Although I write these entries that make it sound like we are having one grand, European adventure after another, it’s pretty ordinary most of the time. You may have wondered to yourself, “What do they do all day?” Or perhaps you never once thought that. Either way, this entry shall strive to answer that question!

First, I shall talk about James’ day. He teaches one day a week, Tuesdays from 12:00 to 1:30. He has a second class he is to teach, but that is more like an “office hour” class with private meetings. He is not on a set schedule, but he usually leaves the apartment somewhere around 9ish. He walks downtown (10 mins), catches the tram to the university (20 mins or so), and then he catches a bus to the castle (25 mins or so). He teaches at the university, but his office and colleagues are at the castle (RISC). When he is not teaching, he is doing math research and writing papers.  He comes home either at 5:30 or 6:30, depending on which bus he takes.

The kids and I have our official wake-up time at 10:00. We stagger around, eat breakfast, maybe shower or get dressed. At 10:30, I have Bible time with the kids. For now, we are reading through Matthew and memorizing 1 John 1:15-17.  After that, the kids do independent school work. Libby and Michael are still enrolled at the high school, so their work is online. Rachel does the same thing she did at home.

Around 1:00, the kids start foraging for some sort of lunch. At this point, school doesn’t take that long as some of the teachers have not sent assignments. (It is Spring Break at the high school.)  There is a lot of messing about online and watching YouTube and all. With the six hour time difference, their friends are all still in bed or headed to school.

At 2:00 or 3:00, I try to call a moratorium on the computer for a while. This is nap time, jogging time, drawing time, playing cards time, reading time, whatever.  I hang up laundry on the clothes dryer, sweep the floor, and not much more. (We get a cleaning lady every two weeks here.) This is also the time when we might head out to the store. Today, I went earlier (we were out of milk–no tea!). I stopped at a bakery and got this. It had raspberry jam inside. Linz is all about raspberry jam stuff.

 

I wanted the rhubarb cake I saw earlier, but I did not see it in any bakery window. Sorrow.  It was good, and I was hungry, which made it even better!

Austrians do like fresh flowers, so for 79 Euro, I got these cuties.

When James gets home, I start making supper. It’s a low-stress affair to cook, as I’m not much of a gourmet, and I don’t have much space. I usually sip a Diet Coke from this glass while cooking.

I pretend it’s a glass of wine, and I’m being all European and everything.

During supper, we learn some new and useful German words (last night, off and on!). While I clean up, James and the kids do their math. They could do it during the day, but they like to do math with MathDad there to answer questions. This is the time I might Skype with my mom or write blog entries. I like to use the elliptical machine for 35 minutes or so, and the girls work out at night, too.  Often, we watch a movie at around 10 or later. Bedtime is at 1:00 am. We set it so late so that the kids would have a chance to chat online with their friends after school. (1:00 am is only 7:00 pm for those at home.) Plus, we are all night owls, except for poor James.

We decided that Thursdays would be Field Trip Day, so tomorrow, we are going to pick somewhere to visit in Linz and go there in the afternoon. Where shall we go? Find out tomorrow!

 

 

 

Ah, the adventures we have!  Tonight at supper, I decided we’d learn some German words over dinner each night. Tonight’s choice? Knife, fork, and spoon.

Knife is “Messer” as in “Don’t messer with him. He has a knife.”
Fork was “Gabel” as in “Clark Gabel has a fork.”
Spoon was “Löffel” as in…Well, you say it “LUR-fel” according to Michael, so I said, “I am full of Lur-Pak (a butter we got in England) because I ate it with a spoon.”  Um, yes.

Anyhow, during the course of dinner, I related the story of how due to limited cupboard space, I decided to try to store the cereal on top of the fridge.  How was I to know that there was a six inch-wide gap beside the fridge with a caulked-to-the-wall false panel in front of it? Down fell the Froot Loops! NOOOOOO! Michael said, “I am going to get those out!” He had tried earlier by reaching up under, but all he found was a bag of oranges some previous tenant had let fall down there which were now…well…uh… Then he wanted to use the giant pile of decorative sticks in the corner of the living room (picture in previous post), but I was worried they’d break. So, we left it.

But, a full stomach and an empty evening filled us all with the Can Do Spirit! First idea–use the headless mop we found on the balcony to try to capture it.  The nice thing was that the mop handle retracted, so Michael could get it down the hole even though the ceiling clearance gave him limited space. First, an inspection occurred. Rachel helped to balance him at first, but James and a pillow under his stomach helped more.

    ]

 

Attempting to trap the cereal box with the mop and slide it up the side of the fridge did not work. The next idea presented was to use the vacuum cleaner in an attempt to suck the box.  So, we pulled out the vacuum for the first time.

