Austria - land of delightful houses

I am here....... and it is beautiful!!! So neat and tidy, so green, so many tall, tall mountains and lots of friendly people. I love it! We are staying in a two bedroom s/c top floor of a friends house - which I have not yet photographed - surrounded by green orchards and meadows and ringed by forest covered mountains.

The flight over was looonng and tiring and it took me two days to get my 'land legs' back! I'm traveling with my nephew and my mum and we are having a ball. My lovely mother has decided she will let us two organise everything and just enjoy each day as it comes and we have had such a lot of laughs as we negotiate the train and bus systems! My nephew Anton, has travelled and lived in many different countries and although he cant speak German, he is confident and friendly and loves to chat to people, so he gets the job of requesting information in broken German/English, while mum and I giggle in the background!!

At the moment we are in Vorarlberg which is where my mother is from. The dialect is quite different and hard to understand so even if mum or I ask q's there are a few misunderstandings and lots of hilarity!

On an early morning walk, a few days ago, we passed this gorgeous wooden barn. From inside came the sweet smell of hay and manure and the tinkle of a cow bell, while outside was sunshine and freshly scythed meadow grass.....bliss!!

We sat in this church and wondered at the ceiling paintings and priests pulpit, from where the priest preached fire and brimstone and eternal damnation if the folk didn't confess of their sins. We wondered at the age of the building and mum said "oh this ones only a new church, only three or four hundred years old"!!! Anton and I explained to her that in Austria that might be new but in our short Australian history, it was unbelievably old!

We wandered this path along the riverbank, stopped for a lunch of bread, cheese and cherries and breathed deep of the exquisite fragrance of flowering linden trees.

We have just arrived in Salzburg so I have wifi - which means I can finally tell about this beautiful country that is a part of me. We are spending five days here because this is where my parents met and mum and her sister wanted to come and reminisce about their youth.

Will let you know how we go!!!!

Schuss!

 

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