This is the first time in Austria that we have a problem finding a place where schnitzel is served. Most restaurants offer seafood, and only one offers this traditional Austrian dish. Amazing!

After that we get to the parking where we left our car and decide to go and see some wonderful mountain lakes close to Hallstadt that we heard of. But because the rain starts again, we have to go back to Bad Ischl where we have our hotel booked. It takes us not more than half an hour to go around the whole town, but we spend about 2 hours looking at the fast running river. After that we go to Sankt Gilgen that is only 9,35 miles from Bad Ischl and enjoy the view on the lake. That is how our day ends.

On the next day, we also just rest and relax and enjoy ourselves and the Austrian landscapes full of mountains and lakes. Finally the sunny weather – and we go to Sankt Wolfgang again so that to take a train to Schafberg – a mountain 5570 feet high from which there is an excellent view on all the lakes in Salzkammergut! Excited at this perspective we drive there, park our car (incredible but the parking is completely empty!) and prepare to take the train to Shafberg. However when we get to the train station, we change our minds – first of all, the price of the ticket (40 euro) seems a bit too high, taking into account that we have already seen plenty of Austrian views from the height; secondly the tourists are supposed to stay on top of that mountain for an hour, and it is a bit too cold there (41F).

So we go back to our car and decide to explore Sankt Wolfgang again. It looks so much better on a sunny day! The mountains are seen clearly (before they were covered in fog), the lakes are tremendously beautiful with their clear sparking water… So we are happy. It seems that Sankt Wolfgang is a place to relax and enjoy the views, however this trip of ours turns out to be completely different.

The matter is that on our way to Sankt Wolfgang we see the plan of Wolfgangsee lake, and there is some mountain lake called Schwarzsee (‘black lake’) nearby, so surely we decide to go there. This turns out to be a private lake so we pay for entering this territory, but… it is certainly worth it! In this paradise, we decide that these views are the best of whatever we have already seen in Austria! Idyllic pictures of the lake, mountains and glimpses of nature – the ones of the kind that one would normally see in advertising booklets or magazines.

After this fairy-tale place we decide to see Traunkirche – the church that has been standing on the edge of a mountain for 200 years. There is a nice village there so we walk a bit and enjoy the views. After coming back to Bad Ischl, we have cakes in a small restaurant, watch the Bad Ischl river for about an hour, and go back to our hotel to get prepared to tomorrow’s trip to Vienna!

Related posts:

1. Around Austria By Car - Part 5: Many Beautiful Lakes and One Huge Disappointment...

A photography group I belong to gave us an interesting challenge: take interesting photos of things within one minute walking distance of your home. Their suggestions included smoke curling upward, a photo of your spouse, or a back lit spider web. I didn't find any spider webs, and dust bunnies didn't seem nearly as photogenic. So I went looking for other possibilities.

It was really fun looking at everything around me in a different way - with an eye toward what would make an appealing photograph.

A single branch against the sky took on its own artistic qualities, and seemed to tell me something, instead of standing there blandly as I walked right past, like every other day.

Branch against the sky

Orange on a blue plate

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1. Your world is as big as you make it
2. One must have the adventurous daring

Women know the weight of every item of clothing they own, so we don't have to get on the scale naked. We just deduct. For instance, I know that my sweats weigh in at exactly 21 pounds."
~ Christina Irene

Now how much is that really?

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If there's one thing I love about holidays (almost any holidays, but especially those in November and December), it's the food! Unfortunately, there is a downside to all this culinary extravagance, and I don't mean just the stack of dishes. The food and the hectic schedule (Workout? I have shopping to do, presents to wrap, more food to prepare!) combine to lead one astray from previous healthy regimens.
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I have a feeling this is how New Year's Resolutions came about...
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Back in the days of King Arthur, all the knights of the round table overdid it for the holidays, feasting, making merry, and generally carrying on. (You know how knights can be!) After a few weeks of that, they had trouble getting back into their suits of armor, and the horses couldn't run as fast with the extra weight aboard. The King, seeing his forces thus disabled, issued a proclamation, that starting January 1, each of his subjects must take an oath: "My liege, I do solemnly swear that in this new year, I shall eat less, exercise more, and lose weight."
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I'm busy making my New Year's resolutions right now. That gives me a few more days to delay the actual implementation!
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3. New Year's travel resolutions and resolution aids

The video isn't the greatest quality - it's from the 1920s. But what you can see is amazing. She has no safety line, no parachute, nothing but guts!
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Gladys Ingle was a member of a barnstorming troupe called the 13 Black Cats in the 1920s. Ingles was a wing walker; in this film, she shows her fearlessness in a classic barnstorming fashion to save an airplane that has lost one of its main wheels. Ingle is shown with a replacement wheel being strapped to her back and then off she goes as "Up She Goes," a duet from the era, provides the soundtrack. In the video, Ingles transfers herself from the rescue plane to the one missing the main landing gear tire. She then expertly works herself down to the undercarriage only a few feet from a spinning prop. It's certainly a feat many mechanics wouldn't even try on the ground with the engine running."

