May Day, May Day and Other Assorted Days Off--Woche 13

The town of Krems

Chillin' on the Danube

This month is full of holidays!  We get May Day (1st), Ascension Thursday (9th - and Friday for the kids), another holiday on Monday the 20th, and another one at the end of May (30th) that is on a Thursday this year, so the kids get both the Thursday and Friday off again.  The trade off is that with all these holidays and the extra ski week we had, we don’t end school until the 14^th of June.   So, (this is a word that is used a ton here and we have found ourselves using it a lot as well.  Pronounce it “tso”) this week, we had May day, but here they celebrate it more as Labor day, where several labor unions put on demonstrations and parades.  We’ve heard it was not the kind of parade to take the kids to, though.  So, I decided to plan a fun trip for the family outside of Vienna.  We drove to the city of Krems which is a small town in the Wachau (pronounced “Va-cow”) region of Austria.  This area is the oldest part of Austria.  The oldest buildings (ruins) are in this area, and according to history, this was the first inhabited area of Austria.  We boarded a river boat and started on our cruise up the Donau (Danube).  We got a spot at the top of the boat sitting out in the open, where we could see everything.  We sat at a table, and they had a small snack bar on board, complete with waiters.  Dan ordered hot chocolates for everyone (4 Euro a piece, the wine was probably cheaper, but its all about the experience, right?).  It wasn’t cold out, but cool enough to wear sweaters and drink hot chocolate—especially when the hot chocolate is made with real cocoa and whole milk.  They put real whip cream in it and even give you your own packet of sugar to sweeten it, if you wish.  We’ve found that things here are not as sweet as in the USA—everything from soda to hot chocolate, to cakes and cookies, and even neighbors.  However, they are definitely rich, including the neighbors.  (We’re the only ones in the complex not driving a Porsche or BMW.) 

Does this look like 20 Euro worth of Cocoa?

We headed upstream and were surrounded by green hills and tons of vineyards.  The Wachau region is known for their wine, as this area is the most fertile in Austria.  The first town we came to was Durnstein.  This town has the ruins of a huge castle where King Richard the Lionheart was captured on his way back from the 3rd crusades and held in the dungeon for two weeks, until he was given over to Trifels Castle.

Next we came to the town of Spitz.  This town is at the heart of the Wachau.  It has the fame of the “thousand buckets mountain”.  In the commentary, we learned that the one hill above the town can produce 1000 buckets of wine in a good year - that is equivelant to 57,000 Litres or about 15,057 gallons.  Grapes are not the only things grown here.  They also grow apricots.  There were also archaeological finds here in this town (a rather rotund carved woman), dating back 25,000 years.

There are also a number of other castle ruins and old churches along the way.  The last stop was at Melk.  The entire cruise lasted 3 ½ hours.  I was expecting only an hour.  The kids didn’t starve to death, as we got them hot dogs from the snack bar.  It warmed up in the afternoon and it was a beautiful, relaxing trip.  We ended up going round-trip, but a lot of people bring their bikes aboard and only go one-way.  Then they get off and ride their bikes through all the pretty towns and scenery.  The trip downstream was still fun and relaxing, but it took less than 2 hours to get back to Krems.

Imperial Dining Room at Melk (the
ceiling is actually flat, but painted to
look like it is domed)

In Melk, we visited the Stift (Abbey).  We took the tour of the beautiful gardens.  It is a working abbey with 33 monks and they have a running school with 800 students.  The abbey is set up on a hill and has gorgeous views.  The abbey has 1,365 windows in it, so you wouldn’t want to be the window washer.  It houses a jeweled cross that is said to have a piece of the cross of Jesus in it (there is a piece of wood in it behind one of the jewels, but it can’t be proved to have been a real piece of the cross.)  We only got to see a video of it, as it is only shown to the public once a year, in February.  They have a hat for a priest housed here that is decorated with pearls that all come from the Danube.  It is a real treasure as there are no longer pearls in the Danube. 

