I Love Austria

I have just come home from a lovely holiday in Austria. We visited Lofer, a small and cosy town with only a few shops and a small skiing area. We had agreed on not going on skiing holiday this year and save the money. DH has pain in his back and all over his old body, old sportsman. But I know him, right after New Years Eve he started surfing the internet and found a lovely luxurious hotel in Lofer at a very fair price. The hotel is right beside a small river, so when I opened the window I could hear it stream, very lovely.

The view from our room

We ate way too much food, the Austrians are so good at cooking and they are experts in cakes. I have never seen so many fabulous cakes in my life before. The diet was put on stand-by.

Apfelstrudel, my favourite cake.

I don’t ski, so I enjoyed the silence at our room, I read and wrote, and met the boys for lunch in the mountains.

I got the first lift card in my life, so I could ride with the gondola lift every day.Austria is so beautiful and cosy. Beforehand, Italy was my favourite country, but after having been disappointed several times, Austria is my absolute favourite. The inhabitants are so kind and service minded, the scenery is gorgeous – both Summer and Winter – and here is so quiet and cosy in an old-fashioned way.I have a feeling that time has been standing still for about 40-50 years, because people live a much less stressed life. “Mutti” (Austrian for mother) is a homemaker, she rents rooms or even apartments to ski-loving tourists. The houses in Austria are quite big. She serves breakfast and cleans, and sometimes she also serves dinner. The tourists are out skiing all day, and then mutti can do what she wants to.There are only a few shops in the cities, in Lofer there were only two fashion shops and it is mostly traditional Austrian clothes, that is full circle skirts with aprons over and lederhosen (short leather pants for men). But there was a shop with so many different kinds of fabric rolls and sewing accessories you can only dream of. I think they sew a lot here, like they did earlier. I found a shop with new and used electrical appliances and he had a lot of music tapes. Do you know anybody using music tapes today? No, I think not. I have a tape recorder and three Christmas music tapes I love, but I am a bit peculiar, you know. I cannot remember when I saw music tapes the last time in Denmark. And the shops close for lunch from 12 to almost 3 p.m. every day, their work day should be feasible. Everybody seems so happy and unstressed – if it wasn’t for the ugly language I would move to Austria immediately.