St. Gilgen and a Cable Car Ride

During breakfast, the manager of our hotel told us how the Salzburg area was experiencing bizarre weather this summer: super high humidity resulting in heavy showers every afternoon (usually around 4:00pm). Salzburg has received 7 times more rain than they received at this point last year. We would need to plan around the rain to the best of our abilities.

David picked the kids up from the youth hostel and they seemed much happier to see us this morning. We heard about their week: kayaking, tubing, banana boating, exploring the largest ice caves in the world, karaoke, cliff jumping, hiking in the mountains, swimming, visiting the village, sailing, windsurfing, etc. Not a bad week.

We spent the day exploring St. Gilgen and just as we exited our hotel, the church bells were calling people to Mass. Almost everyone who passed us on their way to church was wearing traditional Austrian clothing: dirndl on the women and lederhosen on the men. I wanted so badly to take a picture of the churchgoers, but didn't want to be disrespectful. It was my mission during the day to convertly take pictures of people dressed in dirndl and lederhosen.

Lederhosen means leather trousers and were traditionally worn by Germanic men of the Alpine and surrounding regions, including Austria, the mountains of Southern Germany, the German-speaking part of Italy's province of Bolzano-Bozen, but not Switzerland.

Lederhosen have remained regionally popular and are commonly associated with virility and brawn. Some men enjoy wearing them when hiking, working outdoors, on a stag night, or attending folk festivals and beer gardens; they are rarely seen elsewhere. Lederhosen have remained a symbol of regional pride. Their role in Bavaria, Germany is comparable to that of the kilt in Scotland or the cowboy hat in the United States.

A dirndl is a type of traditional dress worn in southern Germany, Liechtenstein and Austria, based on the historical costume of Alpine peasants. The dirndl consists of a bodice, blouse, full skirt and apron. Shoes should only be worn in cold weather, but I did not see anyone barefoot today.

The placement of the knot on the apron is sometimes an indicator of the woman's marital status. A knot tied on the woman's left side indicates she is single, a knot tied on the right means she is married, engaged or otherwise "taken", and a knot tied in back means the woman is widowed. Originally, each village had its own dirndl style and crest. The Austrian upper classes adopted the dirndl as high fashion in the 1870 and today, they vary from simple styles to exquisitely crafted, very expensive models.

The dirndl is mostly worn in Bavaria and Austria. Although not an everyday dress, many women may wear it at formal occasions (much like a Scotsman wearing a kilt) and during certain traditional events. It is hugely popular also among young women at the time of the Oktoberfest in Munich and similar festivals in southern Germany and Austria.

Popular designs are often much brightly colored, with more ornamentation and decorative trim, and much more revealing and provocative. The true dirndl will be softer in color (as traditional vegetable dyes were not able to make bright colors), less revealing, and less gaudy in style.

A billboard sign featuring a garden gnome, a common backyard decoration in Germany and Austria. I will admit to having spied 5 different gnomes in our backyard.

Micaela and Rebecca in our cable car taking a ride up Zwölferhorn Mountain.

David, James and Emilie's cable car

Plenty of people were hiking up the mountain

Emilie and Rebecca and I enjoyed the view for well over an hour and got too much sun. David, Micaela and James hiked a few kilometers down the mountain in search of a geocache. Micael and James were in good spirits descending the mountain, all the while doing imitations of Bear Grylls from the TV show Man vs. Wild. James strikes what he says is a Bear pose in this photo.

View of St. Gilgen village with a paraglider in the distance

Finding the cache. Geocaching is a type of treasure hunt using modern technology. You look up locations of caches on the internet (there are over 800,000 all over the world maintained by private people who love geocaching), where coordinates of the cache and clues to its exact location are given to you. Using a GPS and sharp eyes, you find the hidden cache which is usually some kind of box, log in your name and the date you found it in a notebook and then back home, log in your info on the internet.

Back in Georgia, we often went geocaching near where we lived as well as when we went camping. David even found a geocache (a Sucrets tin) in a stairwell light fixture of an office building across the street from where he worked. Caches will often contain trinkets for children, but if you take something from the cache, you should leave something behind as well.

James and cows with traditional cow bells around their necks

The kids' mood changed when they realized they now had to make the several kilometer hike back up the mountain.

In this great photo, James was actually completely miserable and furious with his father. Micaela took no break hiking back up, not wanting to prolong her agony. She arrived at the top of the mountain red-faced and teary from the effort.

Mostly recovered now and ready to ride the cable car back down the mountain.

Driving to Wolfgangsee

Every year, the international school hosts a camp week at Wolfgangsee, a lake resort near Salzburg, Austria. It seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime week for Micaela and James, so just two days after school ended for them, we sent them off to overnight camp. David suggested we pick them up on the last morning and do some touring around the Salzburg area.

A few weeks before camp, James came to me with a piece of paper. "Mom," he asked, "Could you please sign this paper giving me permission to visit St. Gilgen Village while we're at Wolfgangsee?" "James, you sounded just like Harry Potter asking for permission to go to Hogsmeade Village!" was my response.

Our first view of the foothills of the Alps

Pretty view from the highway

We arrived at St. Gilgen, the village on Lake Wolfgang, and strolled around a bit. Emilie was sad when David informed her of these fishes fate.

Watching the ducks on the lake

During our stroll around town, we ran into a group from the school. A teacher told us we were welcome to pay the kids a visit at the youth hostel, though we weren't due to pick them up until the following morning.

Following the path to the hostel

Becca always adjusts her pants to sit low on her hips and as a result, her bum is always on display.

