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What's this all about?

We took off for a year (which turned into 15 months) to travel the world. This blog was started as a place to keep family and friends updated on our plans and where we were. Now, we are moving to Europe, so the blog will be about our new experiences, travels, and life as expats for the first time!

K is for Cookie

December 22nd, 2011

Actually K is for Kekse, but I don’t think the Cookie Monster song translates well into German.   Another thing that doesn’t translate well are my Christmas cookie recipes.  I started out with 5 target recipes and went shopping.  I found the ingredients for 3 of them.  Some things like Reese’s chips or instant oatmeal just don’t exist in our village.  It’s not that Austrians aren’t into baking.  There are huge displays in the grocery store of flour, sugar, nuts, spices, and all the stuff needed to make cakes, gingerbread, and all sorts of Christmas treats, just not cookies.

I should have taken the hint when I tried to buy an extra cookie sheet and couldn’t find one among the 20 types of cake pans and spring forms.  Instead of swapping between two trays, I decided to just use the one that I had brought from the US.  This would have been a good plan except that when I went to put the first batch into the oven, it didn’t fit.  It was about 2 inches too wide.  After a brief panic, we ended up using the broiler pan set on a higher rack.

Considering the pan situation and a few ingredient substitutes, the M&M (yes! they have those) cookies turned out close to normal, but a little crunchy (read: rock solid).   We’ve been eating them anyway, so they can’t be too bad.

A few other things I’ve learned: Vanilla is called Bourbon Vanilla and is a powder, not a liquid.  Backpulver is something like baking powder, there is no baking soda, and cream of tartar is called Natron and sold in organic health food stores. I’m going to try my new knowledge out on batch of peanut butter cookies tonight.  Stay tuned.

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad | 3 Comments »

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Far, far away

December 11th, 2011

We’ve just had our one year anniversary of arriving in Austria, and celebrated with a vacation from Austria.  Not that we don’t like it here, but most of the travels we had over the last year have been in Austria or our neighboring countries. While we saw some amazing things and had some great experiences, we thought it was about time for a real “holiday” where we could just relax and not have to figure out any languages or navigate any strange roads.

Deciding where to go was a little harder.  In the US we probably would have hopped on a plane to Hawaii or the Caribbean, but here there are some other interesting choices.  We decided to take advantage of our position in Europe.  The Maldives are about 24+ hours of travel from most places in the US, but just an 8 hour direct flight from Vienna.

With that decision made, we spent a wonderful week in an over-water villa, eating spicy curries, drinking good wines, soaking up the sun and generally being pampered at Constance Moofushi (and it looks exactly like the pictures on their website).  The snorkeling in the Maldives is some of the best that we’ve done.  The trips out to the reefs were great, but even from our villa we could watch sharks, rays, and angel fish every day.

Boarding the seaplane to leave on the last day was sad, but just as shocking was the cold weather that awaited us back in Vienna.   It’s Winter!

Here’s a view of the villas taken from our kayak:

Getting ready to snorkel and I already have a visitor:

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad, Maldives, Travel | 2 Comments »

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What border?

October 20th, 2011

A group of people we know from the US and UK were on a holiday in the Dolomites in Italy last month.  Since it’s only a 3 hour drive from where we live, they invited us to meet them there go hiking.  It’s a really beautiful area and one that I’m sure we’ll visit again.

The most surprising thing about the trip was discovering the area called Südtirol (South Tirol).  It used to belong to Austria, but as a result of WWI and WWII eventually became a permanent part of Italy. While it might officially be in Italy now, the population has chosen to ignore the fact.  The homes are the same style of “Heidi houses” that you see everywhere in Austria, and the road signs are  in both German, listed first, and then Italian.  Most people we met were tri-lingual (along with English), but speak German to each other, and the food was wursts and schnitzels, with a little pasta.  Not quite what you imagine when you think about spending a weekend in Italy.  I never would have even known that we left Austria, except for all the “I” license plates.

The owner of the B&B where we stayed gave me a history lesson, as well as some strong opinions on the regional government, languages, and the possibility that they would someday vote to re-join Austria.  It’s a very interesting piece of history that was completely new to me.  You never know what you’ll find when you cross a border.

Here’s a view from the Dolomites in the “Italian” Alps:

Posted in Austria, Italy, Living Abroad, Travel | 1 Comment »

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It’s actually sort of green

September 28th, 2011

I’m talking about the “blue” Danube.  We got a first hand look a few weeks ago when we visited the Wachau region of Austria.  The Danube in this area winds through a twisty valley with vineyards along one side and orchards on the other.  Both sides have ample castle ruins and ancient churches, as well as a good share of cafes.  The other big attractions are the bike paths which follow along the river and through the little towns along the way.  We packed up our bikes and headed to Krems at one end of the valley. From there we spent a day cycling, sightseeing, and wine tasting until we ended up in Melk, home of a famous abbey.  After staying there overnight, it was nice ride back along the other side.  The weather cooperated which made for a perfect weekend.  This story is better told in photos:

Before:  the new bike rack in action.

Eric among the grapes, checking on next year’s wine.

Finally, the green river…

Posted in Austria, Living Abroad | No Comments »

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More Cowbell

September 2nd, 2011

After the rock star life in Cologne, we took a very long drive to Zermatt which included a tunnel through the mountains where you drive your car onto a train that takes you through it.  It saves about 200km of driving instead of going around them.

Zermatt is a pretty town in a deep valley at the base of the Matterhorn.  All of the guidebooks and hiking maps talk about the changeable Alpine weather here, and we got a taste of it.  The first day we took the Gornergrat train up to the top of a nearby peak for amazing views.  The entire skyline was sunny and clear with absolutely beautiful views of the Monte Rosa, the Dom, and Dente Blanche.  The hike back down was great, but the Matterhorn was covered by its own set of clouds and nearly invisible.

All over town there were postcards, photos, and paintings of the Matterhorn that were little reminders of what we were not seeing.  The next day was same, but we thought maybe if we headed up a different set of cable cars maybe we would get a break in the weather or a different view.  That plan didn’t quite work out.  We got to the top of a ridge covered in clouds and decided to start our hike anyway.  The winds were over 40kph (and my treasured NZ knit hat was blown off and lost!), but I might have been able to cope with that.  When rain moved in, it started to get uncomfortable, and finally when the hail started whipping us, I gave up and turned around. Luckily we made it back to the cable car in time before they shut it down because of the high winds.  We got off halfway back down the mountain and were greeted with sunshine again.  I guess that’s what they mean by “changeable.”

Then on our last morning in Zermatt during breakfast we noticed a break in the clouds.  We left our coffee and muesli and scrambled to get a camera.  Finally, there it was.  Our view lasted about 15 minutes, but it was so impressive and what we came for…  the Matterhorn.

Here is the mountain teasing us:

Finally, here it is!

Posted in Living Abroad, Switzerland, Travel | 2 Comments »

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