28 March Ready for Gondola City

Packing for Venice aka Gondola City...

It's going to be our first steps into big bad Europe, at least we have a Land Rover(...aaaw SHUT UP!!!) which has been our trusted means of transport over the past few weeks.

The Transport

In the meantime in the last few days we went to play squash and both of us cannot walk, although we went to play basketball with the kids again today.

yesterday afternoon we went to the famous Schweizerhaus in the Prater. They only opened last week for the season, and stay open through summer.

It is a MASSIVE version of the Swakopmund Brauhaus. Their speciality dish is Stelze...or as we know it - Eisbein. but even more impressive was the beer. It is the original Budweiser or Budvar from the Czech. The owner is the sole importer of this beer AND he is the only one allowed to pour this draught beer with oxygen instead of co2. this makes this beer ULTRA drinkable. it doesn't give one the bloatiness from the bubbles but it still has a big frothy head. bliksems lekker!!!






Cameron after two full portions of Baked Emmenthaler



BUILDING A WINE CELLAR IN AUSTRIA

In the region where we are (a village close to Vienna), almost everyone has a wine cellar and a lot of people actually make their own wines.  The wines taste really good and are light and easy to drink and probably have a lot less sulphites and chemicals than mass produced wines. 

The Muscle

The area is quite rural and the house where we are staying actually has a tractor parked outside - we are 30 minutes drive to Vienna and our hosts work in Vienna.  It really is the best of both worlds with being able to go for a walk in the country side in the morning and excellent shopping and culture in the afternoons and evenings. 



The Tractor in front of our House

 I have wandered from the topic of  the wine cellar.  Our hosts, Erwin and Doris, have bought a lovely piece of land 100 meters from their house.  The old cellar on the propery is 150 years old - probably older than Swakopmund.  Inside it has the huge old wine press where the grapes are manually pressed.  This week they have both taken off from work to fix up the cellar and the entire roof has been removed.  The temperature
 in the cellar remains constant year round.  It has been a fascinating experience watching the process.  Labour is obviously very different here and work quality is taken very seriously, no shoddy work is accepted (something we almost take for granted).  From early morning until late at night Erwin & Doris are doing the work themselves.  Mom and Dad drive over from a village 60 km's away to help out and the brother-in law ( a carpenter) is here today to assist with the more technical details.  One of the neighbours who is also skilled is also assisting and the entire project is being done with family and friends.  (Even Frik assisted - obviously not for the planning dept... they needed extra muscle!!!)



Jodi's Photography - flowers for Kira, Neve & Kim

 The entire road, until forests' edge, is full of these cellars and during summer time everyone makes wine and the Heuriger's (havent been to one yet) are open. 



Shop for BB & Gigi in Vienna

 While Frik was busy with the cellar - Cameron and Jodi met some more Friends from village and are quite the local celebrities in Schleinbach.

Lippezaners and Ice Hockey

Di will chat more about the Spanish Riding School and the Lippezaners...Cameron and myself, well, we sorta went with and it was nice seeing pretty horsies doing pretty stuff but hey it's still a horse with a wierdly dressed bloke(I think!!!!) on it.  Must say though, it was impressive what the horses could do...been there done that!!!
(Di:  Lippizaners are born brown.  We only watched the training session but Jodi & I will go back without the boys next time. It was nice and relaxing with classical music playing the background. ) 

What was really impressive was the Ice Hockey match we went to see.
The Vienna Capitals played the Salzburg Red Bulls in the semi finals of the Austrian Championships(4th match of a best of 7). Salzburg was leading by 2-1 matches going into this match.
The atmosphere was awesome...anyway, the Vienna Capitals THUMPED the Salzburg team 9-1. ...But really good quality hockey. At least half of the total players were foreigners...Czech, Canadian and USA.

Newest Vienna Capital Supporters

Training day for the baby (brown horse)

Today(thursday) is a chill and school day for the kiddies. we need a break as it has been non-stop doing stuff.

Ski-ing in Obertauern 12-19 March

The kids have been driving us crazy for snow...real snow... not the frozen bits they've been seeing next to the roads...
Well...they got their snow!...as we entered Obertauern, everything was white and beautiful.
After we arrived at our hotel, which was lovely...set right next to a slope as well as 2 ski lifts, Cameron and Jodi rushed to the snow and started making a snowman. Of course we had to pull them back immediately and put gloves, beanies etc on them before frostbite set in.



