Sunday, September 02, 2007

The moment you've been waiting for... Mondsee, Austria

A promise is a promise – And I thought it would be a simple task to keep up with the blogging after our return from Austria… Well, at least keeping up with my blogroll, and not even that went as I had expected. Anyway, I’ll catch up, but you know how it is. Not even 24 hours after coming home from Austria, Orange –X picked up his parents from the Basel airport and spent a great deal of time talking the evenings away, enjoyed watching DVDs together, and a whole lot of delicious cooking… More about that in a later post.

So now, I have the pleasure of going back 4 weeks in time to tell you about our holiday in Austria. Let me rewind the clock and let's go back to August 8th, shall we?

We drove off around 9:30 on the Saturday morning when the skies were covered with grey clouds and a soft rain was coming down, and made our way towards Mondsee (Moon Lake), a small idyllic town about 25 km outside Salzburg.

We finally arrived at our lovely Gasthof short before 5pm and found out that there was the “Seefest” (festival of the Lake) that weekend. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to have a drink on the “main strip” of the village (200 feet long), relax from the drive and do some people watching before going down to the lake where the festivities would take place that evening and the next day. The village buildings are so colourful and well kept that you’d think you’re in a movie. By the way, the church from Mondsee was the setting for the wedding scene in "The Sound of Music". Who'd have thunk?!

Anyway, on our way through the parking arranged for the festivities at the lake, we walked by this car. Was that the band that was to play that evening? I have no clue. So we went our way, watching the small stands with all sorts of goodies being prepared, people testing the lights and making sound-checks for the live bands that would appear on stage that evening, etc. They had also put up a 120 meter (almost 400 feet) crane for bungee jumping and were testing the ropes with different weights. We were both quite impressed by the all organisation efforts of such a small community (approx. 3’000 inhabitants), but we were told later on that in July and August, there was some kind of event almost every weekend and most were very well frequented both by tourists and locals. After our first quick sightseeing tour, we met with Peter and Sonja (business partners of OX) for a quick drink before dinner and they gave us a fantastic restaurant tip for the next evening where we could watch the fireworks from a beautiful terrace overlooking the lake.



We walked back to the village to have dinner and decided to go back to the party afterwards. We got to the lake just in time for the band to start playing. I must say they were quite good and played a good range of styles. There were stands with food and drinks everywhere, the weather was getting a bit cool, but totally acceptable and the atmosphere was fantastic. The age group ranged from small kids, to teens to 85 plus, which we found was an excellent sign. You know what? So many of them were wearing the traditional clothing and not only the older generations, but also the younger were proud to show off their “Lederhosen” and “Dirndls”. At some point, the humidity of the cold grass was getting to my back and we walked back to our little Gasthof for a good night of rest.

The next day at breakfast, we discussed whether we should go for a boat tour on the lake, or then maybe just lazily lie on the beach and suck up some sun, or have a look at the range of events offered at the lake fair. Decisions, decisions! Once at the lake, we saw that the beach was already pretty crowded, but they also had a choice of boat tours – along with gazillions of other passengers - and small electric boats to rent. We opted for the latter. A perfect combination of romantic, peace and being on the water! Helga - that was the name of our boat – took us for a one and a half hour tour of the lake. Captains were Orange-X and yours truly. The surroundings are really beautiful and are worth seeing from another perspective (the lake), even more so considering the gorgeous, hot weather we had. But, hot sun makes one thirsty, so as soon as we docked back on shore, we headed straight to the festivities for a nice, cold beer. Aaah! Burp.... Ooops…. S’cuse us! :-)


Of course, nothing would be really Austrian without an Austrian band, right? Well, we had us some of that, too.

Later that evening, we had a taxi pick us up from the hotel to take us here. The food was excellent, the service very friendly and the view over the lake was breathtaking. Believe it or not, after entrees and main course, OX decided to have the cheese plate as desert. Does he look happy, or what? After the fireworks, we had a digestif and went to our hotel to get some rest.





Have you had enough? Just asking, because we still have 2 days of Salzburg, 2 days at Pinky's (incl. Chris alias "Kevin" live at Backstage) and another day in Bavaria with Andreas and Suze.

We'll be back... Maybe I can get OX to do the next post. We'll see.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

oh how I loved all of the pics! What a beautiful vacation. The first pic with the buildings reminded me of Leavenworth but more flower pots and no cars and outdoor seating..

I think they should do that here. That's one thing that is always missing in north america, outdoor seating!

Anonymous said...

Chère canadienne.S. Bien sûr que je n'ai pas eu le courage de tout lire ça en anglais!.....J'ai déjà de la misère en français!...
Mais si j'ai bien compris,,,OX pendra ta place?...What une shame!!!!!!!....

Ginnie Hart said...

I missed you! But I see how much fun you were having after all. :) And I remember that church from Mondsee from our Sound of Music tour a couple years ago. Another great travelogue, of course. And I'm with O-X on that cheese plate as dessert! :)

Now enjoy your time with Ma and Pa...and more pics to come.

CanadianSwiss said...

ET: The outdoor seating is definitely a plus here in Europe. We enjoy it very much, too!

Ritadaphné: Je sais que c'était long, mais j'espère que t'as aimé les photos :) Et, ne t'en fais pas... Je voulais seulement laisser O-X écrire la prochaine entrée sur le blogue.

Ginnie: Awww. I've missed you guys, too, but I'll be around more, now that Pa and Ma are back home :)

The Big Finn said...

Ahhhh...nothin' like a little R & R!

CanadianSwiss said...

TBF: Buddy, you said it!

Shammickite said...

Another great post about a super holiday. You certainly find the best places to stay! Thanks for visiting my pics of the Hispanic Fiesta, yes, the music was great, the food was spicy, the costumes were flashy, makes me wish I was Nicaraguan so I could wear one of those divine feather headdresses!

christina said...

That looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing it with us and I look forward to hearing about the rest.

Anonymous said...

Ouuiiii.... j'ai aimé tes photos qui sont superbes!. Ma préférée?.
Le plateau de fromage....! La gourmandise n'a pas de frontière....!
Ritabisous.

swenglishexpat said...

Sounds like you had a fabuluos holiday. Looking forward to the rest :-)

CanadianSwiss said...

Ex-Shammi: I've got lot's more to post about :) BTW, the huge feather headdresses are heavier than you think!

Christina: I'll do my best to put more up this weekend.

Rita: T'as vu sa concentration sur le fromage? Et il a tout mangé!

Swenglish: More will follow soon :)

Anonymous said...

Bin quin, les yeux fermés, le ragard intériorisé, le visage lumineux, c'est pu de la concentration ça,,,,,,mais de la vénération!!!........!
ritabisous.

DirtyBitchSociety said...

Thus, I must live out my dreams, through your eyes. I am happy for you but a bit envious. Gotta go wipe this green off my face, hahaha!!
Kiss the X!

CanadianSwiss said...

I can imagine how you feel, my friend, and I know that you had a family link to German speaking countries. However, I want you to follow this trip and just imagine yourself there with us. Enjoy the ride. Hugz!