But, oh no! The metal pole on the vacuum hose fell off into the hole! AAAAH! This was getting worse and worse! Thankfully, Michael was able to capture the metal pole with the mop handle and bring it to safety. We taped the hose and pole together and tried again. This time, the hose and pole were not long enough to reach the cereal box. (I doubt the suction would have been enough, given the size of the canister, but you never know.)  Now what?

We thought maybe if we could stab the box with a knife, it would sort of hook it and it could be more easily dragged to the top. Michael fashioned his Messer and Mop Masterpiece.

It looked rather unsafe.  But up he went, prepared to do battle.

 

And with a little help from James…

SUCCESS!!!

 

Don’t come between a Man and his Froot Loops. Ever.

 

Last night was Sunday dinner, so I decided to cook the roast I had bought.  It looked safe enough. 

My pocket German dictionary didn’t yield any results as to what the label said, but it looked like a seasoned beef roast, and it was a good price, so I got it. I put it in a baking dish with potatoes and green beans and some flour/water/seasoning, covered it with foil, and let it cook. Three hours later, it didn’t seem cooked. Hmmm. I started to worry. It did not look like beef.  I looked up the word “brafertig.” It meant “disemboweled.” I got very worried. 

I sliced it up to see if it was done. I read the label again. The first ingredient was “schweinfleish.” Pork! How did I miss that before? I let it cook a bit longer and then cut it up. 

It was very pretty. But the lighter sections are all fat. It was like a giant piece of uncrisp bacon. Urgh. I cut all the meat out of it and tossed the fat (which was at least 65% of the “roast”) and served it. It didn’t taste like a pork roast, nor did it taste like bacon. It tasted like some sort of meat.  We ate it and thankfully didn’t have too many leftovers. (I might make them into soup!)   Meat Adventure Number One–check. (May it be the last!)

Today’s food adventure was much more successful. I stopped in a bakery and bought one of the many cakes I ogle all the time. I don’t know what this one is called. I called it “Ein, bitte,” and pointed. 

 

I cut it in half to save some for James who I suspect will like it very much. The top was a mix of mostly a cheesecake consistency, but a bit more cake-like. The bottom was a raspberry filling over a soft crust. YUM. Mild flavors. I bet this is some sort of Linzer Cake because of the raspberries and because we live in Linz. (Linz, home of the Linzer Tart which is the oldest known recipe in the WORLD according to a food website I found.)

It was an overcast and cool Sunday. We did not find a church that has a Sunday service in English, so we slept in, had a late breakfast, and headed out where James will be teaching for the next four months. He only teaches here one day a week, and the other days he is at RISC (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation), which is also called “The Castle” as it is in a refurbished castle. We did not go there today as it is another 30 minute bus ride from the Johannes Kepler University.

To get to JKU easily, you board the tram. We bought our tickets at this machine. The tram line and bus line are called the “Linz AG.” AG must stand for something, but I don’t know what.

 

I thought it was funny that you can bring your dog on the tram, but you have to buy a ticket for it. My ticket was 2 Euros and the children’s were each 1 Euro. (James bought his monthly pass yesterday for 38.80 Euros.) We were not sure if our tickets were round trip or not. No one checked tickets or anything, so we had no one to ask.

  

The trip took about 10 or 15 minutes across Linz. We crossed the Danube, which was the first I’d seen of it since we were in Austria. I didn’t get any pictures of it from the tram window, but I plan to go for a walk and get some on a nice, sunny day. Even though it wasn’t sunny, signs of spring are here!

        

We arrived at the University. First, James wanted to show us where he will be living when the kids and I go back to the USA.

He is not sure if he will be in the big building or the round building. This place, Sommerhaus, is a large dorm with breakfast included. This is where he stayed when he came to Linz for a week last year. We were able to walk into the lobby, but there was a guy at the desk, so we didn’t explore much. James says that he will have a bedroom with two beds, a desk, and a bathroom. (Why isn’t he just staying in the apartment we currently have? 2700 Euro a month vs. 350 Euro a month. No PhD in math required to figure that out!)

 

I was able to catch a view of the countryside around Linz. Do these hills seem alive?

Next, we went to the math building where James will be teaching. 

 

It was locked.

The University seems to be a mix of very modern and older stuff. Austrians seem to enjoy painting their buildings yellow.

 

Near the math building, we decided to play around on the steps.

 

   

 

   

 

Since we didn’t have any other plans for the day and it was not raining, we’d thought we’d explore the university.  There was a pond with ducks which provided a nice backdrop for photos.

