The hills are alive
The “punschkrapfen” — punch donut — is very much its own thing now, but my understanding is that once, it was what you did with your leftover cake. See, running a traditional Austrian bakery meant you were always fussing with your cake, slicing the top off so you could layer it on top of the …
Every time the season appears, I think, “Oh, no, that’s not how you do Krampus!” It’s an odd thing that a suburban Jewish girl should have such opinions about a pagan/Christian Austrian tradition, but there you have it. I originally wrote this piece for Gadling. I have a photo, printed from film, old school … …
“You’re not joking, are you? Please don’t be joking.” “Not at all. They put up the tent yesterday afternoon. There are animals in a corral by the lake. I think I saw goats. There’s a show tomorrow at 2.” “Can we go can we please can we please I REALLY want to go can we …
There were four of us, and it was nice to sit outside and eat ice cream and catch up. I sat with my back up against the building and it was hot in the sunshine. The coffee in my ice cream float froze and made crunchy little coffee ice crystals on the vanilla ice cream. …
We had an absolute bluebird day driving around the Salzkammergut — a sort of lake district near the husband’s home turf. We bought gingerbread, stopped for coffee, had lunch lakeside, took the gondola up to about 4500 feet and then, hiked up higher, even, where I took this picture of the Dachstein Glacier. After, we …
Austria, where the skies are like the painted ceilings of a baroque palace.