no room for graveyards. So, people were only buried in these short graves around the church for a period of ten years or so. 
After that, they were exhumed and their bones were bleached in the sun for a few months on a shelf built into the eaves of the gravediggers house. Then, the bones were moved into the ossuary, but first the scull was painted with the person's name, date of birth and death, and some decoration. The skulls were also stacked in the ossuaryaccording to family groupings.
The ossuary containes over 1200 skulls alone, with the most recent being from 1997. Now that the city is much smaller people can keep their graves if they choose, and most people are cremated anyway. Only people who request to be placed in the ossuary will be, but only their skulls, as there is no more room for other bones.
The rest of the day was free time, so six other people and I rented two paddle boats for an hour. We went out into the lake, and some people went swimming. I chose to lay back in the boat and relax as the sun was so warm and the water so cold.Wow, I'm actually done the weekend's post on Monday morning! This Friday we leave for Budapest, my last weekend adventure in a row, as the next weekend (11-12th) my friend Pat from Brockville/Queen's will be in town.
Keep up with the comments, I love to hear from everyone who reads my blog.
Jul 25, 2007
Austria, and Liechtenstein, and Switzerland Oh My!
Last weekend I decided to use my ÖBB Summer Ticket to its maximum potential. I discovered that the farthest Austrian city from Vienna is Feldkirch, which borders Liechtenstein. Knowing that I'd need plenty of time to read Harry Potter 7, the seven hour trip seemed like the perfect fit.
The first train in on Saturday the 21st left at 7:30am. Therefore, I had to get my Harry Potter book at 1:01am on Friday night unless I wanted to wait for the stores to open at 10am and miss the morning trains. I walked down to 'the British Bookstore' at around 12:30 to find hoards of people. Unlike the two Canadian midnight releases I've been to, there were very few children, and a surprising number of older people. They had an amazing system, which allowed everyone to get through the store within 15min or so, so I was back before I knew it.
I arrived at the station early to claim an empty set instead of paying for a seat reservation. I found a seat in a 6 person compartment which I shared with a Swiss father and daughter who had biked to Vienna from Bern and were now returning by train, and an Austrian woman from Vienna who spoke very little English. The train stopped at about a dozen cities along the way, with the notable ones being Linz, Salzberg, and Innsbruck. Between Salzberg and Innsbruck a group of drunken Austrian guys in liederhosen with a boombox playing polka music came by selling shots of home-made schnopps for 2€. They were pretty funny, so the Swiss man bought one. By the look on his face I'm glad I decided against it.
As the train rolled on the rolling green hills turned into large mountains, then even larger mountains, then the Alps with mountains that I thought only existed in paintings and stories with shear faces reaching into the clouds. Having never been in the mountains before, having grown up considering Blue Mountain and Mount Pakenham to be "mountains" I was blown away.
Feldkirch, Austria
When I arrived in Feldkirch it was, as forecasted, overcast and looked like it was going to rain any second. So, I went right to my hostel, which is a building deserving of a post unto itself. The 'Feldkirch Jungendherbergen' is a youth hostel that's run out of an ancient building about a 15min walk from the train station. When first mentioned in 1362, it was described as "having been in existence for a long time". The chapel next door has been dated at over 1200 years old, so the house could easily be the same age. The building and chapel were used in the past as a leper colony, and a plague hospital for the surrounding villages. After falling into disrepair and almost being torn down, it was refurbished in the early 1980s and turned into a hostel.
Looking at the interior with the nail-less mortise and tenon timber framing and paneling with single 4ft wide boards it's easy to see how this building was already hundreds of years old when the Incas built Machu Picchu. 
The dining room shows the width of the ancient boards use to panel the walls.
All the windows had a small window within the frame of a larger one, the old-fashioned answer to a double-pained window.
In the ultimate display of Europeans respecting their history but not living in a museum, the stables next to the hostel had been turned into the entrance for an under-ground crosswalk (which, for some unknown reason, were very common in the tiny town of Feldkirch).
