Messe

 A mostly quiet day today. The weather has been drizzly and overcast since yesterday evening. Today is the main reason we came to Europe again, a special mass was held for Christine in St Peters Parish church (Pfarrkirche Sankt Peter). After mass, Uschi caught up with a number of people and remained talking to Karin G till there was no one left in the church at all!

Later we went for a drive in the valley, looking for possible walks for when the weather improved. A good afternoon walk is the St James pilgrimage trail (Jakobusrundweg)at Turnau.

A view from the pension, the sun setting and the clouds clearing after a damp day.

To Austria

On Saturday morning we caught the Niki flight from CDG to Vienna. At Vienna we picked up a Sixt hire car, a BMW Series One, to drive to Thoerl. On our way there I got a little lost and missed the turn off to Bruck as the BMW GPS was difficult to set up and it seemed to want to send us through Graz to get to Aflenz. We did about 40 km before realising the error and backtracking. 

When we got to Thoerl we booked in at Gradwohl which is a set of apartments in Aflenz. The one we got had been upgraded recently but somewhat roughly. In the evening we went to Mitzi's where the H's were due to arrive. Franziska had to attend an official dinner so they never left Vienna till later. 

Mitzi was a bit vaguer than I remember her and she seems forgetful as well.

The wind had been blowing strongly and took the door off the woodshed before we got there. I picked up some of the glass, but the door itself was rotten.

When the H's arrived Franziska was in a fluster as they only got there about 17:30 and the Billa closes at 18:00 on a Saturday. Franziska had to do all the week's shopping for Mitzi in half an hour so they went out again. Karin G was roped in as well. When Franziska got back she made a meal of Kasekrainer and Oberkrainer. Unfortunately for her sense of cooking the Oberkrainer was a “spicy” non traditional type. Even though it was made locally it upset Franziska's plan to present a traditional meal. The spicy sausages were OK anyway!

Afterwards we went back to Gradwohl's for an early night.

Turnau

It happened that Ursula and I took her mother back to Austria for her mother’s 100th birthday. While I was there I wangled a flight at the Turnau gliding club just up the valley from where Ursula’s mother was born.

The airfield lies in a valley at about 790m (2600 feet) AMSL. It is surrounded by mountains with peaks to 4300 feet directly to the south and about 5300 feet to the north.


Ursula and her aunty dropped me off there where I met Siegi who was to take me for a fly. Siegi spoke a little English and I spoke a little German so we just about managed.
After signing the obligatory blood book we got ourselves ready and were towed away by an American (!) registered Pawnee. An odd experience to be towed up about 2000 feet and then still be able to buzz over the roof tops of a group of holiday cabins just before we released.

We didn’t have a real plan, other than a gentle jaunt out to the east and possibly back again to the west if the day held.

I am familiar with some of this mountainous area of the Steiermark as we had visited Ursula’s family a number of times and done the sight seeing stuff from the ground. This usually involves driving along the valleys to the place of interest. It was a new perspective to see how physically close some of the places were to each other, often only a few kilometres apart, but in valleys on opposite sides of a mountain ridge, so, usually impossible to travel directly between them.

After releasing we worked the lift from the valley slopes to the north of the field. There were a number of other gliders from Turnau there with us. When we gained sufficient height using a combination of ridge lift and thermals we pushed out to the east heading along the alpine mountain ridges.

I don’t think Siegi took any logger along for the flight, but by having a look at my photos the trip went approximately like this -


We initially went north east, I recognised the Neuberg as it has a large church monastery, the “Muenster”, which I had visited a couple of times with Ursula previously. Staying high we followed the mountain ridges until they started to run out. This placed us in an area more than half way to the large Austrian city of Wiener Neustadt. From here we were above the eastern extremities of the European alps (I flew in the western extremities of these same Alps in France back in 2006). We could see where the mountains ended and the flat land stretched out toward Wiener Neustadt and beyond into Hungary. Turning around, our path took us over the Rax Alps, the most eastern point of the alps above 6000 feet. We ran along the ridge of the Heukuppe at 6500 feet which was mostly clear of snow although there was enough that I could see tracks on some of the steeper slopes which showed skiers had been there not that long before. Hikers were out along the trails and waved to us as we went past the large square stone cairn at the highest point.

