We#ve made it to austria! Bare with me if this becomes illegible, I#ll try my best but some of the letters on the keyboard are in different places than what I am used to.


The flight was sooo long. The first part of the trip was the bulk of it, lasting 7 or so hours nonstop to Frankfurt (germany). By the time we got there, it was 12:30 int he afternoon, but really it felt like 6:30 am, and I had hardly slept at all. We were all pooped, and that is Randy above using his books as a pillow. A note about those books: on our tiny connecting flight from Frankfurt to Linz,Randy#s books were under his feet, but straight away we all fell asleep. On the intercom, as we were touching down, the pilot said (in german, then english next) that there was a German textbook at the front of the cabin. Well sure enough it was Randy#s, but his other book went MIA. It wasnät worth causing a raucous, because we just wanted to get onto Austrian soil, so we left the airplane one book short.

Aunt Gerry and her friend Peggy picked us up. OH the thing I noticed about the airports in both Austria and Germany are the free-standing smoking bars. Passengers literally fled from the flights to light up at these stands.

We then drove with Aunt Gerry and Peggy back to the Hubmer home. Their town, Steyr (pronounced, I now know, Schtire) was about an hour or so from Linz. Hopefully I will get better acquainted with the geography as the trip goes on to be able to write directionally where these places are.

On the way TO the airport, Aunt Gerry and Peggy had trouble with the autobahn (there was a quick shutdown of it, and the only way they were notified of this was by giant red Xs put on the road signs for it) and THEN when they tried taking backroads, thy became part of a local town's funeral procession, so needless to say we found an alternate route back to their home.

The ride was through magnificent country fields, and not a one of them was lined with electric wiring: it's all underground, my aunt said.

Their home is situated in a small village type community where all the homes are made of stucco and have terra cotta roofing. I was not expecting to see such tropically reminiscent homes.

Here is their backyard patio. Directly in the center is Aunt Gerry greeting another guest, Carl. Despite all our droopy eyes, we managed to perk back up again as soon as we got to their home. Uncle Franz provided us with champagne and Edenberry (i may not be correct with that spelling) which was very sweet tasting. I also tried some German beer but my senses were kind of kicked, so i'm not sure if I remember liking it or not.

For dinner we had turkey schnitzel and an assortment of vegetables, including a delicious carrot dish my grandpa made with bleu cheese and white grapes. OH another thing I tried that was different was some slices off a HUGE white radish! White radishes supposedly taste a little different from the red ones we're accustomed to, but again I wasn't exactly all there.

Here's my first picture ever with Grandpa Bernie's wonderful new bride, Marilyn. She kept running back in and out with fresh pots of coffee for all of us struggling with the time difference.

After dinner we had a terrific thunderstorm but before we took cover I snapped some outdoor photos.

This photo was taken on mz way up the hill behind their backyard. There's a stone pathway that gets pretty rugged with flowery weeds and leads to one of the little roadways behind the house. By the time I got up there to take the next picture, already three motorbikes, two joggers, and a cyclist had all zoomed past me. From the patio, I would have never had guessed the roads above got such traffic because I never heard anything from down there.

When I finall got to the top of the hill I took a picture of below. The flowers in the forefront grow without end from the bottom of their patio to the top of the hill. The blue house is the Hubmer home and I tried to get some of the mountain background, but IÄm not sure it#s very visible here. This was taken before the rain clouds sent us inside.

We all 12 or so of us came inside to the dining room table for some delicious desserts. Aunt Gerry recently had been to Sweden, where she had a very difficult time trying to find Swedish fish, oddly enough. We also had homemade chocolate moose (i know thatäs not the correct way to spell it) and a wonderful wonderful! homemade apple strudle!

By the time we finished I thought I would fall asleep at the table. I tried to write these things last night but I got frustrated with the keyboard. It's now morning on Saturday here, about 6:20, and we're leaving for the church in about 2 hours. There are some more great things I have to share about the actual home itself, and I#ll try to include them in picture form with today#s events, hopefully updating tonight (I was really lucky in getting the bedroom with teh computer in it, but really I have to ask so so so many questions because the computer#s settings are all in German and the popups are driving me crazy!)

This morning the roosters woke me up! :) Have a great day.