Sunday, October 8th, 2000 Hallstett, Austria
Awake at 6 am. Breakfast at 8:30 am. Young son was only one up when we went down. He called his mother on the phone and then made us coffee and tea; brought out the milk and juice. Everything else, including the bread, had apparently been put out the night before. We were so happy to get the coffee and tea that we didn’t ask about the lunchmeat and cheese that we usually use for sandwiches. The usual buns were 3 slices of rye bread! The only other guest in the hotel was a German man who spoke no English. He came down about fifteen minutes after us. So, we will go out for lunch today!
Church was at 10 am. Beautiful old Catholic Church that's located at the top of the hill. It’s over 100 steps up, but Jim had found a way to get there without going all the way to the bottom so our climb up was less. After church we went to the graveyard. People were putting out candles on the graves and tending the flowers. We went to the Carnal House to see the bones. Up until 1960, when the Catholic Church approved cremation; the bodies were buried for twelve years and then dug up to make room for new bodies. The skulls were lovingly painted with their name, dates, and ivy for the men and roses for the women. Then the other bones are stacked below the tables very neatly.
Then we went down into the village to a gift shop where Jim had found Idylviess Earrings to match the necklace he’d purchased in 1977 on his first trip to Austria. A gift for Martha! Back to the warm room, it’s cold outside! Wrote our postcards for Austria, we had ten postage stamps to use. Now Jim is on a walk about town to look for potential places to visit this afternoon to enjoy lunch! Still clear outside. You can see the snow on the mountains across the lake from our room. I'm propped up in bed having fun with the computer!
About 2 pm we walked over to the restaurant with the horse on the sign. We’d seen it the other night and the Canadians had recommended it to us. Had a wonderful lunch of vegetarian pizza, salads and wine. Beautiful transformation of a horse stables into a restaurant still retaining the stable favor! Walked back to the post office and then to the hotel. It was our late lunch early dinner! [Jim left his favorite wax hat on the shelf behind the booth and when we checked back on Monday morning before leaving... the restaurant was closed...so we left a memento in Hallstett!]
Jim is taking lots of walks today from one end of the town to the other. He’s also trying to make a trip to the car to get things for dinner in the room without encountering the attendant who will try to collect a fee! Remember that’s 130 steps up and down each time. Finally on the trip about 5:30 she was gone. He picked up the bottle of wine and breads that we have in the car along with Trix Candy Bars for dessert!
Came back to the room. Martha read the first twenty days of the Journal to Jim during our dinner/dessert! It took two hours to do this. But he did get to add a few tidbits! It’s 8 pm now and we’re going to read until bedtime. We leave early tomorrow for Italy. Still clouds but during the late afternoon you could actually see the snow covered mountain peaks! Really a very nice relaxing day! Beautiful but cold…Jim says that it is about thirty-five degrees outside!
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