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My own Giro d’Italia

Monday, August 12th, 2013

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 them fairly often for short rides after work or on weekend. However, there is also a trail which goes all the way to the Adriatic Sea. While we didn’t take it quite that far, we did spend a nice day riding to Italy for lunch and back.

As an American, it’s still very weird for me to just go to another country for the day, especially when the language and the food are so different from Austria. It’s even stranger to go there on my bike! The Italian part of the trail is mostly built on an old unused railroad line, so it includes bridges high above mountain rivers and lots of tunnels. We enjoyed it so much that we went back again a few weeks later and rode all the way to Venzone, a medieval walled city, and then took a train home.

Here is Eric’s bike parked on the border:

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Searching for the sun

Friday, August 2nd, 2013

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 anymore and decided we needed to go somewhere sunny and warm, even for just a day.  After spending half a night searching the weather websites, we realized that there was no place nearby which would be any better.  Spontaneously we started searching airline websites looking for anything.  There it was… a cheap ticket from a nearby airport to Catania in Sicily.

We left on Friday night and after some delays eventually arrived.  The next morning we were greeted with bright sun, a blue ocean, and great food.  Catania turned out to be a pretty interesting destination, with Roman ruins and a side trip to the most active volcano in Europe, Mt. Etna.  Sadly Sunday night came too quickly and it was back to reality and rain again.

The Mediterranean isn’t just beautiful, it also yields some great fish, seen here at the famous fish market.  At night these stands are cleared away and great restaurants open up to serve up the seafood.

Mt. Etna – still smoldering…

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East is East, but some is more West

Monday, June 10th, 2013
I usually write about things that we do for fun, but this time I’m going to write a quick note about some travel I got to do for work.  I don’t think I mentioned it in the blog before because many of you who read this already know my news.  Last fall I changed jobs.  I found a position in the same town where we live, in an office that speaks English (mostly), and in a technology field that is slightly related to what I did before.  It has been really interesting and exciting for me to learn something new, as well as to work for a European company for the first time.  Some things are the same (forecasting, project schedules) and some things are totally different (5 weeks vacation, subsidized lunch for 2 Euros).

One thing that never changes is that you need to visit your customers to find out what is really happening, so I headed to China and Korea for 2 weeks in April.  I had visited Beijing once at my previous job, but this time I got to see a lot more of China.  Shenzhe/Shunde were my least favorite, but they are really industrial places.  The places I went were not really geared to visitors which made it quite a bit harder.  Qingdao was a little better, or maybe I was just getting used to it by that time.  Shanghai was my final stop and much more interesting and cosmopolitan.  I spent the weekend there doing some shopping, visiting the Jing An Temple, and seeing a Chinese acrobat/circus performance.  The latter was completely kitschy and touristy, but the performances are really amazing and make for a fun night out.

My next stop was Korea, where I’ve been before.  However, I find that each time I visit, I like it more.  For me the food is great – spicy, generally good quality, and well cooked.  In China, many of the dishes had a little too much sauce or oil for my tastes, and some of the ingredients were just unidentifiable.  Even when I asked my co-workers to describe what I was eating in China, I got strange answers (pig throat?) or none at all (it’s something very popular…  OK, but what?).  I don’t have much food phobia any more, but there were a few times when even I was pushed to the limit. I tried the sea snails.  I tried the chicken, even though I couldn’t figure out what possible part of the bird the pieces might have come from.  But finally, there were some seafood dishes that I just could not eat.  Defeated.

The other thing I totally enjoyed in Korea was the late shopping hours.  Unlike Austria everything is open, all the time.  And it’s generally less expensive than Europe too.
Finally, my last complaint about China is the coffee, or lack thereof.  I fully understand that it’s a “tea country” but after a week with either no coffee or just bad coffee, I was very happy to see the streets of Seoul.  Nearly every corner has a Starbucks, Angels-in-us or Coffee Bean.  Caffeine replenished, headache gone.

The view from the Jetsons-like Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai
Korean BBQ = Happy Me

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Schnee und Eis – Snow and Ice

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

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 mountains, and we finished the season with 18 ski days this year.

The weird thing for me is that unlike the US, nothing really changes or stops when it snows. Kids go to school – there are no snow days. I go to work, get groceries, and go out. They are much better about clearing the highways and everyone has snow tires, but otherwise everyone just goes about their daily lives as if the snow wasn’t there.

It has generally been a fun winter, but I’m really looking forward to some warmer, sunny days. Here’s a quick review of what we’ve been up to the last few cold, dark months.

We did a lot of skiing in the local mountains, but also enjoyed a few weekends away in Zell am See, Mayrhofen, and Sölden in Tirol. The weather, the conditions, and especially the après-ski were all great. The music they play usually consists of goofy party songs in German or old American songs from the 80s.  Anywhere else they would be terrible, but on the mountain with a beer, it’s perfect.

Unfortunately, the really cold weather started too late in the year for many of the lakes to freeze, so we didn’t have as many opportunities to skate. Instead we spent some time exploring the Christmas markets in December in Nuremburg, Munich, and of course Villach. We did manage to visit the Weissensee for the first time this year. It’s an 11 km long lake with several skating tracks, where the Dutch speed skating team (and tons of their fans) come to train and race.

We also decided to enjoy some winter sports as spectators for a change and attended a world cup giant slalom race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. It´s only about a 30 minute drive and we got to cheer on Ted Ligety to a victory with a few other Americans in the crowd. We also went to a ski jumping event in Planica, Slovenia. Seeing the jump in person, I realized these guys are even crazier than I thought.

Here are a few photos of our Winter 2013…

At the Weissensee on one of several 6km long skating tracks.

The finish line at the Giant Slalom.

View of the ski jump at Planica.

Close up of one of the brave jumpers to give you some perspective on how big the hill is.

The beautiful Austrian Alps – ski heaven!

A photo opp at the top of the slope in Tirol.

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Kaapstad

Monday, March 11th, 2013

This will be my last short post about the trip to Africa.  It was such an amazing trip that writing about it has been tough. It’s too hard to describe everything that happened, so I’ve been putting it off.  However, I just wanted to write one final note about our last stop, Cape Town.  It’s such an interesting place – the city itself is very diverse.  We ate everything from great sushi to Nando’s chicken.  The harbor area where we stayed is a good mix of touristy restaurants and working port.  We spent our last few days wandering around the city, walking on Table Mountain, exploring the wine regions (and doing a little tasting of course), and finally visited the beautiful coast and Cape.  A nice way to end our time in Africa!

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