From there we continued back towards Turnau, but got low in a valley near Veitsch. We were down to about 4000 feet, but the valley floor was at 2300 feet so we had to start thinking about what to do next. Landing out on the tops of the hills is totally a non option as they are covered in forest and there are no flat areas or roads. The only reasonable places are in the narrow valley bottoms which typically have a river or road winding along them and small fields either side. That is, providing there aren't small villages or farms restricting any potential landing area. The fields are typically 200 to 400 metres long and a few tens of metres wide with strong slopes across them. In any case we were able to finally scratch away and returned to Turnau. The flight so far had only taken about an hour and a quarter so Siegi decided we should gain height again up the face of the northern slopes of the valley and head north west into the more remote parts of Styria, the Hochschwab mountains.

We got to the highest point on these mountains, which is itself called the Hochschwab, at about 7500 feet. There was still thick snow in large patches on the mountains, even in late spring.

The Austrians tend to put markers on all the high peaks of mountain ranges, like the cairn on Heukuppe, and the Hochschwab has a large iron cross, six metres tall, erected in 1950. I was able to show my poor quality pictures of the summit to Ursulas mum who was most impressed as she was born and grew up at the foot of those mountains.

On a large plateau, 500 feet below the peak is a large alpine “hut”, the Schiestlhaus, which is used by hikers in summer and as a refuge in winter. The hostel can only be reached by walking or helicopter (that included the building materials of the house too!). A cableway which was built in the early 2000s was blown away in less than one year by the 200kph winter winds that occur there in the mountains.

We left the high mountains and headed towards a large open cut mine, the Erzberg, which made a good landmark and turn point. We didn’t quite get there, we turned a few km short. On the way there I spotted two other places I was familiar with.

The first was the tiny village of Sankt Ilgen. Easy to recognise because we had visited it many times to light a candle for Ursula's mum's older brother, who died in the 1918 flu epidemic and who lies in a now unmarked grave in the churchyard there.

The second place was the Gruenersee. A large alpine lake which we visited a few days before this flight. It is normally a small lake with a park around it in summer but during the spring, as the mountains thaw, the water level rises to completely inundate the park. It then becomes a mecca for scuba divers who dive the clear mountain lake and swim around the park benches and amongst the trees! (do an image search on Google, it is amazing)

From the Erzberg we started our dog leg final glide, first toward the larger Mur River valley where we could see the large town of Leoben, then direct from there north east back to Turnau. Overflying Ursula’s auntie's house on the way.

Overall the flight was 2.5 hours and we covered somewhere between 150 and 200 km over areas of Austria which are both spectacular and usually difficult to get to.

By the way, the slogan on Siegi's shirt;
"Bodenallergie. Da Hilft nur Fliegen" - Ground allergy. The only relief is flying.

143 steps up the Mausoleum Bell Tower.

16:00 in the Graz airport, waiting for our plane to Spain. Today we got up at the Ibis and went for breakfast (which they charges us for and 3 hot drinks, which we never had).

Then went into Graz Hauptplatz on the trams again. We first went to Glockenspiel Platz and watched the clock play its three tunes at 11:00. After that we went to the Dom and the nearby mausoleum of Frederick 2nd. After that we went back to the Trachten shop that Ursula saw last night.

Uschi bought herself a coat but took some time to talk herself into it. She also bought some nice green boots earlier in the morning. We jumped back onto a tram near the Kunsthaus and headed back to the hotel by 13:30 and thence a taxi to the airport. We taxiied out at 16:16 and touched down in Munich at 17:09.

We had to get out of the plane here and were intercepted by the "mobility services" who took Christine's wheelchair out of the cargo and told us to use it in the airport. We walked around and looked at the shops for the best part of an hour. Same as all airports.At around 19:10 we got on an A321 helped by a large lady (out of breath from running, I think) from "Mobility Services".

She took Christine's chair to put back in the baggage (we hope).19:30, just waiting for the last few connecting passengers to arrive. Push back at 19:33.

Graz Again

Graz Kunst Museem
We returned to Graz again with the intention of staying for a couple of days and then we'll be off to Spain. The weather is clearer, if not warmer, than last time we were here.

[Photo in the Kunsthaus Graz]

18:00 in the Palais-Hotel Erzherzog Johann (in the cafe)
It has been a long day. We left the art museum around 17:15 and were told there was an annex building "just behind the sports store" (across the river). We looked for more than half an hour but couldn't find it and went into this cafe.

Uschi and Christine have ordered fruit tea But I didn't really want any. Christine also ordered Knoedel und Ei. Uschi has asked for Kalbs Brust Gulasch (mit Servietenknoedel). I picked the house special chicken with mustard and salad. After tea we went for a little further walk and Uschi saw a Trachten shop near the Kunsthaus.

