Art Opening

Friday brought the good news that Jessica had passed her
french exam, allowing her to continue on track for the next
academic year. She will spend August in Normandy as an au
pair for a french family, friends of Julie and Georg. That
should root her french language skills deeper.

Eli returned from Kaernten on Saturday, quite enthusiastic
about the art course she took from Joze Ciuha. Dinner that
evening was in the back yard and was preceded by Eli's art
opening - also in the back yard. The show consisted of
about 10 pieces of abstract art done with acrylic. The
opening was attended by the family plus Hansi and Sepp
Schwaiger, well known art critics from down the street and
around the corner. The art was splendid and the opening a
great success. The subsequent dinner consisted of items
from the grill plus salad etc., accompanied by prosecco and
then a cuvee from Burgenland.

Eli has agreed to write a piece for this blog about her
experience in Kaernten Taking the art course. So you can
look for that in the next week or so.

Before Eli's arrival by train, Georg, Julie, and I biked up
to Wiegenalm, taking advantage of some beautiful weather.
At the alm we had a Radler and then biked down the other
drainage and back to Kirchberg, just in time to meet Eli.

Sunday started with a few drops of rain, but then became
quite nice. Georg made lunch while Eli and I took a hike
up Sonnberg and Julie biked up Rauher Kopf. After lunch I
gathered my stuff and biked to the train station for my
last trip to Salzburg.

Richard
2004.06.28

On my own

With Eli in Kaernten taking an art course and Anne and Claes on their way home to Sweden for a visit, I am on my own. I'll relate my typical day under these adverse circumstances.

Up at 5 AM, I eat breakfast etc. and get to the uni a bit before 6 AM. I sort through my email, thankful for spam filters, even if imperfect. Today I'll do a show and tell in class (our last one, the final is Monday), demonstrating some software discussed yesterday. It makes some simple hardware do some simple things. Once class starts and the show and tell begins, the students really get excited, several even awakening from slumber, albeit for only a short time. I also give them some hints about the final; no wonder so many showed up today.

After class I grade homework assignments. In general, they are a very bright group. It is harder to get admitted to the uni here than back home, so a semi-rigorous selection process has already been applied, but the students back home are more motivated on the average.

Today's weather keeps me guessing with partly cloudy alternating with total overcast. Nevertheless I decide to bike up Gaisberg at mid day. I'm not in the greatest shape (I never am and never will be) so it's a hard pull. There's a somewhat prolonged steep hill on the way out of Salzburg (Heubergstrasse) which is right at my anaerobic limit, but when I later reach the Gaisberg road I have recovered. The last 2.4 km of the Gaisberg road climbs 265 meters which is pretty much at my aerobic limit. I have a Radler (half beer, half lemonade) at the top and start down. The total climb is only around 2700 feet, but the 'steep' parts are hard for this old guy.

The rain hasn't materialized. After showering at the apartment, I bike to 'Pasta & Vino" which is run by immigrants from Italy. The young man is multilingual, but the others speak only Italian. My attempts to dazzle them with my pidgin German make no impression. They just want me to order my wine, one of the three pasta dishes, and be quiet. The weather is good enough to eat outside.

The food at this hole in the wall is made on the spot from fresh ingredients and is simple and good. The wine selection is exclusively Italian, but that should be enough selection for normal humans. They also run a deli. Their meal and deli prices are fairly low, especially for the wine, suggesting that they haven't blended into Salzburg yet. I'd guess they are from southern Italy (no way to ask them) since northern Italy is in good economic shape compared to the south. Why else leave Italy?

After eating I bike back to work, for the evening. I stay until about 7 PM and then bike home, accidentally stopping at a gelateria. I'm tired; bed by 8:37 PM. Tomorrow my bike and I will take the train to Tirol. Eli will show up there by train the next day, unless she gets a better offer.

It's six months until Christmas Eve. Are you prepared?

Richard
2004.06.24

Apple Schnapps

Once again in Tirol, we awoke Saturday morning to blue skies. The weather forecast indicated this situation would change in the afternoon. So Eli and I decided to hike on Kirchberg's Gaisberg, wearing light clothes, but with rain gear, water etc. in our packs. We biked to the lift, bought our round trip tickets, and rode up to the ca. 1250 meter elevation. The lift does not go the remaining 500 plus meters to the top because most of the upper mountain is too rugged and avalanche prone for ski terrain. It is, however, prime habitat for the "Gemse" which we know by the french name "chamoix".

