A few days in Austria

Last week (Sunday to Friday morning) we were in Austria & Bavaria - another of our flying visits to get a feel for the world around us. It left us wondering if we'd been visiting another planet.

I was a little under the weather still from the bug I picked up in Cappadocia, so I didn't get around as much as Ron. We did our usual thing: find a couple of tours to get a look at the area, and wander on our own some of the time.

Monday morning we had a tour of Salzburg city that included a 24-hour city pass that gave us free admission to the tourist places and use of any city bus. Ron used it in the afternoon while I stayed in the hotel room wrestling with the wireless system and sleeping.

Our hotel, by the way, was one of the nicest we've encountered in our recent travels. It was the Best Western Zum Hirschen, just near the railway station. I particularly enjoyed the softest down pillows and the comfiest down duvets I've ever experienced.

View from the castle

Monday night we had dinner and a concert at the Archbishop's castle fortress overlooking the city of Salzburg. This is the view from the restaurant window as sunset approached.

Tuesday we raced into Vienna on the train to see Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Volksoper. We were back in Salzburg again by Wednesday afternoon after walking around Stefansplatz and taking a short bus tour of the downtown area. We liked Vienna, but I noticed the large number of unemployed young people hanging around in the Metro system with their pit bulls and other unfriendly beasts. I also noticed that the stores I visited had very few staff members. I wondered if both situations were the result of a very high minimum wage, which makes it impractical for businesses to hire many staff members. And yet how do you ensure that everyone gets fairly paid? Turkey has a high level of official unemployment, but you don't see a lot of people hanging around feeling sorry for themselves. I think most people keep busy, whether they're officially employed or not, maybe helping Uncle Mustafa at his little shop down the street in return for non-monetary considerations. Strong family and friendship ties here make up in part for the lack of a social safety net.

Back in Salzburg on Thursday we walked around a bit and took a bus tour of the German Alps. Very pretty countryside indeed. And to finish up we went to a dinner concert in a restaurant attached to a monastery (supposed to be the oldest restaurant in Europe, dating from the 9th century or so). We were seated at tables of 8, arranged so that English-speakers sat together, and so did French-speakers, and so on. Our table had a couple from Ireland, one from England, a couple of Americans and us. I was wearing the dress I'd worn to the opera on Tuesday, complete with the string scarf I bought in Cappadocia. We were talking about having gone to the opera, and the English couple said they'd been there, too. And she asked, "Were you sitting in the 4th row of the balcony, with a pillar between you?" We admitted that we had been, and she said, "We were at the end of that row. I thought I recognized that scarf." Once again my 1 YTL scarf got noticed. I really must pick up a bunch more when we're in Cappadocia again next month.

That's the end of our foreign travels for now. For the next couple of weeks we're going to stay close to Izmir, maybe renting a car now and then and going for trips around the area. The weather is almost perfect just now, everything is in bloom, the temperature is ideal for getting out and about, so we need to catch up with things around here. At the end of April we'll be going to Ankara for the confirmation of one of the men from our church - our godson. This will be my first chance to meet the bishop of the Anglican Diocese in Europe, who works out of London. After that we plan to see some of the eastern part of the country, trusting that the troubles between the Kurdish people and the government won't get worse. And finally, when our Turkish daughter Begüm comes back from school in Canada, we'll take her for a tour of Cappadocia and the southwestern part of Turkey. And then it's back to Canada. I wonder what that will be like?