Barnstorming was popular in the early 1920s. A pilot would fly over a small town to get attention, and then land at a local farm, where they'd use one of the fields as a runway. People could take airplane rides, and there would be an air show, where pilots would do acrobatic loops and rolls, and wing walkers would perform daring feats.

Some wing walkers did indeed die during these shows, and viewers always knew that was a possibility. In the late 1920s, the government began implementing stricter safety standards, and the barnstorming age came to an end.

Barnstorming biplanes, with somebody climbing out? ~ 1918

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I'd say Gladys Ingles was an Adventurous Wench of the highest order! She's now on my list, along with Amelia Earhart and other daring, adventurous women. Thanks to Dave for sending this one to me!
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1. One must have the adventurous daring

I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to

travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down."
~ Mitch Hedberg

Map of the world

One of the difficult things about running a travel company is deciding where in the world to go next. (Yes, I admit as problems go, this isn't a bad one to have!)

I've got my own list of places to go and things to do, and get many suggestions from customers, friends, and industry acquaintances. In the past week I've heard about riding elephants in Thailand, camels in Egypt, and dogsleds in Greenland (which is supposedly spectacular, if you can get past the smell of boiling seal).

With such a world of possibilities, and limited time and resources to develop the trips, how to decide? Well, this quote gives me a new approach I hadn't thought of before... And it sounds a lot faster & easier than the typical evaluation we normally go through!

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I just got back from our San Juan Islands tours, where we had a wonderful time. More on that coming up soon!

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1. Your world is as big as you make it
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3. One must have the adventurous daring

Being the "eternal city", Rome has so many sites and sights that date back varying numbers of centuries. That's one of the most fascinating things about the city!

You find layers upon layers of history. Something from today, on top of something built 500 years ago, on top of something from 2,000 years ago. There's nowhere quite like it.

Of course, chances are that the 500-year old building took all their marble from the 2,000-year old building. The Romans have been recycling since ancient times!

So you'll be bound to recognize some of these scenes if you visit the city today -- they don't look much different than a hundred years ago. A century is just a drop in the bucket of Roman history.

Starting at the top:
- Roman forum
- Fountain in Piazza Navona
- St. Peters piazza...

Hey, wait a minute! What's going on? That looks just like me, standing in front of the fountain in front of St. Peters cathedral! Talk about deja vu all over again. No wonder I feel this affinity for Rome, since I must have been there in a past life.

--> Click on the photos to discover their secret...

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Seriously, all these photos were taken on my trip to Rome just a few weeks ago. The transition to 100-year old archival versions is courtesy of a free Japanese "time machine" site. Just upload your photo, push a button, and voila! (Uh oh - now I'm mixing languages as well as times!) Oh well, try it out -- simple and fun!
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1. Women wore flashy shoes 27,500 years ago?
2. Rome Italy - Chariot racing at Circus Maximus
3. Rome, Italy: Shady side of the Spanish Steps

Good girls go to heaven; bad girls go everywhere."
~ Helen Gurley Brown

Hmmm... Tough decision...

Did I have to be so good ALL the time?

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1. I travel for travel's sake
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The core technology that powers gDay is MATE (Machine Automated Temporal Extrapolation). Using MATE’s(tm) machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques developed in Google’s Sydney offices, we can construct elements of the future. ... we can create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like 24 hours from now."

Wow, what will they come up with next?

Thanks for the tip-off from Andy Beal on Twitter.

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Posted April 1

• "I'm a very committed wife. And I should be committed, too -- for being married so many times." ~ Elizabeth Taylor
• "Keep in mind that no matter how cute and sexy a guy is, there's always some woman somewhere who's sick of him." ~ Carol Henry
• "The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing -- and then marry him." ~ Cher
• "By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." ~ Socrates

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

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