        

  

 

          

 

Then we looked at some of the buildings. The first is the library. The next is…some other building.

 

 

  

 

I saw signs that said, “Mensa.” Wow! The university is a headquarters for Mensa! Mensa is an organization for those with IQs over 145.

 

And with the main advertising poster on campus of this guy, I thought maybe it was a place for the super intelligent!

 

(Translation: agrarian impulse center for science and society)

And make sure you don’t miss his watch!

 

But, it turns out that “Mensa” means “Cafeteria” in German. (Can you tell I’m not a member of the real Mensa?)

 

There were also some nifty sculptures on campus.

 

        

 

The university was not that large, so our tour did not take too long. We boarded the tram (perhaps illegally?) and headed home where we had our 4:30 pm “lunch.” 

Now, I have a roast (it looks like beef, but it was just called “roast”) and potatoes and green beans in the oven for an 8:00 pm supper.  James and Michael are looking forward to listening to the Big 10 Wrestling match over the internet. I plan to curl up and read The Mayor of Casterbridge.  Tomorrow, we start “official” school again. It’s turning into Real Life here in Austria.

 

 

Now, if I were you, I’d think “Tante Emma Laden” was the name of someone’s aunt. However, that is the word for a store which sells groceries and other things, like soap and trash bags.  Since we have come to Linz, we have been Tante-Emma-Ladening every day! Because, ya gotta eat.

(That was our first homecooked meal in Austria–pasta and bread with salad. It’s what they all wanted!)

Anyhow, to fill our small cupboard, we have to go to the store, just like the rest of the world. (Except for those lucky British people who order from Tesco online and have it delivered to the door!) Not only are we limited by storage space, we are also limited by the fact that whatever we buy, we have carry on the half a mile or so walk back to our apartment.

To get to the store, we head to the city square which is called the Hauptplatz, and go down the street about four blocks which would be going right in this picture, the opposite direction James is facing.

The closest grocery store is this one.

It’s on the ground floor of a five-story shopping center. It’s probably a little smaller than a Weis market.  We feel comforted shopping there, because not only is it the closest to our home, it’s endorsed by Gwyneth Paltrow!

 

Things are about the same price if you assume Euros and dollars are the same amount, which they are not. But as long as I pretend, it’s all okay. 

The first area I like to hit is produce. I’ve not been brave enough to try this yet. Probably half of those reading my blog will say, “Oh! That’s blahblahblah! It’s wonderful if you cook it like blahblah.” But for me, it is a strange and exotic veggie.

And there are lots and lots of cabbages. I would enjoy cooking some cabbage, as I like it, but I think I would be tarred and feathered (which might actually smell better!).

 

There are a lot of familiar brand names here. I was very happy to see my favorite tea.

 

But decaf tea seems not to be something readily available. So, I bought some Kammomile, which I am sure is decaf without having to puzzle through the label.

Some shopping I can do without a dictionary in hand, but for the meat counter, I dare not risk it. I am learning the words: shinken = ham, hahn = chicken, fleish = meat (probably beef or pork). Creeps me out a bit to buy “fleish” as it looks so much like “flesh,” which is a quick way to turn someone into a vegetarian. I did not look this up, but I am thinking this is a picture of turkey fillets?

 

I am grateful for marketing that puts pictures on boxes. It helps me not to have to translate. Ah, granola bars. Yes.

 

I even got frozen pizzas tonight! How can one resist?

 

It’s sort of fun seeing all the brands we used to find in England. Fairy dish soap, Persil laundry detergent. It makes Austria seem a little less foreign.

 

And seeing good, ol’ American brand names helps a lot!

 

75 Euros for this cart of groceries.

 

And we were all bagged up to head back to the apartment.  Grocery shopping was done. Until tomorrow, when we run out of Cheerios and apple saft (juice).

 

On Thursday, March 1, we took a train from Vienna to Linz. We had to hire two minivan taxi things to get all of our luggage and all the people from the hotel to the train station. Once there, we bought our tickets and went up the escalator and to the platform and up the train steps with all the luggage. I am very glad Rachel is just as useful when it comes to carrying things and dragging heavy suitcases as the rest of them are!

We played cards and ate snacks and slept (Libby) on the 1.5 or so hour train ride. Then, we repeated the dragging suitcases and two taxis to get to our home for the next two months:

 

By the way, if anyone wants to write to us, write to

(Whichever one it is) Sellers

c/o Walter Hauser

Lessingstrasse 11

Linz 4020

Austria

 

The reason you write in care of that man is that we are in sort of a hotel-like apartment place, and he is the landlord. So the mail goes to him. I suppose if it just showed up without his name, it would find its way to us.  Anyhow, back to my tale. 