We also saw the uniform for the priest that is only used for Easter mass.  It is embroidered with gold and weighs 45lbs., so it must be a hard mass for the priest.  Another highlight in Melk, is the library.  There are several rooms of books that are very old.  A lot of them are hand written books that were created long before printing became possible.  They have globes in the room that date way back as well:  California is an island and Canada didn’t really exist.  No photography was allowed in the library.  A major highlight for us was when all of the alarms in the library went off and much to our amusement someone elses kid had breached the barriers and was spinning one of the ancient globes.  It probably isn't very nice to relish in other peoples embarassement, but we were so pleased it wasn't Deagan that we had to celebrate a personal triumph of child management (we continue to get better at zone defense with each excursion). 

Finally we headed down the spiral staircase to the church.  It is a beautiful Baroque style church, and is very ornately decorated.  We did get to take some pictures in here.  The kids were very interested in the glass sarcophagus housing the remains of an unnamed saint in one of the enclaves of the church (the speculation was that his name was Clemens).  We didn’t spend a lot of time in the church, as we needed to get back to our boat, but it was very interesting.  As fun as it was, it was still a long day for the kids.  The only one who didn’t complain was Danyon.

The Stift at Melk is high on the hill overlooking the Danube on one side and city on the other

The weekend brought more fun.  There was a group of girls going out for dinner to celebrate some birthdays.  I decided to go to the “girls-night”.  Dan was not excited to be left at home with the kids by himself, so he invited all the men to come over and hang out with him for a BBQ.  The evening turned out well, as everyone had fun.  The ladies got some fun, away-time eating Indian food, and the guys ate, and ate, and ate chicken, frankfurters and brats and couldn’t have been happier.  The men were especially proud to have managed to carry out the whole evening without dirtying a single peice of silverware and no paper plates were provided.  Now that is a man's night out.  

An old castle converted to another
Benedictine monestary near Melk

A few of the guys that came for the BBQ, work for the UN and have access to the commisary.  They are able to get all kinds of American foods, including chips, candy, and other assorted items that have led to the obesity epidemic of the American people.  You don't realize how much you miss something until you eat it again and then it's gone and you have no way to get more!  I was extremely impressed that when I got home, the kitchen was clean and there was even a small ziploc bag of Cheetos hidden in the cupboard for me (Dane saved them out for me and wanted to give them to me for Mother's Day, but Dan thought they might not be as enjoyable a week later).  No wonder the scale told me I didn't lose weight this week.  I thought it was just lying.

The family that owned this castle made their captives
jump from the rose garden down the cliffs to their deaths

As we had a late night on Friday, and had already been on an excursion for the week, I didn’t plan anything for Saturday.  We just grocery shopped, and stocked back up on our grilling meats.  Dan was able to install 4 more light fixtures in our house this week.  It's looking better, but only 21 more to go.  Maybe by the time we leave, he'll have them all in--just in time to take them all out for the next renter.  Later that evening, we continued our dance class.  We taught the Rhumba.  We added another couple, so now we have 2, and we had a great time.  We went out for ice cream afterwards, and the ice cream here, is very good.  It is one of the foods that they keep sweet!  All the kids asked if they could have seconds, so we put them to bed and ate more without them!

The long walk up to the Stift

Spring is in the air---for everyone!----Woche 12

This is a tree in our yard.

We had a busier week than some in the past.  Dan was about run off his feet at work.  He left for work early and came home late just about every night this week.  It almost seemed as if he were on another business trip.  He clocked a lot of hours, so the company definitely got their moneys worth.  He drove to the Czech Republic to help with the launch of a new product.  Things seem to be going well for him and the company.

The kids had a fun run at school this week.  It turned out to be beautiful weather and they had a good time.  Dane was the first to finish 20 laps.  Dyllan and Deagan had a smaller track and they clocked about 22 laps.  They had fun booths set up, where the kids could get their faces painted.  Dane opted not to get his done.  He was too concentrated on his laps.  Dyllan and Deagan thought it was fun though.

Dan and I set a goal to get back to our dancing.  We are planning on getting a group together to brush up on some of our skills.  We really need practice to get ready for Ball Season.  We've already done one night of Waltz with one other couple.  I think that we can get several to come next time.  We want to have a big group, as that makes it more fun.  The kids had fun watching a movie at the church while we danced.  Danyon enjoyed army crawling all over the floor.  He likes to be picked up and loves to waltz--especially the turns.