It was getting cold so we went back to the hotel around 20:30 and all got ready for bed. I was fairly tired but still dragged myself out at 22:00 for some pictures of the Bahnhoff clock.

Froehnleiten

Today we decided to head for the old market town of Froehnleiten. This town has a market tradition dating back to about 1280 AD. We walked around the town and along the river bank. We visited the obligatory church and visited the Pest Saule. Like Kapfenburg yeaterday the town was very quiet.

St Illgen and Kapfenberg

We went to St Illgen and the Aflenz war memorial.

We lit candles for both of Christine's brothers. Both brothers were named Francis. The first one died in 1918 due to the flu epidemic and the second one was a pilot killed on the Russian front.


Now in the centre of the old town of Kapfenberg. It isn't very much compared to some of the others old towns in Europe. We are in Cafe Europa ready for a little food before exploring the area and maybe later going to the more modern centre. We all had a goulash soup. The Menu is limited, the cafe is a bit of a greasy spoon. The soup was OK, but I tried an extra serve of lasagne, which was really a bit too much to have.

The old town was actually deserted [see the picture for a mid-day view!] but we walked around it for a bit. Most of the shops shut for about 3 hours in the middle of the day. We then went to the C&C (?) shopping centre, which was busier than the old town, but not a great inspiration.

After that we went back to Bruck to look at some green boots Uschi had taken a liking to. Unfortunately there were none in her size, so she got the shoe name to chase up later. We then went for a gentle walk around before returning to Thoerl.

16:15
More visitors have arrived. Louis and ? to visit Christine. The house is in a bit of a turmoil as one of Franziska's friends arrived simultaneously. I expect the conversation will go on for 3 hours or so. Uschi wants me to go out and buy some more fireworks. Mitzi made a big fuss when I helped her cut some firewood.
====ooOOoo====

Some images that have stuck with me from the last few days:
-Washing the car with hot water at the Thoerl service station. The ice and salt, which is caked on from travelling the highways, washes off very easily but the hot water freezes within a minute or so. The dirty icy car becomes a clean icy car!
- Getting softdrink out of the shop fridge, it's warmer than most other things. All the fridge does at this temperature is keep the dust off.
- The evening temperatures are down between -5 and -10. Now 0C is the default “warm”

New Years Day

We got up and went across to the church of Aflenz.
This was Uschi's baptismal church. We spent nearly one and a half hours there, including a sneaky climb up the bell tower.

Then we went back to the Hotel for a snooze. Due to a lack of sleep the previous evening we actually slept more than 2 hours and the afternoon light was nearly gone.

Uschi and I then went to the ruin on the hill. It is now locked up and people can't enter it like Uschi did in years gone by.

A mild disappointment.

Sylvester in Aflenz.

The band is wearing the blue socks indicating an historic attachment to Erzherzog Johann



The fireworks and explosions started early in the dark evening. I went outside at about 21:00 and could hear explosive volleys all down the valley. By midnight when we fired off our rockets, there was a crescendo of activity so that I could photograph the effects without knowing who was firing them off. On the way home the road was littered with spent rocket sticks. In the daylight I found 6 sticks in Mitzi's backyard. I don't think any of these were ours. Where ours went, I have no idea

Graz

31/12
08:45
Passing through Kapfenberg on Silvestertag(!) on our way to Graz. It was -8C at the hotel and -11C at Mitzi's place this morning.
The sun is just coming up in Kapfenberg - everything is cold and misty. The trees on the hill are covered in frost and smoke hangs in the air. Now we have gone through a road tunnel and are on the sunlit side of the hills. No frost here and the world has changed to colour from black and white.
09:25
Just passed a cream coloured mini with a crumpled nose against the right hand crash barrier on a sweeping corner. Uschi and all the cars following had to swing out to miss it. Probably they hit ice when cutting the corner.
As we get closer to Graz (15km to go) the weather has gone misty and cool. It was sunny and comparatively warm since we left Kapfenberg.
11:00 Cafe Edegger in Hofgasse.
Christine worked in Graz from age 16 to 19. I had an EsterhasseSchnite while Uschi and Christine had Cheesecake Struedel.

Christine near her old kitchens

Telling us about when she worked in the kitchens.

