“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.” Oscar Wilde Friday (Part II) It is time for lunch. Weingut Josef Jamek has three things going for it. Firstly, it has a reputation for excellent, albeit expensive, wines. Secondly, it provides an outstanding lunch. Finally, it is set in…
Year: 2024
Weingut Jäger
“Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” Sylvia Plath Friday Slept well. Breakfast at home. It is a cloudless day. Perfect for wine tasting. The wineries in Wachau, with a few exceptions, are family owned. This presents difficulties, visiting is usually by appointment only and…
Spitz and the Wachau Valley
“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only…
Bad Füssing
“I want to leave, to go somewhere where I should be really in my place, where I would fit in . . . but my place is nowhere; I am unwanted.” Jean-Paul Sartre Wednesday Breakfast is included but there are no eggs. It is time to leave the mountains of Austria and head for wine…
Italian Lunches
“The name of Italy has magic in its very syllables.” Mary Shelley Tuesday Fine weather and Shell feels like lunch in Italy. We can take in the Swiss Alps and almost all of Liechtenstein with a few detours. Liechtenstein is 25 km in length, and a neatly matching 25,000 people live here. A constitutional monarchy,…
Damüls Diversion
“We are each a river with a particular abiding character, but we show radically different aspects of our self according to the territory through which we travel.” David Whyte Monday The realisation comes that we are not in Damüls, we are in Lech am Alberg. Today we depart for nearby Damüls. Only an hour away,…
Lech am Alberg – Austria
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.” John Muir Sunday A better night’s sleep for Shell. Breakfast provided. Today we head for Austria. The most western state, Voralberg. Our village is at 1700 m elevation and in the…
Meditation and Medication
“Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question of what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. If one feels that there is nothing ‘we’ can do — but who is that ‘we’? — and nothing ‘they’ can…
Plauen
“the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.” Charles Bukowski Friday An excellent night’s sleep. Although I do feel a little spongy in the brain region. Alcohol would be my guess. Breakfast at home. And…