Even the cows wear bustenhalter's here

The weather is nice enough to go for walks.  We took the kids down to an ice cream shop just a few blocks from our house.  It was so nice outside, sitting on the patio.  We loved it!  Dan and I also got to go for a jog on Saturday morning.  We followed some trails through some of the vineyards and along a stream.  It was a very pretty jog.  We saw a black squirrel in the trees.  The squirrels here are slightly smaller than Indianian squirrels and they have big tufts of hair coming out of their ears.  They look kind of funny.



The kids got caught in a spider web, but we were able to free them before the spider had lunch.

We took the kids to the Schonbrunn Tiergarten (the zoo).  It is on the grounds of the Schonbrunn Palace, and it is the oldest zoo in the world.  We bought year passes so that we could go back often.  The zoo grounds are very nice and pretty.  We only got to see about a third of it.  We did see an albino peacock, and the normal colored one.  The bat cave was a highlight, as the bats are flying all around you (and even grazing your head) while you are there in the dark.  We had to go through it twice because it was so cool.  Danyon didn't really get into the zoo animals.  He had a front row seat to watching the otters play and he kept turning around to see all the people behind him, watching the otters.  We luckily were able to locate the Kasekriner shop and of course, the ice cream shop.  The most exciting exhibit was the bears.  There were two black bears that were fighting up on their hind legs.  They were yelling at each other and really having it out.  Well, then we learned that this was not bear-fighting, it was really bear foreplay.  The bears started to mate.  After a few seconds, Dyllan asked, "What is that bear doing to the other bear?"  We quickly explained that the momma bear was trying to get pregnant.  Dyllan wondered why it was taking so long.  Dane's idea was that, "Maybe they're trying to make twins or triplets."  After violating their privacy, we told the kids that we needed to go.  Dyllan and Deagan wanted to be sure to come back, "tomorrow, so that we can see the babies."  We told them we had to come back after she hibernated.  It seems that everyone is feeling the effects of Spring.

Der Fruhling ist da!-Woche 11

Well, I think we are about assimilated into the Viennese culture.  We walked by a Volvo station wagon on the way home from school and Dane said, "Look at the limo!!"  He is finally getting used to the smaller cars, smaller roads, smaller everything--and even a Volvo looks long enough to be a limo.  Speaking of cars, we got Dan's new company car this week.  It is pretty nice.  It even has built-in booster seats for the kids.  We've never had a sun roof before and now we're enjoying it (even if it is still a little cool outside).

Spring has really sprung this week as the leaves, tulips, daffodils, and all kinds of things are starting to pop out all over town.   We especially liked the new bread that popped up in the kitchen this week.  The kids have decided to affectionately call it, "Booty Bread".  Plumbers everywhere are flocking to buy it up.  We are thinking of starting an export business targeting US plumbers unions.  Aside from the occasionally questionable bread, it really is a beautiful city.  The side-walk cafes are filling up, the number of tour buses all over town seemed to have quadrupled this week (the kids were 15 minutes late coming home from school because traffic was so bad on the first nice day).  River cruises on the Danube have started.  Ice cream and gelatto shops are now open.  People are coming out of their hibernation. 

Dan spent his week in Turkey, for the third time in a month.  He really enjoys the Turkish people and his meetings were okay.  He has some work to do there, though, as he had to stay an extra day (he assures me it wasn't for the Turkish bath). 

Because he stayed an extra day, that left me to take care of his youth activity at the church for the week. The youth were making tissue paper flowers for Mother's Day.  I had to buy the supplies and drop them off at someone's house along with the directions.  It sounded easy enough.  I had to go all the way across town.  When I got to my stop, I got off the subway and had to get onto the trolley from there.  I could not find the trolley stop.  I looked everywhere for it.  I finally decided to walk the rest of the way.  There was construction going on, and I had to meander through several streets.  Danyon and I probably walked about 2 miles--okay, I walked, Danyon rode.  We finally got there!!  On the way home, I asked how to get to the trolley stop.  It turns out that the trolley stops can also be underground like the subway.  I did not realize this, as they are all above ground over by where we live.  So, with that problem fixed, getting home was much faster!