Local and Neuberg

30/12
Today we were going to go to Graz, but we slept in as Uschi and I were fatigued from the trip and niggling ailments. We never got to Mitzi's place until 10:00 when we had meant to get there at 08:30.
As the day was gone we decided to just do a local. We went to the ruin on the hill, but didn't climb up to it. It was about -6C and slightly breezy. Noticably chilling to the body and the most uncomfortable I have been on the trip so far. For a short time the cold is not a problem but after a little while a persons extremities begin to sting a little.
The three of us walked around the area below the ruin and we worked our way to the site of the Pengg works which used to be the old railway station.
Near here, where there is now a nail factory, was the site of Christines old kitchen, where she worked for Pengg for 13 years.
Auheim Villa is nearby and is the Pengg family home. One of the existing associated buildings seems to be used as a storage building and maybe has the heating furnace for the Auheim/gallery complex. This particular building was where Christine lived for most of the time she worked in the kitchen for Penggs.
She noted a number of times that when she started work at 08:00 she only had to be up about 5 minutes beforehand. This seems to have been the happiest time of her life.
Because Christine couldn't climb to the ruin, we decided to put it off for another time.
We went and had lunch at the cafe near the goat statue of Aflenz, then went to Neuberg to see the munster.
On the way we found our way blocked by many cars and buses, which upset Uschi. The area around there was thickly covered in snow. We got to Neuberg and spent some time in the munster. Unfortuneately the Kreuzgang was closed. We then decided to go to the old town of Kapfenberg and set the Tomtom for a direct route. After travelling only a short distance we stumbled on the Hundertwasserhaus. Uschi had been desperate to see it, but couldn't exactly remember where it was. We took some pictures in the late afternoon light.
Shortly after this we found the route blocked by a police car. An accident ahead. The policeman said the detour would add about half an hour to the trip. Into the Rax area, but it actually added more than an hour and it was dark by the time we got to Kapfenberg. It would have been quicker to retrace our path through Thoerl.
So we didn't look at the old town, we just grabbed some food (and fireworks) from the Spar supermarket and went back to Mitzis. Mitzi was inordinately pleased as I organised a simple tea of eggs, cheese, turkey and brown bread for us and the kids.

28/12 Mariazell

09:45 Have just stopped at Seewiesen for some pictures at 1250m and -8.5C.
Brandhof appeared closed as we went passed.
When we got to Mariazell the air was about -5C and we couldn't get a park. Uschi took the car to find a parking spot with the plan of coming back and finding Christine and me near the church. However, after waiting a while I found it too cold and I parked Christine in a coffee shop.
Uschi eventually turned up and we all had Almdudler, coffee and cake. Then we went over to the church.
The schatzkammer was closed so we couldn't view the contents. Uschi bought some things for her friend Theresa. We went to the candle grotto [Kurzengrotte] but it wasn't too exciting. We wandered down the street to the cable car but it was really too expensive to justify going up.
At 13:15 we had dinner at the Hotel of 3 Rabbits [Drei Hasen]. I had a goulash with parsley potatoes, which was quite nice.
Coming home before the sun set we visited Aflenz cemetery and found the (now) unmarked plot of Christine's father. We lit a candle there too. After that we went back to Mitzi's in the dark, where we four talked about past things, including war stories for about 2 hours. Herbert and Franziska had absconded to Schladming(sp?) to go skiing. The 2 kids, Stephan from Voitsberg and one of Julia's friends were there under the watchful eye of Mitzi.
We came back to the hotel but at 20:00 it was too early for bed. Uschi and I went to the hotel front bar for beers and diary writing.
Uschi thought I had come down to dinner in my socks. Now she can't stop laughing, with relief I imagine.

Lazy day in Aflenz

27/12Having a much lighter breakfast this morning. Only some cheese and Erdaepfelkaese

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The snow is gently falling and the flakes are about 3-5mm diameter. I have just come in from shifting the car. We parked it outside the shop last night as all the hotel parks were full. I went into the shop to buy a coke (0.99E) and the clothes I was wearing stung from the cold. I only walked about 50m from the hotel to the shop. All the cars are covered in soft flakes.

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(written the next day)
Uschi and I spent a long time walking around the shops in Aflenz. We spent a long time in the sports clothing shop. I nearly bought a 130E coat but the only one in my size was damaged. I may go back and buy the next size up. We went past the bakery but didn't go in due to too much food over the last few days. We spent quite a long time in the shoe shop (surprise). I bought some apres ski boots and Uschi
bought some attractive brown boots. The lady from the shoe shop sprayed some waterproofing on them and it turned out that she knew Mitzi as she was one of her students. The community is very small and many people know each other. We finished up by walking down the road to the Apotheke where Uschi bought some Renis and I bought some throat pastilles.

