Travelog for: Atta

Hi Mom!

We had a really great weather for the last few days- it was almost to warm to do something... So we went to my host-moms uncle, who has a garden with a lot of trees and a lot of shadow...

We also harvested a lot of damsons and ate tons of it!

Hi Mom!

Today arrived a new toyvoyager! It's Sandi Rose, a very cute grey bear!

She was a bit tired, so we just welcomed her and talked about our travel experiences!

Hi Mom!

Today arrived a new TV here in Graz! His name is Michel, he comes from Germany.

My host-mom had a great day today - she got lots of cards from postcrossing.
Then we helped her writing her cards for postcrossing and we found some great cards.
I've learned that there are no kangoroos in Austria!  But I guess you knew that...

Bye for today!

Hi Mom!

Puh, the last days were quite exciting! My poor host-mom's laptop kind of died...and with him lots of data... So we had no access to the internet... Hard to imagine isn't it? How did people live without it in former days???

So we said goodbye to the old computer and went shopping for a new one. And I can tell you that this was no easy decision! We TVs were of course really helpfull! 

And on one picture you can see the new computer! And we finally have access to the world again  What a relief!

While we were searching for a new computer we used my host mom's dad's computer. But of course we couldn't occupy it for the whole day, so we helped our host mom scrapbooking. You can see us with the photos and souvenirs!

Ok, here are the pictures now!
Bye for today!

Hi Mom!

Today we had to say goodbye to LittleWestiePup, who is continuing his journey!

It was nnice meeting him!

Bye!

Hi Mom!

We wanted to do some sightseeing today and started with the Opera House. But then it started to rain cats and dogs    so we decided to postpone the sightseeing and went home to watch a DVD. We watched Marley and me. Have you seen that movie? It was a bit sad at the end, but I think that Marley, the dog, was really cute! And the popcorn and nachos were great 

Hi Mom!

What a surprise!

When we opened the mailbox today, we found a card from Michel's mom! That was such a lovely surprise!
We TVs were of course really curious about the card and so we all sat in a circle while Michel showed us the card and told us about Hamburg and all the sight you can see on this card!

His stories about Hamburg were great for yet another rainy day in Graz!

Hi Mom!

Today we went to the western parts of Styria, to a city called Bärnbach. The city was famous for its coal mining in former days. That's why you see me on some coals and the wagon!
We visited the (catholic) church of St. Barbara there. The church is named after St. Barbara because she is the patroness of miners. This church is quite famous as is was redesigned by the famous Austrian painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He designed many buildings for example the Hundertwasser-House in Vienna, the KunstHaus in Vienna, a thermal spa in Bad Blumau, the oncology ward of the University Hospital in Graz, to just name a few.
The inside of the church is mostly the same as it has been before the redecoration, there were just a few alterations made to the altar.

The outside of the church is very colorful with mosaics and nothing is really geometric. Everything is a bit different, no straight lines.
Therefore my post today is also really colorful!
There is a walkway around the church and the path is uneven, made of different stones, bricks, tarmac... You pass through many archways, which all stand for a different religion with symbols of this specific religion on the archway. And then there is one without any symbols. For all people who don't believe or have a different view of life. My host mom decided it would be best to photograph me under the "naked" archway as not to offend any of her guest's parents!
You can also see that the pathway has been decoreted with an autumn theme!

We were given an extended tour through the church and its history and then it was time for some meal! No pics of that though.
We then went on to another city. I'll tell you more about that soon!

Hi Mom!

After we had visited the church, we continued our travel to Piber. We went by car and were of course all buckled up!

We went to Piber, to the Federal Stud, which is part of the Vienna Spanish Riding School.

You can see the Lippizan horses there. They are born there and stay on there until they are old and/or good enough to go to Vienna. Just the best horses get a chance to go there, the others stay at Piber and you even can buy them there (prices start at € 3.000,--).

There is so much to learn about the horses, so we took a guided tour. I can't write down everything I learned that day, but you can find tons of information her: click me.

The horses that aren't white yet are the young ones. They are really curious and come to the fences looking for some sugar cubes! But you have to be careful as they try to taste anything that is near... 
The big white horse you can see on one picture is a stallion. He has of course his own quarters! But he got really excited in his paddock, as the mares were there in the morning!  You can also do carriage rides here and you also see some of the special costumes of the riders or carriage drivers!

I also took a picture of some information about the stallion stables!

That was really a great day!

Hi Mom!