I went with a friend this week to a Mexican Specialty store.  I found refried beans, salsa, home-made chips and tortillas, guacamole, pancake mix, AND . . . Vanilla!!!!!  I paid a lot for it, but it is nice to know that I have some in my drawer.  I'm glad that my friend, Krista, took me there.  On the way home, Krista helped me with my bags, as I had a stroller and diaper bag with me as well.  We were walking through a very busy subway station, when all of a sudden, I heard a huge smash of glass on the floor.  Krista's bag had torn through (the bag was wet from the rain) and all of her groceries went smashing down on the ground.  There are no offices or people that work in the subway station so we didn't know what to do with all the broken glass.  An older lady came up to us, and told us to use the newspapers to scoop it up and then throw them away.  I was very excited because she was speaking German and I actually understood what she said!  We got the mess cleaned up and then we were back on our way.  I felt bad that Krista lost all of her groceries, so the next day I had Dan drive over to the store again and we bought a few of the items that she had purchased and we took them over to her house.

We took the kids to Demel on Saturday.  They have glass walls so you can see them working in the kitchen.  It was fun to watch them.  One baker was decorating some chocolates, and one was peeling rhubarb, while another was stacking cakes and making sure they were perfectly round and the same size.  We stopped for a little snack.  The kids all wanted ice cream, but we also tried their chocolate torte and a black forest something (you know, chocolate and cherries and whipping cream).  My favorite was a lemon tart.  It tasted like a really good lemon meringue pie with an almost shortbread type crust.  Danyon is finally learning that when we sit down to eat, we are getting different food than he gets.  He is starting to enjoy our food more than his own--at least when we are eating treats.  He loved the ice cream, whipping cream, cake, and lemon tart.  He was yelling for more.  We enjoyed our little stop there and Dan and I will be back.  I don't know if the kids appreciate it as much as they should for how much it costs.

Demel is located right downtown in "the ring".  The ring is the old city wall.  The wall is not there any more, but several of the sight-seeing places are located within the ring.  It was our first time going into the ring, at least on purpose--there was that one time with the GPS that we entered the ring on accident).  People are allowed to go there, and taxis and tourist buses.  Normal cars are not allowed to go.  There are even some streets made only for pedestrians.  It is fun to go out walking and looking at all the things there are to see.  We went by the Sisi museum, the Hofburg palace, and the Spanish Riding school.  While we were out, we noticed a couple who were walking the streets.  The husband looked very Polynesian.  As in true Hedquist style, Dan walked up to them and started the small talk.  It turns out they live in Riverside, California, and he is from American Samoa.  It was fun to chat with them for a few minutes.  We exchanged emails and Dan invited them over for dinner.  They decided that they had too many other fun sight-seeing things on their list, but wanted to stay in touch via email. 

We had a regional church conference this weekend.  We wanted to attend the Saturday evening adult session but have been unable to get a babysitter for anything yet.  We have had a couple of suggestions, but they have all fallen through.  So, realizing that Dane is 11 and pretty responsible, we decided to leave him at home with Dyllan and Deagan.  It was our first time letting Dane babysit.  We took Danyon with us, as we figured this would be too much for Dane to handle.  We went to the conference and it was great!  They talked a lot about families and how it is the parents' responsibility to teach their children all about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Afterwards, we went out to dessert with two other couples from our congregation.  It was our first time going out without kids since we moved here (although we still had Danyon).  It was so much fun getting out together and the other couples were so much fun, too.  We laughed so hard that we cried.  It was very refreshing, as Austrians tend to be more serious, somber and stick to themselves, in general.  And, when we returned home, we found the house in-tact, and children in bed.  Actually, Dane was asleep in the entry waiting for us.  We didn't have a house key with us.  We knocked on the door to wake him.  Then we banged on the door.  Then we rang the doorbell about 600 times.  Then we called my phone that was sitting on the desk in the entry way--over and over.  Then we called the house phone, over and over.  All of this intermixed with more door banging and doorbell ringing.  Then we went out to the street and rang the other buzzer (to let someone in the gate), over and over.  Dane did not budge through any of this.  Neither did Dyllan or Deagan.  No one came to the door.  After about 25 minutes of trying everything we could think of to wake people up,  Dan opened the garage back up and told me to start preparing to sleep in the car over night.  Just as I slumped into the trunk of the car,  good ol' Marco came to the rescue.  He had been in the entry way this whole time as well and was getting tired of all the racket.  So, as a last resort for him, Marco pounced on Dane's head with all four feet.  This roused Dane enough that when Dan kept ringing the door bell, Dane was able to get up and open the door.  Finally!  Dan never thought he would say it, but, he was grateful to Marco that night and even said we should give him an extra treat.  I learned never to leave the house without a key, and in case of any emergency, I'm gonna have to be the one to get everyone out of the house.  They would sleep through ANYTHING.

