Continuing my catch-up from last fall, let’s move to October.  After a rainy summer, we finally got some nice weather in the Fall and took advantage of it to do some hiking and day trips.  One of these trips was to Kobarid, Slovenia.  This town is most well known for a series of 12 battles during […]

I know I’m waaaay behind, but I’ve been busy and will attempt to catch up over the next week or so!  Let’s go back in time to September 2014… That month brought us visitors from the US, and we spent a great week with them eating & drinking our way through northern Italy, Austria, and finally […]

I had trouble coming up with a song for this month, because this post will be about our trip to Iceland a few weeks ago.  The most famous singer from Iceland is Bjork, but I don’t really like any of her songs, so just go ahead, pick your favorite and call it the song of the […]

I’m late again with my post for July, but you’ll see why.  Summer is a time for lots of festivals, concerts and parties in Austria.  We spent the last few weeks of July participating in the fun.  We started with the “Fete Blanche” in Velden, where an entire town dresses completely in white for a huge […]

Song:  On the Road Again by  Willie Nelson Why: I can’t think of a better song to describe our travels this month, and I’ve always liked it anyway.  There is a 410km (that 255 miles!) bike trail from Salzburg Austria to Grado, a beach town on the Adriatic sea in Italy. It’s called the Alpe-Adria trail.  […]

Song:  Country Roads by John Denver Why:  While I knew this song when I lived in the US, I never heard it so many times in my whole life as in the last 3 years here in Austria.  It gets played at festivals, après ski, and just about anywhere there is a band or a DJ.  […]

March 1st was Fasching Samstag, or Carnivale Saturday.  I’ve written before about this celebration, so I won’t repeat about the costumes and the craziness that goes on that day.  Instead, I’ll pick my March song of the month from one that we heard that day. Song: Viva Colonia! by De Hoehner Why:  This song can be […]

I’ve been inspired by some friends who are doing a “Song of the Day” blog since January.  While I couldn’t keep that up for a whole year, I thought I could at least do it once a month and try to relate it to our expat life or travels.  So here goes…  I’m already a late […]

Eat. Shop. Watch. That might be a better title for our trip to the US for Xmas.  We went to visit my aunt who lives in Florida to meet up with my parents to spend the holidays with family in a warmer climate.  It was a well needed break from the winter weather that already started […]

I finally finished up the blogs about our summer… just in time for winter.  The first snow is on the mountains and the air is cold, but there are other signs that Christmas is coming.  The markets are open selling roasted chestnuts and gluhwein.  There’s also one more that goes into the “only in Austria” file…  […]

I have written about hiking quite a few times, but there’s something special that I don’t think I have mentioned before.  Austria is a very Catholic country and on many mountains there is a cross at the very top of the peak.  It’s called a Gipfelkreuz, or a “summit cross.”  Not all mountains have them, but […]

I’m still pretty far behind on our summer travels, but this one requires a post.  At the end of June we took a week off (we get 5 weeks vacation now after all!) and went to Amsterdam, via London.  Aside from the shopping and dining opportunities that a big city presents, it was also nice to […]

After the long rainy spring, summer finally did arrive in June! We have a “To Do” list of interesting activities in the area and it keeps getting longer. The next few blogs will be about some of things we’ve already done so far this summer. There are many bike trails in the area and we use […]

We had a very snowy winter in Austria which turned into a very rainy spring.  By the end of May nearly everyone was totally depressed by the constant bad weather.  You may have seen the terrible flooding in Austria and Germany on the news that was eventually a result of this.  We finally couldn’t take it […]

One of the great things about living in Europe is that we get to see and do things that locals take for granted and most tourists never get to experience.  I’ve written before about our town’s Kirchtag, which is the largest festival of it’s kind in Austria.  However, most towns, no matter how small, have one […]

It’s been quite a while since my last blog, but I will be catching up over the next week!  Since my last post so much has happened, so I have some good trips to post.  First, my parents came to visit in May.  This year there were 4 long weekends in that month (I love all […]

It’s finally Spring in Austria!  Compared with our last 2 winters here, this one has been quite a change. It snowed at least once every week, with some storms lasting a few days. It once snowed for 4 days straight with almost a meter of snow. All this white stuff meant good skiing in the local […]