Saturday morning, Bill and I got up and had a typical breakfast of fresh bread, fruit, boiled eggs, and cold cuts, then took a short walk through the countryside. It was interesting to do that without the dogs with us. Austria has lots of nature trails and we enjoyed walking through the woods without having to worry about our dogs going nuts. I liked that there were helpful signs about the nature we might see during our walk. My German is getting decent enough that I could understand some of it.
Breakfast…
They had a nice spread at the Moorhof. I liked that the waitresses, almost everywhere we went, wore dirndls.
On the wall of the hotel… Dorfibm is actually the village where the Moorhof is.
It’s election time.
Cute little sign asking people to keep their dogs on a leash. I translated the sign faster than Bill did, because I understood “deathly afraid”. My dad used to wonder why I was “deathly afraid” (his words) of mushrooms when I was a child. Blame my sadistic sisters.
The beginning of the trail. Curiously, someone apparently lost their shorts.
Old Maypole.
We had massages scheduled for 11:00 and 11:30, so we made plans to stay close to the hotel. Bill had some homework to do for his class. One complaint we had about the Moorhof is that they use a “code” system for their Internet. They give you a temporary code good for 24 hours and just one device. It made things tough for us, because I am an Internet junkie and Bill had work to do. But when he asked for an extra code, the hotel proprietor was fine with supplying one. That was nice.
At 11:00, I went down to the “wellness area” in the hotel, which includes a pool with jets at one end, a solarium, sauna, steam room, and of course, the beer bath. The massage therapist was finishing up with the younger lady we’d seen at dinner the first night. When I went in for my massage, I was a little nervous, partly because Aunt Flow was in full swing and I was feeling a little icky. Also, while I really do enjoy massages, I get nervous when people I don’t know touch me. But since it was part of the package, I took off my shirt and laid down on the table. The therapist was very good at her job. She mentioned that she was just helping out over the weekend and works in Salzburg as she made my neck crack a few times.
Bill said that when she gave him his massage, she immediately found the area where he has arthritis in his shoulder. She said it was very hard, though she worked to loosen it a bit. I wish I had brought some euros to tip the therapist because I think she was expecting a tip. Unfortunately, I never know what the etiquette is for this kind of thing in Europe. In the US, it’s a given that you always tip service providers, but it’s not always like that here. One time in Poland, I got a massage and seemed to insult the therapist by trying to give her too much. But anyway, we got through the massages and were pretty relaxed… but then we got in the car and went in search of a store so I could pick up some essential Aunt Flow supplies and we could find lunch.
We finally found a Spar (Austrian grocery store) and I bought chocolate, wine, Godiva liqueur, and feminine hygiene supplies. I almost beaned Bill while standing in line because he was being annoying and, let’s face it, I was crabby. I would get crabbier as the day wore on and we started looking for lunch. Although there are a few places in the area around the Moorhof, it really is pretty rural and sometimes parking is a challenge. Also, I can be pretty indecisive about some things.
We drove around and Bill annoyed some Austrian drivers, who all seemed to have somewhere important to go and needed to pass us post haste. The GPS kept sending us to places that were either closed or located on very narrow country roads. At one point, we drove up a steep hill and literally almost crashed into a wedding, complete with a full brass band. But then we passed the church and stopped at an abandoned gasthaus, which overlooked some truly beautiful countryside…
Wouldn’t I love to own land like this someday?
I knew we needed to find lunch soon, because on one very narrow country lane, Bill dodged one speedy Austrian driver, then was confronted by a large tractor pulling a trailer. He exclaimed “Oh shit!” just as the tractor made a last minute left turn.
I suggested we head back to the hotel. On the way back, we ended up in a little town called Handenberg. As we drove down the main drag, we noticed a little hotel and a couple of guys sitting in the biergarten. There was plenty of parking, too. We pulled in and sat outside, enjoying the marvelous weather and a couple of beers.
Yet another dirndl clad lady at the Gasthaus Scharinger brought us this… I had tagliatelle with shrimps, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes. Bill had pork again. He likes swine. This was a delicious lunch!
While we were sitting outside, several guys showed up wearing uniforms. I had spotted one in the hotel lobby as I was on my way to the ladies room. He had a tuba. I correctly surmised that they were part of a band. After they had lunch, they practiced and warmed up. Several older men in different uniforms showed up; they looked like maybe they were military guys. And then, after we had some apple strudel, Bill paid the check. I’d swear we ran into the same wedding party whose wedding we almost crashed. But I’m not certain about that. I would have liked to have stayed and listened to the music. I could see that the staff was setting up for an event and the folks who were gathered outside the hotel were all dressed up.
Austrian apple strudel. It tasted kind of eggy
We had to get going, though, because at 5:00, we had a date with the beer spa!