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Song of the Month: October

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

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 World War I that took place along the Soca river valley nearby.  Most people learn about the French western front in history class, but there was also heavy fighting and huge casualties on this front as well.  We’ve been ready some history of the area, including a great book called “Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915-1918” by John Macdonald.  In it he mentions the museum in Kobarid which we visited and found very moving.

The mountains surrounding the area offer a beautiful backdrop on a sunny, Autumn day.  It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like during the severe winters and when the shelling was going on all around.  There is a marked historical walk that leads past the old trenches, as well as a hidden waterfall at the end of of a gorge (see below).

All this thought of conflict led me to my song pick for this month:  “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2.  I always liked the song and it seems to fit.

A more peaceful scene near Kobarid:

Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915-1918

Posted in Slovenia, Travel | No Comments »

Song of the Month: August

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

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 month.

I’m also having a hard time describing Iceland.  The main words that come to mind are interesting, weird, and beautiful.  The bubbling geysers are fascinating, and the landscape is really unique.  We rented a camper with 4 wheel drive and headed off to explore the southern part of the island.  There are waterfalls everywhere, as well as sheep and the famous Icelandic horses.  In contrast, there are very few people so we found ourselves alone on the road a lot of the time.

Speaking of roads, we followed the main Ring Road for a while, but then headed inland where the “road” is really just the tire tracks of the vehicles that came before you.  This also means there are no bridges, so crossing rivers is a slightly nervous, exciting time, especially after a day and night of rain.  The camping and hiking were good, but for me another highlight was soaking in a hot river – heated by a natural geothermal spring.  We also took walks to see glaciers, icebergs floating in a bay, and puffins nesting.   Finally we finished off with a stop at the Blue Lagoon spa for a relaxing dip in the strange colored water before flying home.

The landscape is so varied that it’s hard to pick just 1 or 2 photos!  Here’s one from our favorite hike to a waterfall.

Our home on wheels, alone on the main road.

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Song of the Month: July

Tuesday, August 19th, 2014

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 night of DJs, bands, and drinks.  I wasn’t sure how many people would actually dress up, but 99% of the crowd was in white, with some really elegant dresses for the VIP parties.

We finished off the month with Kirchtag, the annual weeklong celebration in our town that is a combination of beer tents, traditional (oompah) and modern bands, amusement park rides, and lots of food.  Once again there is a dress code…  traditional Tracht this time.  The other thing these events have in common is the music, which leads me to the song of the month…

Song:  Atemlos durch die Nacht by Helene Fischer

We first heard this song last winter during Apres Ski and then it started popping up anywhere there were groups of people.  This genre is known as “Schlager” and this singer Helene Fischer is one of the most popular singers, but that’s a whole topic for another time.  The lyrics mean “breathless through the night” and with everyone singing along at the top of their lungs, I think it’s pretty descriptive of our many late nights out in the last month!

The Szene or “scene” at the Fete Blanche (everyone really is dressed in white!  – including us).

And then there was Kirchtag  (and my new dirndl for 2014).

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Song of the Month: June

Saturday, June 21st, 2014

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.  Last year I wrote about a day trip that we rode from Villach to Venzone, but I really want to ride the entire length.  While I don’t have time to do it all at once, we decided to ride sections whenever we have a few days.  A 3-day weekend this month gave us the chance to ride from Salzburg to Spittal, 160km.  The trail initially follows the Salzach River, so it’s nice and flat, but eventually if you go south you will have to cross the Alps.  The hardest section was on day 2 with an uphill finish in Bad Gastein, but the views from the waterfall there made the struggle worthwhile.  The trail cheats a little and takes an 8km train through a tunnel, rather than climbing 1000m over the mountain.  (The train is really cool – you can drive cars onto it or bring your bike).  You are then rewarded with a very long downhill glide into the valley.

The weather was beautiful, but unfortunately the hottest weekend we’ve had all year.  A nice side benefit though, is that when you are riding all day you can eat whatever you want, including many stops for ice cream! The pace of bike touring really allows time to soak in the scenery, plus the trails and side roads that you take give a totally different view of the countryside than what you get on the highways in a car.

One of the views we were treated to as we rode up the valley:

Another “country road”… (that’s me on the right)

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad, Travel | No Comments »

Song of the Month: May

Saturday, June 14th, 2014
Song:  Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
Why:  I was looking for a Scottish band or song and didn’t want to go with the obvious:  bagpipes.  We spent the last week of May (the reason why this post is late!) in Scotland exploring the city of Edinburgh, the Isle of Skye, and the highlands.  The weather cooperated and we had several surprisingly sunny days to go on a bike ride in the Loch Lamond/Katrine area and some walks in the hills.  We also tasted a few whiskies, but I can’t say that I found one I really like…  the shortbread cookies are much more to my tastes!
Here’s Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.  The monster didn’t show up in any of my photos!

Posted in Scotland, Travel | No Comments »

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