As we hiked to the top the blue skies gave way to clouds, white then grey. On our way down we changed into warmer clothing and stopped for lunch at the Bärstätt alm (1450 meters elevation) where we had Kasspatzl, somewhat vaguely like a very stout version of macaroni and cheese with onions mixed in and fried onions on top. Unlike the boxed macaroni and cheese we find in the states, this was made from fresh ingredients and tasted good - two important differences. The proprietor recognized us from past visits, but nevertheless was gracious and brought us 'free' apple schnapps as we paid and got ready for the sprint back to the lift.

During lunch we could hear distant thunder, so we hurried to the lift as did a few other groups. We came across one clueless group still toiling uphill, scantily garbed, and with no rain gear. We didn't warn them of the impending weather change because it was so obvious and interfering with natural selection under such circumstances never works out well in the long run.

We reached the lift as the peals of thunder neared, put on our rain gear, and rode down. The ride down was quite cool, but there were only a few rain drops toward the end of the ride. Racing home on the bikes, we reached shelter just before the deluge hit - as they say in the south of the USA, 'like a cow pissing on a flat rock'.

We wonder if the cluless uphill hikers reached shelter. The lift to the valley floor will close during lightning storms, an added danger. They probably reached Bärstätt wet and frightened and drowned their dismay in apple schnapps.

Richard
2004.20.04

Eli's last week in Salzburg

This was Eli's last week in Salzburg, for this trip. She will spend all of next week in Sankt Jakob im Rosental taking an art course from Joze Ciuha, a Slovenian artist. The village is in Kaernten and should have milder weather than we get in Tirol.

On Wednesday night we went to dinner with Horst Clausen, recently retired as the head of the Institute for Computer Science at the University of Salzburg. Although retired from the Austrian work force, he will continue working a while longer at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. He has been our friend and occasional benefactor since our first stay here, the 1992-1993 academic year.

On Thursday night we returned to the same small Italian restaurant with Anne Thysell and Claes Johansson, the Swedish couple with whom we are living for our stay in Salzburg. Anne is a wine buyer for Spar, a huge Austrian company that sells many products, but most visibly runs a large grocery store chain. Claes is in the food wholesale business. They are a really neat couple. We are hoping they will visit us in Tirol before we leave at the end of July.

Although still rainy, there have been enough breaks in the weather to get in some bike rides. The most ambitious to date was to the top of Salzburg's Gaisberg. The climb from the apartment totals a modest 845 meters, but 265 meters of that occurs in the final 2.6 kilometers. Luckily the local Konditorei is keeping us roly-poly.

A more memorable ride was to nearby (15 kilometer) Eugendorf along a well maintained biking/walking/blading path which Eli had discovered several weeks earlier. On the way back we stopped in Sam where there was a neat art gallery at Sebastian Karl's home. The large back yard had a large pond, infested with frogs and surrounded by random sculptures. The basement featured a large three room gallery of sculptures, paintings, wood block prints and so on. There were perhaps 24 artists represented, one of whom was Sebastian. We were the only visitors so he gave us a personal tour.

Richard
2004.06.19

Fronleichnam Weekend

Our recent four day weekend began with Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi), a religious holiday observed throughout Austria as an official state holiday, occurring always on a Thursday - just like Christi Himmelfahrt (Ascension Thursday). In Kirchberg, Fronleichnam coincides with another celebration marking the decision of the Swedes (during the Thirty Years War) to turn aside from invading the valley. On that historic day the locals had mustered every man, woman, child, and farm animal to comprise what looked from a distance like a large army. Thus confronted, the Swedes went elsewhere and, if recollection serves, that was Minnesota (Karen Seashore can correct this if needed).

Julie and I biked to Hieslegg in the morning, before the heat of the day. It was a delightful ride and fit well into my summer plan to get in biking shape, starting with relatively easy rides. The activities throughout the rest of the day firmly countered those aspirations, but such is life.