We unloaded all the luggage and rang the doorbell to let Herr Hauser know we had arrived. A whole lot of ringing and no landlord. I was very grateful it was warm and sunny as we had to wait outside with no overhang.

  

James finally had to pull out his American cell phone and make an expensive call to find out if the landlord knew to meet us. He said he’d be there in two minutes, and he was. Herr Hauser turned out to be incredibly pleasant and seemed proud of his apartments. He had a good right to be. WOW! “Why did we say we only wanted to stay two months?” said the kids. 

I shall give you a tour, and you can decide for yourself!

This is the entry way. There were maps, shopping bags, a mirror to check how you look one last time, and even two baskets of slippers!

     

To the left in the picture, right after my coat, is this door (which always swings shut even if we don’t want it to, but it does it slowly).

 

It opens into the living room/dining room.

     

 

 

    

 

If you go straight through this opening (which has a sliding door to close it off)

 

 

you enter the kitchen. Michael was in the kitchen pouring himself a bowl of not-American-colored Fruit Loops.

     

 

You may wonder how I was able to take this picture. Did I hover outside the window? Nope. We have a small balcony off the kitchen which Michael has claimed as his own.

 

Here are some views from the balcony.

       

 

Yes, we are up, top floor, seven story building. I have decided that I will always take the stairs (unless I am solo with a lot of bags of groceries or have a sprained ankle or something).  There are 18 steps per floor, nine then a landing, and nine more. My legs are burning by the end of the hike, so I will be able to gauge my fitness progress in two months by the lack of burn or the speed at which I take the steps.

Enough about my little fitness challenges! Back to the apartment. We have a microwave, dishwasher, stove and stove top, fridge and freezer, and all the dishes and pots and pans and everything one could want. It does not leave much room for food storage, those abundantly-stocked cabinets. This cabinet is all we have.

But, it will keep me from stockpiling food! We are only here for two months. I shall try to be European and not a gluttonous American!

Back to the entry way now. Imagine you didn’t turn at the white door but had your back to the front door. You’d see where I have my environmentally friendly clothes dryer! (I like it a lot. Really and for true.)

It will only sit there when it is full of laundry, so only a few days a week maybe? I could also let it sit in the tub as long as no one wants to have a bath!

We have two “bathrooms,” which is pretty typical for Europe. One is the WC (water closet) which has a toilet and small sink.

(Aren’t you glad you got to see the toilet? HA!)

 

The other contains the shower, sink, washing machine, bathtub, and water heater.

   

This has been a long tour, and there are still three rooms to go!  The first is James’ and my bedroom.

        

 

I was concerned we would not have enough storage space for all our stuff and all these empty suitcases. No worries at all. There are tons of storage space!

 

That is  my closet with all of my clothes. There are three closets like that just in my bedroom alone!

 

Across the hall from our bedroom is the exercise room. They have everything! Balance ball, massage table, sauna, elliptical machine, sit up thingie, stretchy bands, some sort of balance slider, bow-flex type thing…and more! There are also two huge mirrors in the room so that you can see how jiggly you are when you work out.

  

In the corner of this room is another bed. Michael doesn’t have to sleep on the couch in the living room, but he seems to want to.

 

Yes, I realize this bed doesn’t look very inviting right now. That is because he took all his bedding from the couch and threw it on the bed in this room. Off of the exercise room is a tiny sun porch with a chaise lounge. No one has really claimed this area yet, but we’ve only been here two days.

 

 

Finally, through the exercise room is where Libby and Rachel sleep.

 

Everything seems in great condition and newer. Also, someone took the time to decorate to make it look pretty. Just see some of the nifty things scattered around the apartment!

 

r     

 

And now, you’ve seen where we live. Come and visit if you can!

Since we went ice skating, we didn’t have time to tour all that we planned to see (probably much to the delight of the kids!). Of the places to see–the Imperial Apartments, the Imperial Treasury, and the Sisi Musuem–James thought he’d most like to see the treasury.  I had no objection to this plan, so we paid our however many Euros for admission and for audio phone guides for the family and headed into the dimly-lit displays.

One of the first things I realized was that I knew virtually nothing about the Habsburgs. According to Wikipedia, the House of Habsburg is ” best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and Spanish Empire and several other countries.”  Well, well, well.  They were a busy bunch. I know that the last Habsburg, Maria Theresa of Austria, had sixteen children including some famous ones: Marie Antoinette (that ill-fated French queen), Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma and two Holy Roman Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II. 