Around 13:00 we went to pick up Christine to take her to the Thoerl cemetery where her mother and brother are buried. After sitting for a while and lighting a candle, Uschi and Christine walked around the cemetery with Uschi reading off the names on the headstones. Christine seemed to know about 50% of the people and was able to remember them as the postman, driver, cook etc. In some ways it is strange that the entire 1930s community of this small area only exists in the memory of a few old people. We drove out to Schwaben bartel after cleaning the car. The road was icy and the light fading, so it wasn't a very inspiring trip. When we got back to Mitzi's place we found Gretel and Franz were already waiting for us. They had heard on the grapevine that Christine was back in town and they came round, on spec, to see her. They spent about 3 hours talking to Christine and kept evryone from having tea(!). In the end they offered us a lend of a tripod and Franz made two trips back home to get it. The first time because he couldn't find it in his shed. I must say at the end of the trip they forced us to keep the tripod, which was very kind of them.After they had gone home Franziska made us all a bread and meat tea, but I was really too weary and full to enjoy eating very much. Went back to the hotel and fell straight to sleep.

My Name Day and Voitsberg

Uschi was a little sick last night which she put down to eating too much. After returning from Max and Giesl's place last night we sat around in Mitzi's kitchen. The H's were playing board games when we turned up. Franziska tried to force more food into us, but we argued her down to a soup only. I was falling asleep where I was sitting in the kitchen. Uschi and I went back to the hotel at about 20:30 and I fell straight to sleep.

As I was sitting here this morning the church bells pealed, for early mass, I suppose. The town is now
covered in a light frosting of snow. The weather forecast for Graz for the next few days is about -5C
and clear, so it should be good sightseeing weather, if somewhat cold. It was -3C here yesterday evening.


Journey to Voitsberg

Uschi and I drove to Voitsberg to see Renate and family. We have to drive past Graz in the longest road
tunnel I have ever been in. Over 10km long.Renate's place is the first floor of an old building with huge, high ceilings. The upper floor is used by others. We had lunch with the family and then in the afternoon we went to look at the local sights.


The park with the fountain of Moses was under snow, with the fountain itself wrapped in plastic. We walked around the snowy park and then went to the Hundertwasser Church. Uschi was very keen to visit that.
Later we went to Piber to see the horses at the Lipizzaner horse stud.

Christmas Day

I woke up this morning at about 07:00. It was still dark but I could see the clouds scudding up the valley. As Uschi and I walked out of the room to breakfast we could see there had been a very light fall of snow. It looked like rain but fell a lot slower. The mix is more rain and less snow now but there is still a white frosting on the buildings outside. We are just across the road from Uschi's baptismal church. Apart from the normal cheeses and meats on the breakfast buffet there is bacon and omelette available. There is also a champagne available with the juices. [A truck with a snow shovel for clearing the roads has just gone past]

The trip up yesterday was fairly easy with the Tomtom showing the way. We got straight up to Thoerl. There was a little rain on the way but not much. We went through a couple of longish tunnels, about 2-3 km. When the Tomtom lost the GPS signal the music stopped too! Last night we had our evening meal with the Fs at Mitzi's house in Thoerl. The Hs were also there. After tea the presents were handed out - great good impressions from Uschi's cards and the song book of Christine went around several hands. Mitzi said it was better than gold.

17:00 in the home of Giesl and MaxUchi and I took Christine and Mitzi to visit them. I think it was a prearranged visit. The old couple had a huge dish of biscuits on the table when we arrived and plied us with herbal tea. Max spiked it with cherry rum which made the room seem hugely hot and gave me a headache. After encouraging us to eat the biscuit mountain they then bought out a cake to have with coffee. Max also poured everyone an Almdudler at the same time as we got the tea. My headache was getting pretty bad so I headed outside for half an hour. When I got back I was just in time to join in with a meat platter. These meat platters seem to be the in thing for special occasions in this part of Austria. Only Uschi and I, and to a lesser extent Mitzi, ate from the platter. We are all too full from eating for the last two days.

Lunchtime we had a big meal of meat pieces, probably turkey, cooked in a white sauce. Also served was a soft noodle (Austrian, I think) with a green sauce. There was a side salad of lettuce with pumpkin seed oil (Kürbiskernöl). A very Styrian salad.