Ain't Nobody Got Time for That

Being a trailing spouse has kept me busy... too busy to blog as I intended. So, here's a recap.

Relatives from Berlin arrived on Midsummer and we celebrated properly over a beer and

GrüVe gespritzt (Grüner Vetliner wine mixed with sparkling water) or two, including an excellent local meal at Wirt am Graben in Linz. 

Dining with Uli's Aunt and Uncle

Then, we headed to Wachau, the gorgeous wine region along the Danube that is south of Linz for the day. We stopped in Melk to have a look at the monastery there before finding a proper wine seller and sampling together with some jause. As an aside, jause (pronounced YOWSA) is my favorite Austrian word so far. It is generally a plate of various pork products as a snack eaten together with beer or wine. Jause.

The monastery in Melk

Wachau wine and jause

Then we spent part of a day in Hagenberg, where Uli teaches. We ate lunch and then split up for afternoon adventures. I took a two-hour hike in the hills and enjoyed a pretty path. We met up again in the evening for a hefty Austrian meal at a typical beer garden. The meal was memorable (I had some tasty "rustic" spätzle and we finished with some local schnapps) but even more so was the cute Jack Russel sitting across from our table. One of my ongoing debates with Uli is whether or not we can have a dog someday. I would have loved to take this one home.

Forest everywhere on my walk around Hagenberg

Beer Garden schnapps with Wolf and Gisela

Such a good dog!

Breakfast with our guests before they departed and we headed into the city for some additional exploring... Coffee and cake, of course. We also took the historic city train to the highest point overlooking Linz, the Pöstlingberg. What did we do from the top? Why, we took the dragon express in the Grottenbahn, a sort of throwback train through a village of elves that was first imagined and built over 100 years ago! We met up later with friends in town and took a long, meandering walk back home through music festivals and beer gardens.

The Grottenbahn entrance

Postlingsberg at night over the city

And then? We enjoyed brunch of arepas with a Venezuelan-Austrian couple in Linz before taking off on a lake tour of upper Austria. We drove into the mountains and saw three gorgeous lakes (too cold for me to swim, but the Austrians took a dip!) and ended up in Salzburg for a brewery visit.

With Jeremiah and Noah at Traunsee

The beer garden at Mondsee

The historic brewery where we stopped for dinner (and some "liquid bread")

Yesterday, we spent the day in Vienna to meet up with friends from our time in Indonesia (it is a small world, isn't it?). We meandered the city, stopping at cafes, and enjoying conversation with like minds. Such a beautiful city, we caught some tourist points along the way and even made a dancing video for a friend's DC Fringe Festival play.

With our friends Joy and Andreas in Vienna

So that brings us up-to-date more or less. Yesterday, I did some shopping in town at a new local shop and enjoyed my first pumpkin seed oil ice cream cone (pumpkin seed oil is really a thing here and the ice cream was much yummier than it sounds. Today we took one of the Stadtwanderweg tours (Number 6) along the Traun river and Weikerlsee, which was hot but pretty. Then, off to the city to sample some ice cream.

Pumpkin seed icecream

Tonight meeting up for dinner with friends after a refreshing swim at the local lake (the best cooling off strategy I've found during our stay). I would write more, but... ain't nobody got time for that!

The Year's Longest Day

Midsummer. The Solstice. What better time to relish in the long stretch of sunlit days and languor of vacation than today? I plan to bike out to the lake to read a novel and take a dip, celebrating the sunshine and heat of this first summer day. Happy Summer!

Pleschinger See

Rite of Passage

When catching up with a friend, we learned that her fourth-grade daughter just passed a consequential test in school. After hard study of a manual and passing both theoretical and practical tests, she received a license to ride her bicycle on the streets alone (see picture, below). There is even a practice training area with lanes marked in the park I walk along almost daily here in Linz. Bicycles are everywhere here, so it makes absolute sense. You probably should have a license to ride. I was impressed by the depth of information and pictures of signaling, car lanes, and bike safety in the manual and slightly unsure that our driver's licenses are quite so thorough. More than that, I was struck by how proud Sarah was of her license. You see, a bike license to be in the city on her own signifies a bit more freedom and being a bit more grown up. It is something every fourth grader here takes seriously and a matter of pride for kids and parents alike.

Congratulations, Sarah!

It got me thinking about rites of passage in different places. What were key moments when I was a kid in elementary school? Certainly some of those had to be the first unchaperoned times - riding bike to the library? going to the cinema without parents? getting ears pierced? What are those moments for kids nowadays? I would be curious to know (probably a good research project with my niece and nephews!).

