…or so they say.

It was certainly nice to see some snow, at least, visiting Austria last week. And a few mountains, too. One forgets the beautiful backdrop of the Alps, when living on flats.

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And it was also nice to see my family again. Foremost my sister and her lot, and, of course, my parents. But also a loose gang of uncles, aunts and cousins, who all insist on meeting, whenever I am around. So, the usual tour of meet and greet, along with the obligatory trizillion calories hidden in all my favourite food stuffs, took place.

Made me feel extra bad, visiting my friend circumstance at her cure place at Bad Gastein. Learning about all the health and fitness regime, her alpine regeneration programm puts her through. Has done her a lot of good.

Seeing her always is the nicest part of any trip to Austria. Due to her cure, this time, it was limited to two visits. One on my way down from Salzburg to my hometown in Styria, and the second one before leaving. This time, we met in a small town along the track to Salzburg, circumstance taking the train down from her mountain hide away to Bischofshofen, famous for two things only: first for its function as train interchange.

But also as one stop of the alpine ski jumpers highlight every New Year: the four hill tournament “Vierschanzentournee”. Amazing, to stand at the bottom of the very hill, one watches those be-skied maniacs fly off on TV. One must be absolutely out of ones mind to speed down this run to the very likely outcome of crushing ones body against the backbone of this very steep hill. I am absolutely amazed, so few fatal accidents occur. Or maybe they just shuttle the corpses quietly and unseen off of the mountain every winter, without much ado. Which would explain the size of the lovely cemetary just a stone’s throw away from the jump. Circumstance and I walked around town, visiting all the sights.

I also loved the waterfall. Especially for the noise it makes. What I miss most about home (apart from people), is the sound of flowing, gurgling, tumbling water rushing by. Something, one never gets in Berlin, where river Spree just toggles back and forth a little, depending on the direction , the wind blows from (just kidding, I am sure, it flows somewhere, but the movement is barely detectable).

I stole two of her pictures (hope, you don’t mind) to be seen amongst other sights of Bischofshofen at her post “Loose ends”.  The one with the waterfall features my backside, as I try to drink a little water from the stream.  The other one is the cemetary with the ski jump right behind it.

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