Austria | nerd's eye view

Archive for the ‘Austria’ Category

Criminal Intent with Guidebook

Monday, September 11th, 2006

Welcome to Nerd's Eye View. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Want to know more about this site? See the Meet the Nerd page. And thanks for reading!

I didn’t hit send…yet. It occurs to me that petty as these folks are, she really could lose her job. But I share this story with you, NEV readers, in the form of a letter to the Graz Tourism Board.

Dear Graz Tourism:

I am an American, married to an Austrian. I was in Graz with my family yesterday - both the American side and the Austrian side - when we met one of your guides. We were walking around the city when your guide confronted my brother in law, telling him that I was not allowed to discuss the sights unless I was a certified guide! He told her that we were a family. Her response? “That’s what they all say.”

Schlossberg, Graz Furthermore, later that afternoon in another part of the city, she confronted him again, stating that if I wanted to take groups around the city, I could join the guide certification program. She did not believe that the group was, indeed, my family. She told my brother in law that it was “not allowed” to learn about the city privately and to then share that information with others. She told him that studying a guidebook and using it as a source for a tour of the city was also “not allowed.” Again, she reminded my brother in law that private guiding was “not allowed.”

Note that my brother in law, my sister in law, and my niece - with us that afternoon - are all residents of Graz.

This kind of behavior speaks very badly for the city of Graz and the guide services. First, it implies that the history of the city is not available to anyone who wishes to learn about Graz. Is history now privately owned? It also implies that those wandering Graz on self guided tours are committing some kind of crime, rather than simply enjoying the sights of a lovely city. And it does nothing for the image of the city’s certified guides, who appear snobbish, insecure, and rather rude.

The guide we encountered was more interested in lecturing my brother in law about our “suspicious” family behavior and my need for credentials than she was in offering her services as a guide to our group. Instead of telling us our behavior was not allowed, could she not have said, “Next time, why not hire a guide?” and given us a business card or a brochure? Additionally, how was our conversation any of her business?

I work as a freelance travel journalist and I take a special interest in the history of my adopted homeland. I write about Austria frequently and I recommend sights and services to my readers. And, like any American living abroad, I have guests - friends and family who fly over to visit this beautiful land. I will continue to show them around Austria and share my knowledge of Austria with them.

What I will not do is behave as though it is illegal to discuss Austrian history and the sights of Graz. And I will certainly not recommend that my guests or readers hire a guide from your service. They may be certified and knowledgeable, but the behavior we experienced? Unforgivable.

This confrontation with the guide is now our family souvenir from our visit to your city. Is that not a terrible shame on Graz?

PM, NEV Tours

Posted in Austria | 15 Comments »

Nerd’s Eye View Tours

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

We’re coming to the end of our inaugural tour of the Salzkammergut. It’s been a busy week here at the Aigen HQ, but the weather has been spectacular and we’ve had a fine time. The contented travelers are off to Prague tomorrow - we reconvene in Vienna next week.

The tour thus far?

Aigen local - meet the farmers
Kaffee und Kuchen, hiking and lunch at Spechtensee
Hallstat, mine and village tour, then to Bad Ischl for cake at the Zauner
Lunch in Puergg, an afternoon tour of the Admont Monastery
Salzburg - a city walk, the farmer’s market, the fortress, and the grand Mirabell gardens
Schlossfest Trautenfels festival, a short hike in a local canyon
The gardens of Schloss Eggenberg and the Graz fortress

We’re thinking of getting a minibus with the logo stenciled on the side. Book your tour now - small groups, local insight, personal service…Nerd’s Eye View tours makes your trip to Austria easy and memorable!

[tags]guided tours, travel, Austria[/tags]

Posted in Austria | 3 Comments »

Fish Wednesday, Thursday in Austria Edition

Thursday, September 7th, 2006

What with the time changes and the traveling and the being in a land locked nation, Fish Wednesday has some special challenges added to it. But it’s not over, no sir. It’s not Wednesday (though maybe it still is in Hawaii) but there was fish nonetheless. Fish Wednesday is now Fisch Donnerstag, featuring a grilled lake trout, some parsley potatoes, and a lovely green salad. The folks had beer, I had a mineral water and an espresso because yes, I am just that Euro. Annoying, no?

And if you come and visit, we’ll eat at the Zauner too, I promise. It’s lovely there, the food is quite good, and they specialize in lake fish. Yum.

[tags]Fish Wednesday, Hallstatt, Zauner[/tags]

Posted in Austria, Food, Glorious Food | 1 Comment »

Rethinking History

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

For many years, my parents insisted they would never visit Germany. We’re Jewish, and the history…well, you know. They’ve extended that ambivilence towards Austria, but since I married the Austrian, they wanted to see the homeland and have moderated their views a little. Time passes, opinions change, and the draw to see Vienna is undeniable.

The ‘rents are staying up the hill at a farmhouse - they’re in a little apartment up on the third floor. It’s a nice place, clean and pretty and smack in the middle of a working farm. After we got them settled in, we were invited to join the family for coffee. While we were sitting there, the old man came in. He’s 88 and still farming, in fact, he’s still driving though he hasn’t had a license for nearly 20 years, since he was 70. Says he can’t be bothered to renew it and anyhow, mostly he just drives the tractor.

When he found out we were Yankees, he told us he’d been in the US before. As a much younger man, he’d been a guest of the US government. Okay, not a guest. He was a POW. He got picked up in Northern Africa and sat out almost all of the war sitting in a fenced yard in Texas. He picked cotton as prison labor. He was locked up for three years and says the isolation was a killer, they weren’t allowed to talk to the US guards and they didn’t have much to do. “I spent the first year just lazing around,” he said. When he was finally released, he actually wanted to stay in the US, but they tossed him out. “Sure they did,” said the woman to his right, “They had to throw out all the Nazis!” She whacked him on the arm and laughed.

We told him it had been much safer for him to sit out the war in Texas, picking cotton. He agreed and his son said, “Yes, safer and so much better than having to live with the memories of what happened during the war.” The old man, who was still feeling pretty talky, said that during his time in uniform, he sat in a bunker holding a rifle, but he never shot the thing. Never shot at anything or anyone. My stepfather reached over and patted him on the arm as a way of thanks.

Many years later, the old man did make a trip back to the US and one of the places he went to see was the place he’d been a POW. When he was finally released and transported back to Austria (in spite of his wishes to the contrary) the Red Cross shipped him a guitar that they’d given him while he was a prisoner. He says that even though they were very isolated, they were well fed and cared for. He still has his guitar - he likes country music - and he’s going to take it out and play it for us some time while the ‘rents are still here.

The folks had a helluva a flight itinerary. They flew from Eugene>San Francisco>Denver>Frankfurt>Salzburg. It’s another two hour drive to get home from the airport. They’d had an extremely long day and then, Austria wanted to give them a whole new perspective on history. You know, as a welcome. Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome.

On day two, we had coffee and cake with my mother in law and went for a lovely walk by the lake. The only past we talked about was what the family had been doing with their summer.

Posted in Austria | 9 Comments »