I spent Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning exploring the Medieval town.
One thing I noticed throughout the area was the close proximity of pasture land and built-up residential areas. This field was meters from a technical school, the city's bus terminal, and the McDonalds.
As you see throughout Europe, the Feldkirch city walls were demolished in the 1800s, filling in the city moat. However, three guard towers and the castle remain.
As you can see in the picture above and more sure to follow, the rivers throughout the area were a translucent aqua colour, which looks weird when you're used to the almost-black, perfectly clear St.Lawrence river or tan coloured silty streams like parts of the Danube.
I walked up to the castle to sit and read, and check out the museum.
An astronomical clock using stones as counterweights
The walls of the castle were covered in religious carvings.
The central courtyard.
The only building in Feldkirch with the grandeur of Vienna was the music conservatory. It was first built as a private boarding school for rich Europeans. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories studied here.
Sunday morning was foggy and the streets were deserted.
Liechtenstein
The country of Liechtenstein only has a population of 35000 people, with 5000 people in the capital city of Vaduz. However, it still has a monarchy, full court system, and a parliament.
The Royal castle , where the royal family still lives, is built on a hill overlooking Vaduz.
City Hall with an example of the modern art found throughout Vaduz.
After about an hour of wandering, I grew bored with the 'city' of Vaduz and hiked up the mountain to the castle.
As the royal family still lives there, the castle is off-limits. This is as close as you can get, looking in the front gate.
By the time I got up to the castle the clouds were beginning to thin, showing the tops of the mountains.
The royal winery is the oldest building in Liechtenstein. The wine press which is still used is carved from a single piece of oak which was felled in the 1400s.
More of the modern art found in Vaduz
As Liechtenstein is basically Prescott with a Royal family, after a few hours I was ready to move on. So, I walked to Switzerland, twice!
Switzerland
I cross the Rhine into Switzerland via this covered bridge. As Liechtenstein is closely tied to Switzerland, the only indication of the international border was a small sign with the two flags.
In my two visits to Switzerland (I went back to Vaduz for an organized tour in the afternoon) I went to Sevelen and Buchs. As it was Sunday there was really nothing to see or do other than wander around. The only thing I managed to buy was 1kg of Swiss chocolate for €8 ($12 CAD) which is intended to be Christmas gifts for people back home, if it makes it.
Innsbruck, Austria
On the return trip to Vienna on Monday morning I got off the train for a few hours in Innsbruck.
Even the train station has an amazing view!
The old city was packed with tourists but still amazing.
A 400 year old bell factory.
You might have noticed that the second half of this post became much briefer. I leave for this weekend's destination, Hallstatt, tomorrow morning so I decided to finish this post first, or I'd never get it done. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves.
The first train in on Saturday the 21st left at 7:30am. Therefore, I had to get my Harry Potter book at 1:01am on Friday night unless I wanted to wait for the stores to open at 10am and miss the morning trains. I walked down to 'the British Bookstore' at around 12:30 to find hoards of people. Unlike the two Canadian midnight releases I've been to, there were very few children, and a surprising number of older people. They had an amazing system, which allowed everyone to get through the store within 15min or so, so I was back before I knew it.
I arrived at the station early to claim an empty set instead of paying for a seat reservation. I found a seat in a 6 person compartment which I shared with a Swiss father and daughter who had biked to Vienna from Bern and were now returning by train, and an Austrian woman from Vienna who spoke very little English. The train stopped at about a dozen cities along the way, with the notable ones being Linz, Salzberg, and Innsbruck. Between Salzberg and Innsbruck a group of drunken Austrian guys in liederhosen with a boombox playing polka music came by selling shots of home-made schnopps for 2€. They were pretty funny, so the Swiss man bought one. By the look on his face I'm glad I decided against it.
As the train rolled on the rolling green hills turned into large mountains, then even larger mountains, then the Alps with mountains that I thought only existed in paintings and stories with shear faces reaching into the clouds. Having never been in the mountains before, having grown up considering Blue Mountain and Mount Pakenham to be "mountains" I was blown away.