The symbol of the hostel

The view the kids had from camp headquarters

A rather aloof Micaela chatting with David and James nowhere to be found

Another camper told us that James was one of the kids out on a kayak on his way back from cliff jumping. And just a minute later we heard it: the sound of James belting out his favorite songs, totally unaware how voices carry over water, even from clear across the other side of the lake. For 30 minutes, we listened as James, occasionally accompanied by his fellow kayaker, ran through his repertoire: We Will Rock You, When September Ends, Gives You Hell, as well as a medley from Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. And I caught it all on video.

When the kayak was close enough for James to realize who those grown-ups were on the dock, he went strangely silent. He paddled ashore and gave me a half-hearted hug. We chatted briefly about camp and then took our leave.

David and I have never seen children less happy about seeing their parents after having been away from home for a week. We realized they must have thought when they saw us that we would make them leave at that moment and they would have to miss their last night of camp. They were very relieved to see us go.

School Birthday Celebration

Birthdays are very important in Germany. David always says that he has to plan on not being able to get much work done at the office on his birthday because he spends the whole day fielding phone calls from colleagues calling to offer him their birthday wishes. Also, it is tradition that the birthday boy/girl bring a treat to the office to share with everyone.

It is considered bad luck to celebrate your birthday early, or even for someone to wish you a happy birthday before your actual birthday date.

Rebecca's birthday was Sunday, so today would be the day to celebrate at Kindergarten. Just last week, the director of the school had sent home a "healthier Kindergarten" note to parents asking that birthday boys and girls bring in a nutritous treat of fresh fruit and pretzels instead of cake and that we forgo goody bags which are normally laden with candy. No complaints from me.

Rebecca stepped through the door to her classroom and was immediately greeted with this crown and a traditional birthday song.

Here are some other pictures I've taken recently at the preschool. It had rained earlier in the day and the kids all had on their rain gear. A favorite activity is to swish brushes through the puddles.

Becca with Keanu, a fellow hedgehog, who is half-American. Keanu always speaks to me in German, though.

Rebecca in her rain gear. It makes so much sense. The rain boots and pants allow the kids to enjoy the outside, even if it's wet, and preserve their clothes. They also wear the rain pants when it's very cold and their little legs are kept toasty warm.

Rebecca and Jonna leaving school on their pedal-less bikes. Both girls are very comfortable on their bikes now and can go pretty fast. The problem is that Becca's bike doesn't have brakes of any kind. She drags the toes of her shoes on the ground to slow down. I expect to be buying new sneakers soon. Jonna's bike has a hand brake, but her hand is still too little to use it.

Coasting down the incline on our street, Haingraben, hoping no car is coming from the other direction.

Rebecca's Birthday

Our little baby girl turned 4 today.

There's always a new DVD the kids are happy to receive.

A Lillifee featherbed cover that matches the one Emilie got for her birthday last month

Wall-E vision. Wall-E is one of Bex' favorite movies and her Wall-E and Eve Pez dispensers are her favorite toys.

You can't beat Playmobil.....

.....particularly if it's a three-headed sea serpent.

Trying out Wall-E vision

We had planned to celebrate with our neighbors at the playground, but it poured. So, we had the Lotz family to our house for cupcakes and Rockband instead.

Blowing out candles wearing the lovely dress from Jonna.

This Old House: German Edition

This half-timber house on our street, just around the corner from our house, is undergoing restoration. Everyday as I walk Rebecca to Kindergarten, I check out how the process is proceeding. All the plaster on the outside was removed and recently, many old timbers and bricks were replaced.

As the old timbers were being loaded into the back of a truck, a neighbor and I struck up a conversation with one of the workers. The neighbor remarked on the condition of the timbers (they looked like termites had gotten to them) and the worker explained that that's what 500-year old timbers look like.

I couldn't help myself and said, "We don't have such old houses in the U.S.," which earned the not unexpected but good-natured response, "Well, of course you don't. How long have houses been built in the U.S.?"

While recently watching the series The Tudors about the life of Henry VIII of England, I said to David, "You know, when all this was going on with Henry and his wives, that house around the corner was probably already there."

So, it was an ironic moment when I spied this mailbox in front of that house. I've counted 4 such mailboxes on our little street. Some local store must have gotten a hold of a bunch of them.

The house next door is my favorite house in Liederbach. Can't wait to see how the house on the right will look when finished. And I've also been asking myself how difficult it would be to have a half-timbered house like these built in the U.S.

Micaela's Birthday Party

We didn't wimp out on letting Micaela have a party either. We took Micaela and her friends to the Indian restaurant around the corner and then let them take over the family room for the night. They played Rockband, watched Twilight and giggled all night. The only bummer was that Micaela's good friends from the U.S. and Singapore were out of town. But her friends from Scotland, France, the Netherlands and Turkey did make it.

Opening gifts from her friends

Getting the gift from her American friend Caitlin who couldn't come to the party


I did an audible gasp, which was caught on video, when Micaela pulled Doritos out of the gift bag.

Caitlin's parents have commissary privileges. The closest commissary is in Wiesbaden and is like any supermarket found in the U.S. People with commissary privileges (military and government workers) are forbidden from bringing "guests" along, though it has been know to happen. Instead, people offer to buy stuff for other Americans. I have asked friends to buy American baking powder, chocolate chips and brown sugar.

Micaela's gift back was full of snacks we don't find at German grocery stores: Pepperidge Farm goldfish, Gobbstoppers, Jolly Ranchers, Kool-aid, Nerds, Doritos and Poptarts, among other things.

Happy 13th Birthday, Micaela!