Eli took photos of the two local celebrations - one in the morning at the church and the parade in the afternoon. Both events featured traditional garb of various sorts. The parade had talented marching bands, priests from three local parishes (one carrying a small monstrance displaying the holy bread i.e. the 'transubstantiated' body of Christ), and plenty of horses ridden by the farmers, decked out in authentic finery. The horses were Haflingers (quite like Norway's Fjord horses) as well as the full size descendants of farm work horses - whose functions have been replaced by small, nimble tractors. On Friday, the municipal street cleaning machines were out and about - no coincidence.

The traditionally garbed participants in the festivities were of all ages, not just the oldsters, suggesting that the traditions are surviving into at least the next generation. It does draw tourists from the cities, so economics may ensure a longer term survival, perhaps with some loss of authenticity and spirit.

After the first installment of the parade (it went down valley and then returned), the extended-extended family gathered at Maria's for coffee and cakes. This draws in family from further than just the neighborhood. It is a family tradition started by Maria's mother Moide, now deceased. After her death her daughters, Maria and Mathilde, decided that the tradition must remain, and so it does.

Richard
2004.06.13

When it's sunny

Monday dawned crisp and clear in Salzburg, making it the photogenic city one sees on post cards and in travel articles. However, do note that the post cards tend to be a bit mildewed around the edges. Tuesday was much the same and the forecast holds for Wednesday.

The promenade along the Salzach gets a lot of traffic in the fair weather - walkers as well as folks on bikes and roller blades. The Salzach is much lower than when I left town last Friday. Perhaps the flood danger here has passed.

This has been my first opprtunity to bike, but I have been rebuilding gradually not willing to overdo. In fact, the warm, sunny weather is unfortunately also humid and I can't get out before about noon. My current route is east across Salzburg, using a foot/bike path along a canal fed by nearby mountain streams. Then I leave town going up a steep road (sometimes I must walk part of it, although not today) along the shoulder of a low mountain called Heuberg. After rising about 200 meters, I cross a main highway before ascending Gaisberg. I am not ready to go to the top yet (maybe next week?), so stop after rising another 400 meters. 'Gaisberg' (Goat Mountain) is a common name for mountains in Austria - rather reminiscent of the several lakes called 'Rice Lake' in Minnesota and Wisconsin or various people called 'Butthead' throught the USA..

I am finishing up my EWU courses over the Internet, currently grading finals. This works well for most seniors and grad students; I've been reluctant to try it with students earlier in their careers. The participants must be mature, able to work independently, and able to communicate effectively over the Internet.

After work tomorrow (Wednesday), I return to Tirol. This is the last extended weekend; the university holidays are then over for the rest of the semester.

Richard
2004.06.08

Another short week

Another rainy weekend in Tirol found us hiking rather than biking. We had 3 good walks up Rauher Kopf, the hill that lurks just to the north of Julie and Georg's home; hence it is south facing and is locally called Sonnberg. Our hikes required about a 1200 foot climb on farm roads, paved near the valley floor but turning to dirt or gravel up higher. The meadows are strewn with a wide variety of flowers. Goats, sheep, and milk cows graze everywhere but the forest. A change we noticed this year was that the farmers (who are also the loggers) are harvesting a great deal of lumber, despite the fact that lumber prices are low (as they have been for years). Nevertheless, the underlying rationale is economic; they expect a flood of cheap lumber to come in from eastern european countries newly admitted to the EU, totally destroying the current price level.

Julie and Georg live near the end of a dead end street with various members of the extended family in the nearest three houses. Jessica and Sophie (16 and 9 years, respectively) wander freely among these homes. Although visitors, we are graciously included as part of the family and participate in the customary rituals. For example, it is common that all gather at Helena's (Georg's sister) house at 11 AM on Sunday for either a glass of prosecco or campari. It seems so civilized. After that Georg took us for the noon meal to Ruezen, a farmhouse that has been doing this sort of thing since 1736 when built by earlier generations of this same family. The fare is hearty, authentic tirolean, and of high quality.

As soon as we got home, my bike insisted that we hurry to the Kirchberg Bahnhof and ride the train back to Salzburg (it loves to ride the train - so many wheels, so effortless). Eli stayed in Tirol and I'll return there Wednesday evening since thursday is a traditional religious holiday (Fronleichnam) and Friday is a university holiday (Rektorstag). That will be the end of school holidays for me.

The weather appears to be (temporarily?) relenting. Tomorrow I may try biking up Salzburg's nearby Gaisberg. It is more taxing than my usual Schweitzer ride back in Sandpoint, being particularly steep for an old guy the last three kilometers.