Ski Village in Background

 The hotel(Moaralm) was very cosy and friendly. Soon everyone knew we were from Namibia and that the kids had never seen snow, so every day they were inundated with questions as to how much they enjoyed it.

The first morning the kids were off to Ski-Schule and Di and I went to our own ski school. Jodi was a bit iffy to be left alone without us...but soon was in the swing of things. The kiddies' ski instructors were brilliant with them and extremely well organised. Just a quick funny - Di and the kids have just sort of become attuned to the Viennese dialect, and now we were in Salzburg with the mountain folk and Jeeez they have a wierd dialect. Anyway, Cameron came to us and told us his teacher was an American and couldn't speak German very well. The next day we met his 'American' teacher. Turns out the teacher was a local with a helluva dialect and spoke English with an American accent!!!

We got to our class and there were about 10 of us all together, Germans, Hungarian and even a Yank. The Intructor was a young bloke called Michi, and looked like a surfer...nice guy!
I had already skied before, so didn't struggle too much with the basics...I just struggled like hell to get myself upright with the ski's on, after a fall - NOTHING to do with my bulging waistline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ist day at Ski School



Our First Snowman



The next day I left the ski school and went on the slopes with Erwin and Doris...completely poo-ed myself a few times until I found my rythm...but then it was full speed ahead and f... the Icebergs...and the massive bruising!!!
Di carried on with the school and the kids were apparently also managing...or so we thought...?!

Shhhhjoe, thats high




Captain Fearless again



Night Ski-ing - Where is Mamma

After our 3rd day school was over and we all decided to go ski together...well knock me down with a bottle 'o Jack!...the little shits were ski-ing like Austrians...I kid you not!! Jodi was snow plowing any slope that we went on. Cameron flew down the slopes as if he was born on ski's. We only found out afterwards that during his 3 days in beginners class, he had been 'promoted' twice and was ski-ing with the older kids.

Lemme tell you, although Di and I were absolutely mortified at what he was doing on ski's and where he was going(off piste in powder snow for eg...!) we were VERY proud! Erwin told us he was a natural, so from then on Cameron went with Erwin as high and as fast and as off the slopes as they could find. Erwin is an excellent skier and he looked after Cameron well...we are just glad we did not see all the places they went down...This was for Di and I such a pleasure to see this Cameron, who is quite timid at the hockey, bloom and become so confident at this sport...we could not get him down off the slopes.




YOU go first !

  (Di here.)  We had been looking forward to this ski-ing week for ages!  The dates specially sought out so that we would be here over my birthday.  It was everything that I (we) imagined and better.  I have always been to Europe in summer time so have  never really experienced a real winter and real snow conditions.  Cold takes on a new dimension but we wore ski clothes every day all day so it was nice and snug. 

Ski school was nice and everyone wants to know about Namibia as no one had ever met anyone from Namibia and all the kids were asking in disbelief if it was true that we really had not seen snow. 

As you have all heard by now, I discovered a real fear of heights and was absolutely mortified when I looked down a slope and thought about going down.  It actually brought me to tears.  Well, once up the only way down is to ski down so this is what I did, albeit at a snails pace. 

This week we are back in Wien again with a live Ice Hockey match planned as well as a excursion to the Lippizaners.  On Sunday its a Childrens Opera and then next week we plan to start travelling to Italy, Switzerland and France.

School work - we plodding along between all these outings but the kids have gained so much and so have we.


The Best reason for Ski-ing - Huts in the mountains with lots of atmosphere



Snowball Fight



Captain Fearless



Knackered



Its snowing



I am NOT going down there.  Send the Helicoptor



9 March 2011

The temperatures are gradually climbing, dunno if we like it or not...I'ts kind of nice to have the freezing weather, because it's different BUT it's also a pain to dress up like a bloody Oros mannetjie all the time.
Anyway, since yesterday we are actually dressing without thermal underwear - and of course it had to be Jodi that managed to crash through a frozen pond. Cameron was gently negotiating his way across the frozen pond and Jodi decided that it's easy and slipped and broke through the ice...SOPNAT!!...and we were miles away at Peter Drechsler's place out of town. Luckily we had driven there and wrapped the 'Ice Princess' in towels and took her back home.

