Austria Sept 17

We met with my aunt and drove to the hospital in Klagenfurt to visit my uncle. He was in great spirit, because he had been cleared to come home in the afternoon.

Renate and Edi have two sons; Albert and Mario. Albert and family live in Vienna, and that's who we stayed with. The other son lives in Klagenfurt, about half an hour from Renate. Mario, and his wife Evelyn have two daughters; Claudia, the artist whom we met in Vienna, and Stephanie, who lives in Graz. Stephanie visited us in Canada 20 years ago, when she was 16. She had quite a visit, because, the day after she arrived, Heather and Mark were married, and so she attended a beautiful wedding. Two weeks later we went to Montreal for another wedding, Sonja's son. Another fun event.

Stephanie is now married, to Daniel, and has a four and a half year old son, Christofer. 

After the hospital visit we drove to Graz, about two hours. We met Daniel, and we followed him to Christofer's pre school. I have never seen such a set-up. It is, literally, in the woods. The drive up, and I mean up, was about three km, along a very windy single lane track. Luckily we didn't meet another car. Daniel told us it was quite a challenge to drive there in the winter.

The "school" is in the middle of the forest. No electricity, no running water, no desks, no blackboards. As a matter of fact there are no enclosed buildings, just one large tepee. The only enclosed structure is the outhouse. There are no toys, but a lot of swings. The children spend their time hiking in the woods, tending their vegetable garden, and singing.

The school is open all year, except in January, because of the cold. Today was a beautiful day, but I think it would be quite different on a cold rainy, or snowy day.

There are 16 students and three instructors, all young and fit. I don't think you would last too long if you weren't.

We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant in Graz, and ended the day by visiting Stephanie's yoga studio, where she is the owner-operator-head teacher. A lovely, large studio, in central Graz.

Renate, Sonja, Sandy and I then hopped in our car and drove two hours back to where Renate lives. Mario had picked up his father, and he was home by the time we got back.

The three of us didn't stay, I was ready to crash; it was a long day.

I mentioned that our apartment is lovely, which it is, but the internet is poor. We are on the second floor, and the router is in another apartment. The signal doesn't always reach us, and we have to wander around the apartment and other parts of the building trying to catch the right spot. Yesterday morning I found The Spot, in the hall in front of an apartment on the first floor. 

How spoiled we are. I remember travelling in China and Europe in 2000 and 2001, and there wasn't such a thing as WiFi.

Photo 1 on the way to school

Photo 2 the tepee and the classroom

Photo 3 the classroom

Photo 4 Stephanie's yoga studio

Photo 5 Stephanie advertising her studio