Richard
2004.06.06

Our Days

My work day begins when I bike to Techno Z arriving at about 6 AM, an 8.715 minute ride. I teach my Linux class later in the morning, but otherwise grade assignments (from Salzburg and EWU students) and develop new material. Eli usually visits in the morning, but otherwise goes her own way. She has found some art courses. In one case, she has stepped into an ongoing Friday course taught by a Chinese woman who has emigrated here. Eli and the teacher have German as their only common language. The other course won't start until the week of June 20 and will be in the province of Kaernten (Carinthia) about 2 hours by train. Eli will stay there for the one week intensive course.

I usually leave work by 3 PM and go back to the apartment, looking for Eli. Then we may go for a bike ride (weather permitting - actually an exceedingly rare event so far) or grab our umbrellas and go for a walk. By accident we seem to end up at a Konditorei or Gelateria thereby nullifying the postive effects of the walk. In our experience, this time of year is rainy in Salzburg. Each year, the natives grumble that the weather is worse than usual. Evidently the rain washes away their memories of the day before, the week before, and the year before. This year's heavy snowpack coupled with the current rains is reminding the locals of the prelude to the devastating flood of two summers ago.

On weekends we leave Salzburg - most typically by train to Tirol, with our bicycles. With the wet weather you would expect the bicycles to rust, but it is so wet that oxygen can't even get to the metal parts. We then return the evening before the next school day. This coming weekend is something of an exception. Although we'll travel to Tirol on Friday, only I will return to Salzburg on Sunday. Eli will stay in Tirol, giving Julie some 'babysitting' help Tuesday night. Since next week is a 3-day work week (those pesky holidays), I'll be able to rejoin Eli in Tirol on Wednesday evening.

Richard
2004.06.04

We're back

We're back from our four days in Cividale, a small but historically interesting city in Friuli. The opening of Eastern Europe has had a dramatic economic impact on Cividale and Friuli in general. During the sway of eastern bloc communism, this corner of Italy became rather isolated because of the closed border into Slovenia. Trieste, a once important port (the only seaport for the Austrian Hapsburgs), became marginalized in the long downturn. This long lasting economic hardship has now been reversed. We see quite a change in Cividale since our first visit in 1993, as the economic recovery has slowly taken hold - lots of restored buildings, new shops (in the old buildings of the old town), etc. The upshot is a charming city in a beatiful setting with few tourists, not a condition that will last. Although the Slovenian border is near (easy bicycling range to various crossings) we didn't venture across the border.

Cividale dates to pre Roman times. It was used by Rome as a frontier outpost, a protection against the various invaders from the north who liked the Natisone river valley as a transportation/invasion corridor. Sometime in the 600's it was conquered by the Longobards and their artistic artifacts are among the most interesting to be found here. The art in the Longobard chapel is very graceful and more abstract than that of Rome. One of my friends suggests that my family might have origins (based on stature) to the now forgotten Shortobards, suppressed effectively by the Longobards and now forgotten (even in the most detailed history books).

The reign of the artsy Longobards was ended by Charlemagne and then somewhat after that the city fell under the sway of the church patriarchs. Cividale was later held by Venice, became part of the Hapsburg empire, etc. before integrating into today's Italy. One finds slavic and germanic strands along with the italian.

The region is great for biking and has many streams coming out of the alps, most with occasional cold swimming holes. Near the alps and far enough from the tamer parts of Friuli, the water is quite clean.

We stayed at an apartment owned by friends of Julie and Georg. It is in the older part of Cividale's old town in a restored stone building. The exterior looks ancient, but well preserved. The interior is very modern and of high quality - wood floors, stucco, stone, and glass. The apartment has 3 floors with the first floor being one level up from the ground floor. Eli and I got the top floor with master bedroom and adjoining bathroom. The bottom floor of the apartment held the kitchen, living room, and an exterior veranda for meals in fair weather - which we were lucky enough to experience.

We had a chance to enjoy regional cusine and wines, guided by experts Julie and Georg. Nine year old Sophie and 16 year old Jessica are not only well behaved, but fun. I mostly took in the sights - the city is bisected by the Natisone river gorge so the scenery and buildings along this geographic feature is dramatic.

Richard
2004.06.02