Feldkirch, Austria
When I arrived in Feldkirch it was, as forecasted, overcast and looked like it was going to rain any second. So, I went right to my hostel, which is a building deserving of a post unto itself. The 'Feldkirch Jungendherbergen' is a youth hostel that's run out of an ancient building about a 15min walk from the train station. When first mentioned in 1362, it was described as "having been in existence for a long time". The chapel next door has been dated at over 1200 years old, so the house could easily be the same age. The building and chapel were used in the past as a leper colony, and a plague hospital for the surrounding villages. After falling into disrepair and almost being torn down, it was refurbished in the early 1980s and turned into a hostel.
Looking at the interior with the nail-less mortise and tenon timber framing and paneling with single 4ft wide boards it's easy to see how this building was already hundreds of years old when the Incas built Machu Picchu. 
The dining room shows the width of the ancient boards use to panel the walls.
All the windows had a small window within the frame of a larger one, the old-fashioned answer to a double-pained window.
In the ultimate display of Europeans respecting their history but not living in a museum, the stables next to the hostel had been turned into the entrance for an under-ground crosswalk (which, for some unknown reason, were very common in the tiny town of Feldkirch).
I spent Saturday afternoon and early Sunday morning exploring the Medieval town.
One thing I noticed throughout the area was the close proximity of pasture land and built-up residential areas. This field was meters from a technical school, the city's bus terminal, and the McDonalds.
As you see throughout Europe, the Feldkirch city walls were demolished in the 1800s, filling in the city moat. However, three guard towers and the castle remain.
As you can see in the picture above and more sure to follow, the rivers throughout the area were a translucent aqua colour, which looks weird when you're used to the almost-black, perfectly clear St.Lawrence river or tan coloured silty streams like parts of the Danube.I walked up to the castle to sit and read, and check out the museum.
An astronomical clock using stones as counterweights
The walls of the castle were covered in religious carvings.
The central courtyard.
The only building in Feldkirch with the grandeur of Vienna was the music conservatory. It was first built as a private boarding school for rich Europeans. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories studied here.
Sunday morning was foggy and the streets were deserted.
LiechtensteinThe country of Liechtenstein only has a population of 35000 people, with 5000 people in the capital city of Vaduz. However, it still has a monarchy, full court system, and a parliament.
The Royal castle , where the royal family still lives, is built on a hill overlooking Vaduz.
City Hall with an example of the modern art found throughout Vaduz.
After about an hour of wandering, I grew bored with the 'city' of Vaduz and hiked up the mountain to the castle.
As the royal family still lives there, the castle is off-limits. This is as close as you can get, looking in the front gate.
By the time I got up to the castle the clouds were beginning to thin, showing the tops of the mountains.
The royal winery is the oldest building in Liechtenstein. The wine press which is still used is carved from a single piece of oak which was felled in the 1400s.
More of the modern art found in Vaduz
As Liechtenstein is basically Prescott with a Royal family, after a few hours I was ready to move on. So, I walked to Switzerland, twice!Switzerland
I cross the Rhine into Switzerland via this covered bridge. As Liechtenstein is closely tied to Switzerland, the only indication of the international border was a small sign with the two flags.
In my two visits to Switzerland (I went back to Vaduz for an organized tour in the afternoon) I went to Sevelen and Buchs. As it was Sunday there was really nothing to see or do other than wander around. The only thing I managed to buy was 1kg of Swiss chocolate for €8 ($12 CAD) which is intended to be Christmas gifts for people back home, if it makes it.
Innsbruck, Austria
On the return trip to Vienna on Monday morning I got off the train for a few hours in Innsbruck.
A picture taken from the train.
Even the train station has an amazing view!
The old city was packed with tourists but still amazing.
A 400 year old bell factory.
You might have noticed that the second half of this post became much briefer. I leave for this weekend's destination, Hallstatt, tomorrow morning so I decided to finish this post first, or I'd never get it done. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves.
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