Austria Part 1: Steinplatte

One of the mountains we hiked on in Austria was the Steinplatte. This was actually the first place we went to, and thankfully we were following our extremely helpful guides. I say thankfully, because about 20 minutes away, the skies opened up and a heavy downpour was unleashed upon us. It was heavy enough, that we couldn't see more than about 10 meters infront of us, but the glow of their tail lights were enough to follow up the narrow, windy mountain road up to top where our destination for the night was. This was my first view ever from the Alps, its still cloudy from the rain, but I knew we were in for the treat when it finally cleared. But I didn't know it would be this good. The next morning the skies cleared and we could finally see the view. We returned to the Steinplatte twice more during our time in Austria, and the rest of these photos are a selection of the HUNDREDS of photos I have from that. If there is interest, I'll post a larger selection of the photos to my Picasa web album. The next photo does need a little explaining though. As we made our way up the road, we stopped at a number of locations to look at the rocks. During one of these stops, a nearby cow took great interest in our rental car. Apparently they like shiny things, and as such are particularly drawn to the side view mirrors. It didn't stop there though, after folding in the side view mirror with all of its nuzzling, the cow start to lick any available surface on the car. It was very brave (dumb?), and didn't even move when I walks up to it, got in the car, and finally drove off.

Where I've Been

On Facebook there is an application that you can use to keep track of everywhere you've been. As I go to new places, I typically add them. Blue coloured areas means I've visited there. Red means I've lived there. Our recent excursion into Europe has allowed me to add 4 new countries to the list. Oh, and don't worry, there are still mountains of photos I want to add from our adventures, I'm just procrastinating and doing this instead. Hah.

Rotterdam by Ferry

So our adventures in the Netherlands continued today with a trip to Rotterdam by the fast-ferry. We had coffee at the Hotel New York. It was a quick afternoon trip, but it really gave me a good feel for what the city is like. The architecture of the buildings and bridges was very unique, almost nothing is built perfectly vertical... many buildings are slanted without perpendicular walls.

Kinderdijk... guess where we are!

Yup, that's right, Rowan and I are now in the Netherlands visiting with the Vissers that were just visiting in North American. Not to lose a minute of precious sight-seeing time, we headed off to see the Kinderdijk after supper on the first day here. We took a ICE train from Düsseldorf to Utrecht, and from there took stop-trains to Rotterdam and then finally to Barendrecht. Anyways, back to the Kinderdijk: it was very impressive and quite a wonder, especially when you are up close and the HUGE blades are whizzing past just a few feet away. The windmills at the Kinderdijk are illuminated by LED lights for just a few weeks each year, which made for a spectacular view in the evening. We also took a tour through one of the Windmills, walking all through and up to the top of it. Definitely a very impressive feat of construction and engineering.

This must be what heaven is like...

Last night we took in a performance of the Haute Ecole of Classical Horsemanship at the Spanish Riding School!

Fistly people must understand that this is something I have been longing to see since I was 12 (something akin to meeting the queen or the pope)! The Spanische Hofreitschule is absolutely unique in that the riding school has done nothing but train a very select group of riders and Lipizzaner Horses in the art of classical dressage and horsemanship since the 16th Century/Baroque period! The riders spend the entirety of their adult lives training and caring for these horses which are considered a national treasure of Austria! The brand below (on the stallion's left flank) marks it as a Lipizzaner Stallion born and bred in Pieber! This Stallion liked me... and against all rules he nuzzled me (NEVER WASHING FACE AGAIN!!!)

The performance we saw last night featured a fabulous selection of Classical dressage movements, work on the long rein, airs above the ground and the fabulous team manuevers of the Pas de daux and the Quadrille. I must say that I have never seen anything quite as beautiful as the performance last night... it made regular dressage look like a cheap prom queen next to an immaculate geisha! I was literally hanging over the rail in order to try and get a better view of the performance! Unfortunately for you photos are not allowed, I did however manage to snag a few shots from the tour of the barn the day before and there is also a wonderful website here which shows some professional photos of the beauty that is the Spanische Hofreitschule.

Alive in Vienna

We have arrived in Vienna safe and sound. Beautiful city, very dense. Today we have nothing on the agenda except for being tourists, so it should be a lot of fun. Here's a photo preview from some of our hiking in the Alps.

Alive and hiking in Austria

Hello faithful followers of the Flamie blog. I'll try to post some pictures and such soon, but for now I want to say that Rowan and I are still alive and having a great time in Austria. We'll be in Vienna in a few days (still in Gosau for those that were up-to-date on our location), and hopefully there the internet situation will be more conducive to blogging. Here, I have to sit, slouched down, on an uncomfortable couch to use the internet in the entrance way to the Pension. Hope to post again soon...