Getting Back to Normal-Woche 10

We have been fighting to get things back into gear.  We are all still wishing we were still on vacation.  This week things have been fairly normal.  The kids went back to school.  I stayed home with Danyon, and Dan was in town.  I spent a lot of time on the computer trying to plan and book our summer vacation.  There are so many choices, but we narrowed it down.  Not too much excitment for a blog.

Dan and I started exercising again this week.  It has been 6-8 months since we have had a regular exercise schedule, thus we will not be posting our "before" pictures on this blog.  We are finally feeling the need to get things back in shape.  It hurt though.  I do believe I saw Dan in tears after our second day.  His abs hurt him so much, that he had to grab his pant legs and pull with his arms to get up out of the couch.  Dan can assure you, I wasn't doing much better.  I had my share of complaining and moaning about having to go up the stairs.  We are experimenting with a different regimen this time around, as Dan's knees are not good.  We've decided to do weights every other day (Body For Life style) and Insanity on the other days.  Our first week, other than being very sore, we did pretty good.  We only missed one workout of six.---And on Sunday, I was asked if I had lost weight!!  My response was, "Not yet, but I'm working on it!"  Now, if only I could get those chocolate bars to quit jumping into my shopping cart . . .

Dan joined a softball team that is made up of a bunch of people in the ward.  The games are late in the evenings to make sure everyone is home from work (the work day here starts later and goes longer than is usual in the U.S.  Dan's co-workers don't roll into work until about 9:00 or later.  But, they stay late as well.)  So, since it's late, I don't get to go and cheer.  Apparently, on their team, there isn't much to cheer for.  They lost the game by 30 runs.



Enjoying the 1st ferris wheel

Danyon's first taste of cotton candy

Since we have had a couple of days of beautiful weather, we decided to take the kids to the Prater.  It is a park/amusement park/museum, etc.  They have a really old, really high ferris wheel.  It is "the thing to do" at Prater.  So we found the ferris wheel, and we got on.  When we were in the air, we realized that there was another ferris wheel in the park--one that looked older.  So, we were on the wrong ferris wheel.  But the kids had a great time.  Dane has decided that he does not like roller coasters (maybe he's not related to me) and he's afraid of heights.  But, since the first roller coaster was such fun torture, we decided to go on the other one, too.  I told Dane not to worry, the other one was closed in, so the fact that it was older, much, much, older, and quite possibly rickety, didn't matter.  So, the real ferris wheel, has little train car type boxes that a whole group of people can go into.  Then you have an amazing view of the city.  Dane was uneasy as the entire group moved to one side to look at the view, and the "box" tilted to that side.  By the end of the circle though, he was joking about everyone going to one side and jumping, just to see what it would do.  You can rent one of the "boxes" for an elegant dinner.  I don't know how many times you would go around the circle for the dinner, but Dane and I figured maybe once per course.  We learned that you can rent a box for tea as well.  But considering the price we paid to just ride it, I think we will opt to not do either of those.



The special dining car

Before the fateful fall

We live over by the mountains on the right side

After the rides, we went for a walk in the park.  The kids played on a playground.  The equipment they have in the parks is fun.  I don't think that they could have most of the equipment on the playgrounds in the U.S.  It would considered too much of a liability.  Of all the activities we have done here, we have not signed a single waiver.  Even for the skiing lessons, camel rides, and trips with tour guides, there was no paperwork to do.  Speaking of liabilities though, Deagan did have a little mishap.  We told him it was time to leave the park.  Instead of listening, he decided he would climb to the top again.  He did, and was in a hurry to get down, because the rest of us were leaving.  He ended up slipping and falling, from about a 1/3 of the way down.  The ropes caught his feet about 1/2 way down and flipped him over to land on the ropes on his back, and he fell again and landed on his side on the bottom rung of ropes.  We're lucky he didn't go from the top to the bottom.  It would have been much worse than just a few bruises.  He got the wind knocked out of him, and hopefully he learned a little lesson on obedience.