Harvest moon eclipse

Being in a bit of a media vacuum while on holiday I almost missed the harvest moon eclipse. Nel reminded me of it the night before so luckily I could set my alarm for 4:10 on Monday morning and I spent a whole chilly hour outside in the cold (in my pajamas, but with a jersey) watching it!

Neil's first chocolate

I gave Neil some 90% Lindt chocolate on Sunday. What a proud moment for me as he ate it without any hint of distaste! Wow.

Trip to Lindau

After we were treated to a nice Sunday morning breakfast, we set off for lunch at a local restaurant. From there we set off for Bregenz to catch a boat to Lindau in Germany.

A schnitzel for Marisa and, eh, nothing for Pieter (to his relief!)

From the selfie-cam

On deck

Approaching Lindau

Looking back at the entrace to the Lindau harbour

Protestant (left) and Roman Catholic (right)

Warm chocolate on a cool afternoon

We missed our boat back so had to wait for the next one at 19:00. By that time things had cooled down substantially and we were pleased to be on the way back home!

Cows coming home

On Saturday after the market we went off to watch the cows coming down from the Alps for the winter. This is a ceremonial occasion and a popular thing to go to watch (and seemingly a good reason for many to drink beer).

Some bells are outrageously large—poor cow

Not just cows

A market day video

To continue from the previous post, here's a short video giving an impression of the market.

Market day

Dornbirn has several market days a week. On of them is Saturdays. It's a fresh produce market and a couple of minutes' walk away.

We had to start off in a bakery though

It's pumpkin season

Courtesy of chickens, cows and pigs mostly...

... but jams and the like are never far away

I just had to buy this fractal—I mean cauliflower thingy

We'll find out soon if it tastes as fantastic as it looks

Photos from Austria

It has been a very busy few days, very not much time to update this blog, but luckily always enough time to take lots of photos. Here is a summary of the past few days.

On Monday Gomutti took us on a train trip to Bregenz. It's up against the Bodensee and it was a nice sunny day.

One of the play parks has a foefie slide!

We all had a go!

Tuesday was a quiet day and we went on a walk in Dornbirn.

Stables in the middle of town

On Wednesday we hired a car. I found driving on the right a nice experience.

Trying out local equipment in the shops

At Dorothea's house in Alberschwende

Dorothea makes dresses, amongst many other things, and there were a few for Miekie to try on

The view from outside her house

Quite a garden

Neil has been hard at work practising his crawling

On Thursday we went on a trip to Langen am Arlberg. The train took us to Bludenz and from there it was a forty minute bus ride through the narrowing valley between steep mountains.

The Arlberg has got its first snow (see in the background)

We all felt a chill in the air