The two kids also had their first interaction with some local kids. They went to play at Erwin's cousin's house. they have two children around ours' age. When we collected them they didn't want to come back...when asked what the Austrian kids were like, Cameron said they are very calm inside the house but when they went outside, he says, they were wilder than African kids...he mentioned that Ari and Kohl could take lessons from them :-)

I drove into Wien last night as we went to a restaurant in town with Katta and her parents...very chuffed with myself until I realised I had to drive back...and can't have a fffff....lippen drink! so I had to settle for one beer!!! Not doing that again!

10 March

Today we're taking it easy...kids are doing school and we'll stay at home and take a break from the tourist thing....shitty weather(raining) anyway.

Europe finally

After 60 hours door to door, we finally arrived with Erwin and Doris.  What wonderful people, they have opend up their home to us... our home now as we probably spend more time here than they do. 

Our flight with Lufthansa was excellent.  A new aircraft and of course, pure German efficiency.  The best thing fo C & J was of course the fact that the hostess handed them a gaming remote and they could play games on the tv.  Frankfurt was bitterly cold and luckily we had packed all our warm stuff in overnight bags so could change immediately.

From Frankfurt we could the train to Munich and it was our lucky day for the DB (German trains) to have a strike.  Even their strike is so organised and Germanic and really made us giggle.  In fact we giggled so much at them we could not even be upset.  The stike gets announced that it will be until 11.30 and strickly at 11.30 everything starts moving again (and dont be late 'cause they are leaving).  Everyone apologises and the DB even offered free drinks for inconveniencing the passengers.  Wow, I wish the stikes in Africa could be this organised.

In Munich Erwin collected us for a 5 hour drive to Vienna.  En-route, C just wanted to touch snow.

Saturday 05th
Let me tell you that dressing here is an Art form, we still have not figured it out.  Inside the houses are heated to about 22 degrees so we walk around in our thermal underwear as it is to hot.  The reason we have our thermal underwear on is because outside is so cold and we have so many layers on we can hardly move, thus, when you come inside - you need to stip everything off - quickly.  Of course you cannot do this in a restaurant so we are still trying to find the balance.  I guess once we have it figured it will be summer ! 

Finally were were dressed and headed in for Central Vienna.  I have included pictures of us ice-skating in the outdoor rink.  This area is very famous and the surrounding architecture was the perfect backdrop.  Imagine this, skating at the Rathaus, intervals of drinking piping hot gluwein with this beautiful backdrop. 

Sunday 06th
A nice late morning before departure to Central Vienna via the U-bahn.  Spent the morning walking around the 'Ringstrasse' with all the Viennesse dressed in furs and looking really smart.  We took Cameron and Jodi into St Stephens Catherdral where a mass was being held.  Even if you are not a religous person, it still does something to you.  It is not possible to describe, being surrounded by centuries of religion, viewed by some as the oppressor of the people and as others, their life-line. 
we met up with Katta...it was really nice and the kids bonded with her as if she was never gone.
(Now me talking F..)Also met with Peter Drechsler and Herta...in a real Wiener Gasthaus.

The driving on the wrong/right side is eventually getting better, one just has to to be aware of soooo fffff....very many different potential obstacles...ie trams, trains, busses, cyclists all have right of way, while I am automatically looking in the wrong direction for a Wambo taxi...I miss them...'cos I knew that would stop, swerve and all that BUT not the Wieners, they are so bloody law abiding and I am the one acting like a real African!

Anyway, went shopping at a massive shoppping centre, The Donau Zentrum, which had changed drastically since I was here last(10 years ago). It is a bit of a shock seeing the prices of everything. Contrary to what we expected, the prices are very much on a par with Namibia. Food stuff in supermarkets are very similar, except meat. Meat(beef) is about 3x more expensive here.
Good quality clothing ie Jack Wolfskin(similar to Cape Union Mart's K-Way) is actually slightly cheaper here. Electronics are cheaper too.
It is shocking to see that the average person can actually survive in Europe. The average salary is 1200 - 1800 Euro's/month/family. It now makes sense that our travellers to Namibia are spending less and complaining about the prices...they REALLY cannot afford it.

Enough kak and economics...we're getting ready for our ski trip on the weekend. hoping to have some great pics afterwards.
we have such a full program wanting to see and do everything, that we're constantly running...but it's lekker and way better than being at work...sorry folks :-)!!!

na ja..gotta go...and do something fun...Servus und Gruesse aus Wien