The Internet Black Hole Called Austria

Okay, so I owe you about three weeks worth of blogs - it turned out that Austria is so not happening when it comes to Internet access. All during our time in the countryside we didn't have access with the exception of one 30 minute period where the neighbor must have turned his router. I was exstatic announcing "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have Internet access" to Jasi and Uli but no sooner had I said that and blissfully started surfing it was gone again. Looks like the guy turned it on long enough to do his biweekly email check and then turned the router off again right away to conserve energy (we are talking Europeans here). Graz was hopeless altogether - no internet access at all, nada, nothing, not even an unsecured connection out there in our little hotel. A smokey Internet cafe down the street was all there was to be had. In Vienna we actually did have Internet access at our friends' place but we were there for such a short time that I just didn't have the the leisure of sitting down and write.
No we are back - I can't believe it - but more about that later. First a quick summary of the Austrian experience.
Austria was the most travel-intensive of our locations mainly because Uli wanted to cram a lot into the four week period and secondly because it really isn't such a great idea to stay in Fohnsdorf, his home village, for too long. I really get along with the in-laws fine but a week is enough, after that I can't guarantee for anything. So we did what we always do in Fohnsdorf, took little hikes, went to the local shopping mall, visited a few old churches, ate too much stuff that by no stretch of imagination can be called healthy, hang out with Uli's brothers and parents and ate cake at Tante Gerti's - and this time around we had the added "fun" of watching soccer.
Then, for one week, we stayed in a wooden cabin in a remote valley (well, as remote as things get in tiny Austria) called Johnsbachtal. Imaging "Sound of Music" if you are an American and imagine picturebook Alps if you have never heard of "Sound of Music" and there you have it: high, impressive, ragged mountains, green lush valley with little river, morning mist and evening Alpen glow. Old farm houses, a small church, six to eight restaurants, a small store with the wackiest opening hours and in the middle of all of that idyll our little cabin.
I have to say it is really cool to wake up, walk outside the cabin and look at a bunch of imposing mountains in all sorts of conditions - from sunshiny blue sky to grey, dark, cloudy dangerous skies but after a week I was ready to reenter society. We used the week well, though, I did three hikes none of which I thought I could do as easily as I did. I wasn't even particulalry sore after the couple of 2400 feet plus climbs and the really long hike I took with Jasi where we didn't climb all that much but covered a lot of ground. But Max had the best time of all of us thanks to the farmer and his 24/7 open door policy on the tool shop. You have no idea how many dangerous and therefore exciting things there are in a farmers tool-shop and how many others can be declared dangerous, explosive or otherwise impressive by an imaginative 4 year old. The other bonus was a tiny little cabin, not more than 15 square feet in front of the cabin. It had a chair, little table, cup and plate and a few other things and was declared promptly to be the exclusive property of Max. We grown-ups had to come visit and were served tea (imaginary), salad (grass), cake (stones or so), and the famos but entirely made up "trauberries" - a delicacy of Johnsbachtal. We three grown-ups took turns and each had countless teas every day while Max was talking away like only 4 year olds can - without a break, free flow of consciousness and no regard to the boredom of everybody else around.
As much fun as it was after a week of idyllic remoteness I was ready to face society again.
I was ready for houses, streets, cars and the occasional restaurant that serves something other than Styrian specialties (pork, pork and a bit of beef for a change served with small slivers of tomatos and yummy but serious baked desert, e.g. pancakes with jam and powdered sugar)
The third week in Austria we spent in Graz. Graz is the second largest town in Austria with a whopping 250,000 people but it is interesting beyond its size. It was the Culture Capital of Europe for 2003 and it shows: the architecture is an interesting mixture of old and super-modern. I totally love it: those palaces and historic buildings right next to something glass-metal modern I find creatively stimulating. One of the places I saw and really am intrigued with is an artificial island in he middle of the river (the “Mur”), its made of steel and glass in the shape of a mussel. It houses a cafe plus play area for the kids and is light in neon blue at night - cool! Then there is the modern art museum: I looks like a UFO, others say it looks like a model of a stomach and I guess it is a bit of both - totally organic shaped with little nubs sticking out, green glass with light circles flashing at night. I can understnd if one doesn't like it but one has to admire the guts and the vision with which that building was put next to the Mariahilfer Church, the historic houses and ubiquitos restaurants. I happend to like these things - every age has its style and we are looking at cities now and see buildings from many different centuries, why not add a 21st century flavor to it as well? Anyway, as always we walked around a lot, climbed the steep stairs up to the watch tower (pretty much the only thing left from the formerly proud castle which was destroyed by Napoleon - because he could), went to playgrounds, walked some more, met some friends and relatives of Uli's etc. At the pace we are used to go by now a week was over in a blink of an eye and before I knew it Jasi was gone back to Germany and we packed our suitcases and made our way to the train station and on the train to Vienna.
I have only once been to Vienna for any length of time and that was - more years ago than I care to admit and in the dead middle of a hard winter. So my memories were of theathers. museums, frozen feet, coffee houses and not much else. In fact, I didnn't like it at all then and was never very eager to come back. Coming in the middle of summer, though, was entirely different. Everybody is outside, parks and cafes are full of people, the ubiquitous tourists are everywhere, street artists are out in force by the "Steffl", Vienna's main cathedral. We had very little time but managed to squeeze a lot in: a walk through the city, a bbq with friends, a nice dinner, an afternoon at the Danupe (Max and Uli, me: another walk through the city), a tour of the wine bars - and all of that in like two days.
And then the day which I though wouldn't, just couldn't, come arrived and we were on our way to the airport with six carefully packed and weighed (not to exceed 50 pounds) pieces of luggage. Six months had just flown by and up until the time we landed in SFO in the dead of the night almost 24 hours later (including the usual delay in O'Hare) I didn't believe that our "great trip" - as we had started to call it - was over.