Fireworks

There is nothing quite so magical as fireworks in the summer sky, is there? We took a cruise down the Danube to enjoy 'Donau in Flammen.' The four-hour boat ride included enough time to gaze at the setting sun from the deck, a meal and wine, dancing to Austrian and 1980s musical hits to a live band, and the explosion of fireworks over Linz. Cheesy? Yes. Magical? Definitely.

Keeping Track: 27,212 Steps

The fitbit phenomenon is "so 2011" and I thought I was "so over" the fitness tracking device fad. Rebelling against the plethora of bracelets, watches, and pedometers adorning the wrists and waistbands of my office mates and friends, I purposefully avoided re-entering that territory. I did so in part because I was terrified at how little I actually moved in my diplomatic jobs overseas. I felt constricted by the limited choices I had over my over-scheduled work travel, and I didn't want a step counter shouting in my face every night when I did not have as much choice as I would like (yes, there were gyms in many of the hotels where I stayed, although more often than not they were not, humid sweat boxes without proper ventilation and predominantly full of men). Excuses aside, I have not been tracking my steps until I recently installed an app on my phone. And I am so addicted.

Yesterday, we put in over 27,000 steps! The leisurely city-country walk around Linz was enjoyable in and of itself, but it was even more satisfying to know that we pounded out a record number of steps (almost 18 km and just over 11 miles). It's easy to be obsessed when a map is generated and you can read your own stats for speed, duration, and total activity time for the day/week/month... It got me thinking.

 It's true that my devices sometimes control me (rather than vice versa). Compulsive email reading, news feed checking, or tracking -- and I am not alone -- must be part of how we are wired. I did some googling and browsing and finally settled on reading an Atlantic article about health halos and fitness tracking:

It seems to start with the idea that fitness-tracking devices carry what’s known as a health halo. Wearing fitness trackers gives people a sense that they are doing something good for themselves, even if only subconsciously, by the very act of owning and wearing it.

Then comes bargaining. Someone who has credit for wearing the device might afford themselves more cake. There is even data to support the food decision. One might say, I moved 8,000 steps today, so I’ll have a grilled cheese and an entire bottle of wine.

Yup. That pretty much explains why 27,000 steps gave me permission to eat several pieces of cake, ice cream, schnitzel, and cider without feeling overly guilty!

Slowing Down

There is just something about being away from home that enables better observation and noticing  and thinking. There are endless miles of paths along the Danube here to walk, run, bike, and just breathe. It's interesting that there are also tons of paths at home along the Potomac (which I also enjoy but don't always take full advantage of). The last three evenings, we've caught the sunset at the shoreline while on a walk. Yesterday, I attempted a short jog. And today I zipped up and down and around on a borrowed bike. I was not thinking too much but I did have the realization that this is what I like to do on vacation -- to be outside and moving about -- and not much of what I manage to fit into the busy-ness of my daily routine. That is probably something I should work on.

And, mind you, to not put on rose colored glasses, among the green hills and old cobbled squares here are huge industrial complexes...

And, to not give you a false impression of my sportiness, I was overtaken (twice) on my 30 km bike ride by an older, heavyset man with a deep tan/sunburn wearing only a Speedo and flip flops (regrettably, no picture).

Poppyseed Icecream

There is nothing that says vacation like a daily dose of frozen dairy, especially yummy kinds you do not find at home. Passing by this stand on a hot Budapest morning, I could not resist a scoop of poppy seed and a second of cinnamon. Heavenly! I'm so grateful that our planet has all kinds of different flavors of food and people and languages and landscapes. I'm equally grateful to experience them in good company!

Inspired. Perplexed. Amused. Curious.

Inspired by Uli's recent blogging. Perplexed by the complexities of day-to-day life as a (ahem) forty-year-old "adult." Amused by the incredibly whimsical spirit of cultures and peoples. Curious enough to still be asking why and how. And full of desire to be in touch with you who are so precious to me more often and in more ways.

After a long reprieve on this medium and after rescinding my online presence during the political cacophony of the last year on social media, I still have a desire to be in touch, to know the world, and to share and learn from friends and family. Rather than start up a new mode (although I was rather inspired by a friend's experience on Instagram recently), I think I'll just pick up where I left of here on this blog. After all, it has more than ten years of personal history embedded.

However, there are a few changes. To share a moment or opinion with an entire public of unknowns was never my desire in posting, and it seems more and more important to me to know my audience in life. For that reason, I've changed the privacy settings to include friends and family (please let me know if someone we know might like a link -- I'm happy to share). I hope this will create a space for more unfettered communication with all the people I care a lot about and who will share back with comments, reactions, or corrections if need be! I've grown tired of wandering and become more interested in examining and delighting. It seems apropos that this blog grow into something less like a travel log and more like newsletter of amusements directly from me, wherever that might be.

"From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere." ~ Dr. Suess