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Saturday morning in New England…and I am so glad tobe home. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so on top of the world…things are just going right. I have got to make a note of this so that the next time I am in a funk I can […]
On the plane I was given a choice of dozens of movies on my seatback screen, and I stumbled onto one in progress that I just loved. It was called “Kinky Boots,” and told the story of a beleaguered shoe factory in Northampton, England facing job cuts due to sagging sales […]
It was hard to sleep because I kept thinking about my six am wake-up call, to begin a very long day of travel all the way back home. I’ve made it and now spend my last minutes at my hotel, the Hotel Weitzer, in Graz, where I’ve slept for six […]
I sat by the train’s big picture windows and watched Austria pass by. In one field, a little pony kicked up its hind legs at a bigger horse when he tried to bite him. Next to the fields were huge bales of hay, all wrapped up in pale white or aqua blue plastic. Neat […]
The rain let up today and I finally got out on the mountain bike, for my last day in Kitzbuhel. Kurt arrived at 8:30 with two bikes and we set out from the hotel to Schwarzsee, the small lake nearby. As we rode along the lakeside, ducks too flight, skidding with […]
The train ride from Kitzbuhel to Graz takes about four and a half hours, so I had plenty fo time to relax. I really looked forward to this time, to write some of my stories, stretch out, and enjoy a nice lunch. I first entered the train too far down, […]
One of the nicest words I’ve ever heard was shared with me by Kim Foley Mackinnon, with whom I traveled on my first part of this trip to Graz. I told her about how a woman at the cafe who comes in in the afternoons once told me that she felt […]
Tonight I followed the advice of a local, and dined in supreme style at Lois*Stern, a 12-year-old restaurant just outside of the center of Kitzbuhel. It was recommended by Kurt Exenberger when I asked him for his favorite place in town. It’s a cozy little place, serving Asian inspired fish and […]
Today my plan was to join Kurt Exenberger of the Bike Academy for a mountain bike ride. But rain poured down, so we put this off until tomorrow. That was ok, it gave me a chance to get to the Hahnenkamm, the steep mountain that gave Kitzbuhel its famous name in […]
This man’s grimace comes from the strong drink he’s been passed, Baumann’s Wurtzelgeist, with Alpine herbs. It does down like fire, but the aftertaste is pleasantly herbal. We had just come down from our long hike on the mountain and this is how the hikers like to celebrate another good […]
On the train to Kitzbuhel, I parked myself on the wide leather seats of the first class car, thanks for Rail Europe, who hooked me up with a Eurail pass days before I left. As I settled in and turned on the iPod, the conductor approached with a stack of […]
At breakfast at the Hotel Kitzhof, I read the Independent newspaper, and found a story by Tony Paterson about a Baron. It seems that Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg, a German aristocrat, was hoodwinked into believing he had shot a trophy stag, which turned out to be a tame deer that loved […]