The Hills Are Alive!

For this blog I want to talk about Austria. From the Alsace we traveled east back into Germany, across the southern bit through Bavaria, eventually crossing into Austria. What is unique about Bavaria and Austria is that the churches have onion domes. You don't see that anywhere else in Germany. The Protestant churches will still have steeples but the Catholic Churches will have onion domes. As Austria is majority Catholic, you see onion dome churches in almost every town. You also see roadside chapels, shrines and crucifixes every few miles. Most are decorated with flowers. We followed the Danube for several hours. All along the way there were small castles and abbeys perched on the sides of the valley. The Danube is how the Donau-Swaben traveled to get to the eastern lands. My ancestors were among that group who settled in the western part of present-day Ukraine. They undoubtedly used the Danube to travel. 

               Passau, Germany

         Going along the Danube

       Onion dome church in Austria 

    An Austrian abbey along the Danube

We spent the night near a little village called Hainfeld in a little country gasthaus, Gasthaus Renzenhof. It had a lot of character! It has been in existence since 1531. It was granted land and existence by the local monastery. There was a framed paper in the gasthaus which outlined its existence from 1531 to the present along with all the owners. Going with the Catholic theme, the gasthaus had religious artifacts (crucifixes, statues, icons etc) all over. When we walked in the restaurant we were greeted with "Gruss Gott" which means "God is great". This is the greeting in this area. It is the equivalent to "hello".  The entire place was run by this feisty woman named Rita. When we sat down she asked us what we would like to drink. Since this area is near a brewery, there is one beer, Hainfelder. So all we had to say was "Ein bier, bitte", no need to specify what kind! There were also no menus. That is how local this place was. Rita gave us a choice of three dishes: schnitzel with salad, baked chicken or goulash. We ordered the schnitzel. Now, here is the other thing....the language. We are in the southern part of Austria and in the country. Just like anywhere else, each region has it's own dialect. With that said, we had no idea what Rita and the locals were saying. Sure, they were speaking German clearly, but they weren't speaking Hoch Deutsch (high German). It would be like someone from Maine going to New Orleans and try to understand what they are saying. I understood two words of all that Rita said, drink and eat. She said a bunch of other stuff too but I have no idea what it was. My German may be rusty, but in Germany I could at least understand most of what was being said, here, nope! All that aside, the schnitzel was excellent. After we ordered we could hear Rita pounding on the fillets in the kitchen, and boy were they tender! She served the schnitzel with potatoes, salad and lemon slices. The lemon was to squeeze on top of the schnitzel, perfection!  The next morning we turned on the TV and it was funny because on Austrian TV, they always show the ski conditions because...it's Austria! Ironically, it was pointed out that Glencoe, Scotland had 1.4 meters of snow. That is about 4 feet of snow. In Scotland. I should have brought my skis! After another excellent Germanic breakfast, we headed towards Hungary and I saw wildlife! Six huge hares, a stork, a pheasant, and a hawk that was carrying what I thought was a fish until he dropped it on the road and I saw it was a pigeon. I presume he dropped it on the road to have it tenderized as there was a large truck approaching. Anyway, enough of that! 

Cheers!

Elizabeth

The timeline of our gasthaus from 1531 until now.

         The Gasthaus Renzenhof