Thursday, May 3: Salzburg

In the morning Almuth and I went for one final walk on the other side of the mountain--To get to the other side we had to walk through Obdach by crossing the railroad track

 past a herd of long horned cattle.

 It was rainy with significant fog

Very cool barn along the say--this is to reach the loft, the main entrance was reached by a path lower on the mountain.

Inside the barn

Stephen and Jessie came for breakfast.

After that we drove through Salzburg, stopping at some of the Sound of Music sites,

and then on past Innsbruck into the mountains of Northern Italy

 

 where we stayed on a Dairy Farm.

The view from our window

The yellow thing is an automatic back scratcher

Wednesday, May 2: Obdach

Wednesday: I walked for about 2 hours up into the alm. The cows had been taken to the top of the mountain to graze.  I did see cow bells, but only a few since only the lead cow in each group wore a bell.

 Then back down for breakfast of muesli, bread,and a softboiled egg in an eggcup



After that Fritz and Almuth and I  did a 2.5 hour walk in woods to St. Anna am Lavanteg and then beyond.

A lot of spruce is harvested here, the green buds in the spring are used to make schnapps.





We walked into town for shopping in afternoon--the only grocery store, then  a bakery in a house, then a natural foods store . After that we stopped to say hello to the cows at the dairy farm in town--but they were all up in the alm. I recognized the tractor /trailor as the one that had passed me when I was coming down the mountain in the morning.


After we dropped the food off we went to visit the farm where the Groebacher’s future daughter in law lived. We petted the goats, the chickens, and the sheep.

Tuesday, May 1: Graz

Tuesday: talked to Christian in morning at vineyard who showed Stephen their special tractors built for the vineyard, engine low in front and hinged in the middle.


Drove to Graz, saw glockenspiel, Louisa loved the glockenspiel.





walked up to top of Castle Hill (on the ramp since the kids were in the stroller) over 1,500 ft higher than the base.  It has a demolished fortress, a clock tower, and great view of Graz.

Heard a group playing the  flute, harp, and accordion L liked  the accordion


We ate at a restaurant specializing in Styrian food at the top -I had a really interesting salad-potato salad and coleslaw on the bottom, kafer beans on top and then lettuce and tomato with a kern (pumpkin) oil dressing.




Took stairs back down with Greta and then had ice cream and walked around city a bit more. (everyone else rode the funicular down)




Then drove on to visit Katja, another second cousin. We had tea there. While the kids and grandkids stayed with her Almuth and Fritz met us there, I went back with them to Obdach, approx one hour away on otherside of mountain.. We went for walk, stopped at farm, bought fresh yogurt
 

Monday,April 30, 2018:

Monday: I got up early walked back to the tower across the border in Slovenia to see the sunrise from the top of the tower.

then back down and around past a dairy farm with 4 cows. Stopped to watch farmer milk them, turns out they were from the assembly.

Walked back to Weinhof Kugel.


  In the morning we went to a children's store in morning with Jessie and Greta where I bought my striped water bottle with the penguin lid.  We next visited Luis' sister Anna who is a designer, went to a nearby second hand store where I bought trachten--black dirndl with red skirt and black jacket.

On the way back we stopped at the Tempelmuseum in Frauenberg, containing Celtic and Roman ruins and built on the ruins of the Isis-Noreia temple.