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 Home of Lhet and Fritz where I stayed for a fabulous 8 days June 2-9! Wish you were there, too!

They brought me to many quaint towns in the area and even crossed over to Passau in Germany. Fritz is the quintessential Ambassador of Austria!

I did all these: strawberry picking, blueberry picking, cherry picking. I even got to remove the clinging vines from their roses!

I got to admire their collections: swarovski glasses that tinkle clearly, Lhet's Austrian costumes, jewelry, bags (I had no time for the shoes), Chinese paintings (she gave me one in an easter egg which luckily survived the trip without a dent).

We even got to see the UP Manila Chorale in a concert at church and in competition.

I got to integrate with the community through them and so now I am already a member (paid the 10 euro lifetime membership fee) of PAAL or the Philippine Austrian Association in Linz.

Ling is going to grace the anniversary celebration of PAAL on July 7.

Hello from the hills of Austria! June 2, 2007

Lhet, Fritz and I went straight to the birthday party of Francis Albert in Leonding at St Johannes Church and stayed there till 8 pm. I met the PAAL community who is eagerly awaiting Ling on July 7.

If we saw a panoramic view of the hills when we went to Prague, I now saw them in close up as well as in macro view!

We had soup and sandwich for dinner. Lhet and I talked till past 1 am. I slept with my bonnet, socks, jogging pants and sweatshirt plus two blankets and woke up at 9 am Sunday.

Sunday on the hills of Austria - June 3, 2007

I woke up at 9 am Sunday and immediately toured the Herzog grounds. Fritz left a portion of the lawn unmowed so I can appreciate the wildflowers. There were 7 bambis grazing at the neighbor´s. Lhet has a wide selection of flowers and herbs in her garden which include a trellis of roses.

We had fried rice, eggs and sausage for breakfast plus strawberries that Fritz picked from the garden.

We drove drove drove through several communities and visited several beautiful churches, had a late lunch of toast and ice cream with nuts. We also went strawberry picking in a strawberry farm (as promised) and had dinner of rice and beef with the typical salad in a restaurant.

The hills are so beautiful they take my breath away!.

We also went to a flower farm yesterday, ang ganda!

Wow, the oriental plants are expensive! Ginto ang bougainvilla dito! Sino ang may gusto ng seeds to plant?

Every moment is Christmas where we are - June 4, 2007

Wish you were here!  

The hills are truly alive! There was a double rainbow when we drove home this afternoon.

We went to the Bahnhof at noontime to meet the UP Manila Chorale who are being hosted in Linz by members of the PAAL community here. We had lunch with them at the home of Inday.

We spent part of the afternoon shopping in the various Korean, Indian and Thai stores plus supermarketing at the Metro.

We just had sinigang na baboy plus pritong isda for dinner but I had ate cherries and strawberries and apricots while Lhet was cooking.

I woke up early this morning after a full night of rest. I picked some strawberries from Lhet´s garden before our breakfast of a selection of cheeses...I also picked peonies to give to the chorale as welcome.

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I prayed for you and lighted candles in the churches we have visited here so far. Today we went to the Maria Brundl Kapelle where we fetched gallons of miraculous water. Lhet does healing pala. Everyday I learn more about the couple. Fritz is a good ambassador of his native Austria.Tonite, he made us watch a TV show about the folk sounds of Austria set against beautiful scenery. Last night we attended the concert of the UP Manila Chorale who will compete here and who is being hosted by the PAAL. I wll be a member of PAAL, integrated na ako sa group nila.

Ang ganda at ang peaceful dito. You are earnestly invited by Fritz to come here and he sugggests late fall to be able to see the colors as well as the snow as you go up the mountains.

We drove to Passau, Germany the other day. Ang ganda ng church!

Gusto kong bumalik dito sa kanila..
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We had good sachertorte at Cafe Pension Brandl

ordered by Lhet so I did not wish for Hotel Sacher sachertorte anymore. Thank you.

I am having a great time here in Lhet´s mountain home gettting acquainted with the hills of Austria. Integrated na ako sa Phil Austrian community nila and will be the first member from overseas, he, he. he! Last night we attended the concert of the visiting UP Manila Chorale who will be competing in Linz on Saturday. Today we watched on TV the Sounds of Austria folk music with beautiful scenery as background.

I will be going to Vienna on Saturday and will fly to Amsterdam on Sunday.

I hope to be able to go to Italy another time.

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 Steyr is the town where two rivers merge and no two buildings are the same. I loved walking in its cobbled stone street and sidewalk

with Nikos and Mitch from the UP Manila Chorale

 Steyr St Michael Church across the bridge

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Final stop: Enns, the oldest town of Austria. The police did not allow Fritz to drive to the town center. Instead he was motioned to the side street. We parked and walked to the town center. An event was about to start. We went past the lined up crowd and stood at the back of the assembled elegantly costumed ladies and young girls. They were either dressed in gowns wearing gold hats or in colorful dirndls, both national costumes of Austria.They held small flower bouquets. Opposite them was a line formation of uniformed officers on horseback.

The trumpets sounded. Short speeches were made. The town mayor and the governor were there. A uniformed officer on horseback advanced, alighted, brandished his gleaming sword and swished open a wine bottle. We all clapped. Another wine bottle was similarly swished open by another officer with another sword. Again we all clapped.

The wine was poured in wine glasses and distributed to the costumed ladies and the uniformed gentleman and a toast was offered.

The crowd of onlookers was allowed to take photos after the toast. I was doubly thrilled when Fritz requested one regiment officer to pose in a phot with me. He turned out to be a captain who was once able to set foot in the Philippines.

We waited with the rest of the crowd for the parade of all the participants of the event. We saw all of them close-up, including some of the big horses who wanted to get out of line and mix with the crowd, uh uh.

We did not get to tour the town center because there was a huge traffic of people and cars on account of the parade, but who cares? It was a once in a blue moon thrilling experience for all of us. Fritz said he had never witnessed such an event before in his life. What a treat!