Haunoldstein, Austria

Before getting on our night train from Berlin to Vienna, we got a pleasant surprise from Bogdan, our Polish friend we were just visiting in Wroclaw. He was in Berlin for work that day and would take the train with us, which passed throgh Wroclaw at about 10:22 pm. We met on the platform. We paid for a 3 person couchette and there was another gentleman in our compartment, but we visited Bogdan in a first class seating area he was sharing with a young Amercian woman from LA. Of course he brought his homemade limoncello, so we all had a good time before we headed back to our compartment. But not before we exchanged gifts of a bottle of limoncello for some German chocolates we bought for Beata and Bogdan.

There's not a lot of room in a couchette, but we each get a bed for a $55 supplement per person. We rang the porter, who set up the beds for us. It wasn't the most restful sleep, with all of the starting and stopping on the way to Vienna through Poland and Czechia. The train even stopped near the Czech border for an hour and a half for us to sleep and so that we could arrive at 7 in Vienna.

We had planned to take about 3 of these on our trip, but they sell out early. After this one, we were glad we didn't because we're not 18 anymore and because first class day travel is just so much more comfortable. We weren't in the best shape possible for visiting our friends Angela and Charlie. Deanne was an exchange student with Angela's family in the nearby village of Wachberg. It had a grand total of 4 houses. Deanne lived in Wachtberg 4 for about 3 months in 1977. Eight years ago, we visited them and since we're in the neighborhood, we thought we'd stop in again. Deanne was looking forward to seeing her "mutti" or mother, as this might be the last time we see her.

Angela picked us up at the train station in St. Poelten, the largest city nearby. It's a lovely looking city and I'm always amazed at how big European cities look to me. I looked it up. It's only got about 54,000 people, but looks much larger. That's probably because Europeans are always walking around and going to and from bus, tram, and train stations. I think cars and roads hide a city's true population and let people live farther from a city and keep them from interacting.

It was just a short drive to their village of Haunoldstein from the train station. They fed us well, and often. We walked around and visited a friend who had just moved into a house they built. What a treat to see some new and smart architecture. Out here in a village, people have more living room. We're used to cramped city apartments and hotel rooms, so it's nice to see not everyone lives like that.

Afterwards, we visited Mutti and her daghter in law Petra, and her grandchildren in Wachtberg. They live on a working farm and we got the grand tour of the operation. They have a small dairy farm, raise pigs for slaughter, make christmas tree stands in their "spare" time and have a few other operations going on. The kids all worked on the farm doing the chores and acted as tour guides. Mutti has memory issues but remembers Deanne and they shed a tear or two at the reunion.

Later, we visited Angela and Charlie's son Jakob and his family at their refurbished house. It was a work in progress when we met him years ago. The 120 year old former bakery turned home was beautiful and his kids were intrigued at the American visitors. We called it an early night because we had been struggling to stay awake all day. What great hosts Angela and Charlie are. We were honored guests. We will keep trying to get them to come to Madison to show them around there and Chicago. Someday soon, I hope.

In the morning, we hopped on a train heading to Innsbruck from where we'll catch another one going south to Verona, Italy, home of Shakespeare's fair maiden, Juliet. We were going to take another overnighter to Rome, but they were sold out. Instead, we are spending 2 nights in Verona in order to break up the trip.

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