Today we made a trip to the Southern Styria, the part which is located near the Slovenian border. This part is very famous for its vineyards. They grow for example Welschriesling, Weißburgunder, Chardonnay (here called Morillon) and Sauvignon Blanc.

We first went to a "Buschenschank". Wikipedia translates it with "inn"... well, thats a kind of restaurant, where the wine farmers serve cold meals which have must contain just products that are homemade. In former days they weren't allowed to buy products and serve them and they also weren't allowed to serve hot meals. Now the rules aren't that strictly any more, but mostly you still find cold meals.

We were sitting on the balcony there, looking over the hills and the vineyards. We had a "Brettljause", kind of a Ploughman's lunch. Well, it's a wooden board (in the traditional version) or a plate (in the modern version) with different kinds of ham, bacon, cheese, pickles and so on. And a glass of white wine, of course! 

Then we went for a little walk, through the hills and vineyards, up to a small plateau. We rested on a bench there, because it was a little bit steep climbing this hill...
And then we saw this really strange thing...it looked like a windmill, but it makes a strange sound when its windy... My host mom told me that's a very common thing here and called "Klapotetz". And there's a reason for its sound: It was built in the vineyards to scare away the birds who were eating the grapes!

Later we had roasted chestnuts, which are always made here in the vineyards when the grape harvest starts in autumn. And then they drink a special drink here called "Sturm" (translated storm). That's a wine in fermentation stage and it's only available for a short time every year.

After this day I was really tired because I have eaten soooo much!

Hi Mom!

Today we had to say Goodbye to Michel! He continued his travel! I will miss him and hope that he will have a great time with his new host!

Hi Mom!

Sorry for not updating any sooner but my host mum had a tummy bug and was housebound for a lot of days....

But now she's up and good again, so we can update what Ive been up to in the meantime.

We went up to the Schlossberg one day and had absolutely great weather! First we had a cup of coffee and enjoyed the sun, before we did the actual sightseeing! The Schlossberg is a small mountain in the city center and up there is the clock tower, the town's landmark!

You can see me looking down to the city, which is divided by a river, the Mur.
On the next picture you see me looking at the Mariahilferplatz (square) and the Mariahilfer-Church. Then you see me looking at the Kunsthaus- that's this strange blue building you can see in the background. It has a very unusual form and is also called "the friendly alien". It has strange things on the surface- those tubes are calles nozzles and they all look in the same direction. All nozzles? No, there is one that looks directly at the clock tower!

That's what you see on the next picture! The clock tower! That's a pretty interesting clock because the hands are swapped- normally the big one is for the minutes, the small one for the hours, but here it's the other way around! Thats because in former days people were just interested in the hour and not the exact time. Therefore they just needed one hand that could be seen from far away! Later they added the second hand, which had to be different from the first hand!

Bye!

Hi Mom!

I had a baking lesson today! We made some blueberry muffins- mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhhh they were really tasty!

I helped measuring the ingredients and putting the dough in the muffin tins! Then I had to wait patiently for them to bake... when they came out of the oven I had to wait again- you are not supposed to eat them as long as they are so hot... But then finally!

Hi Mom!

Here are some pictures from a very nice football (soccer) evening last week! We were watching a Europe League Game on TV and were dressed with scarfs from our host mom's favorite team, SK Puntigamer Sturm Graz. They were playing Panathinaikos Athens, so I wasn't sure for which team I should cheer.... Anyway, it was fun! We had Pizza and some other fast food!

Hi Mom!

We made another sightseeing trip through the city of Graz and we were lucky because it was such a beautiful autumn day!

First we went to the Murinsel, an artificial island in the river Mur. It was built when Graz was Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003. You can see different views of the island.

From one of the bridges over the river you also have a great view up on the Schlossberg and you can see the Uhrturm! There are many ways to go up the Schlossberg, for example the staircase and also the funicular railway. When you look between the trees you see the two red cars going up and down.

We then went over one of the bridges again onto the other side of the Mur and went along the river. We came to Mariahilfer-Place with the white Mariahilfer-Church and went on to the Kunsthaus.

That's the Museum for art and photography and it looks quite funny. It was also built for the Cultural Capital of Europe 2003. Parts of the building are old, from the 19th century and the other part, including the blue bubble are new. The building is also called "the friendly alien" for its unusual form. There are lights on the bubble, kind of illuminated rings and they can display lots of different patterns in the evening (you can see a photo of that if you follow this link).

At the end of our tour we went to the Franziskanerplatz and looked at the Franziskaner-Church.

I hope you like the pictures!