They said that the Habsburgs were not kings and queens, so the coronations were different. When power went to the next Habsburg, there weren’t elections, nor were there coronations. They just had private crowns made for the heck of it and had sort of a pronouncement ceremony. Now, what you see below is the Imperial Crown used for the coronation of the emperors.  But most of them had their own crowns made.

 

The Habsburgs appeared to be all about the common guy rising through the ranks to be famous. I couldn’t help but think of A Knight’s Tale (Heath Ledger) where the guys couldn’t be knights unless they were of noble birth. In Austria, if you did well, you got to be a knight and wear cool vestment garments like these.

   

 

Or, if you were a baby and noble, you got to wear a christening gown like this one and be laid on the cozy, pearl and gold thread-studded blanket.

 

  

Now, I didn’t quite catch exactly who this was, but if a boy baby also got initiated into some special “royal” order at the same time as the christening, all the current knights had to come and “kiss the baby’s nappies.” (That’s diapers, for all you non-British folk!)  That reminded me of The Court Jester where all the folks bowed as Danny Kayeflashes the “purple pimpernel” underneath the diaper.

Speaking of babies, this is the cradle for Napoleon Bonaparte’s son. Napoleon married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria in 1810. She was sort of a Habsburg cousin or something like that. They had a little baby Bonaparte, and I confident they didn’t go to Walmart for this cradle!

 

I am not sure if it was the era or if it had to do with something else, but the Habsburgs were really into “Unicorn Horn.” It turns out it was a tusk of a narwhal, but they believed at the time it was a unicorn horn. In the treasury, they had an eight foot long horn and then this sword made out of “unicorn horn.”

 

This cabinet amazed me. It was just there in the room, not roped off or protected by glass or anything. It turns out it holds all the keys to all the tombs of the Habsburgs! And it was just sitting there unprotected!

 

James had learned earlier in the week that 73% of Austrians consider themselves to be Catholic. And, seeing the treasuries I could believe it! It was different for me to see the strong Catholic influence in the court treasuries as I was used to seeing British treasures, and they are Anglican, not Catholic. I am more familiar with Catholics being persecuted for their faith than for it to be the religion of the country. So that was quite a change.

The treasuries were chock-full of religious things, most famously the reliquaries. A reliquary is something that holds a relic, which would be something supposedly from a saint or from Christ Himself. Not only were the reliquaries made of gold and jewels and worth a lot, to the owner, the thing inside was more precious to the owner. The reliquaries below are supposed to house John the Baptist’s tooth, a piece of the tablecloth from the last supper, a piece of the manger where Jesus laid, a piece of Christ’s loincloth, and a piece of John’s robe.

 

Now, whether or not you believe these are the actual things they are purported to be, it is still a fascinating bit of history to see the care and devotion given to these objects of veneration. These two reliquaries are said to contain a thorn from Jesus’ crown of thorns. The second is also supposed to have the nail used to pierce His right hand. 

 

    

 

This next picture shows what is said to be a piece of Jesus’ cross. The hole in the wood is where the nail when into his hand. The piece of wood from the cross is only in the center, but the setting is in the shape of a cross.

 

The last relic of note was the Lance of Invincible Power. (Yes, that made me think of the Holy Hand Grenade). It has a colorful history. (http://EzineArticles.com/106968)

“The Spear of Destiny, also known as the Spear of Longinus and the Heilige Lance — Holy Lance — is one of the most important Christian relics of the Passion of Jesus Christ. As first described in John 19:31-37, the Spear was used by a Roman soldier (Gaius Cassius, later called Longinus) to pierce the side of Christ as he hung on the cross. The Spear is believed to have acquired tremendous mystical power. The first sign of that power was the purported healing of Gaius Cassius’s failing eyesight by blood from the wound.

The centurion later become an early convert to Christianity. The Spear subsequently passed through a multitude of hands, coming into the possession of many of Europe’s most important political and military leaders, including Constantine I, Alaric (the Visigoth king who sacked Rome in the year 410), Frankish general Charles Martel, Charlemagne, Frederick of Barbarossa, and Frederick II. A leader who possessed the Spear was said to be invincible; Charlemagne and Frederick of Barbarossa were undefeated in battle until they let the Spear fall from their hands. A legend arose that whoever claimed the Spear ‘holds the destiny of the world in his hands for good or evil.’

As a young man Adolf Hitler was fascinated by the Spear of Destiny, which he first saw displayed in the Hofsburg museum in Vienna, Austria in 1909. Hitler was familiar with the legend of the Holy Lance. His interest in the relic was further amplified by its role in the 1882 opera Parsifal — by Hitler’s favorite composer, Richard Wagner — which concerned a group of ninth-century knights and their quest for the Holy Grail. Hitler’s fascination with the Spear was pivotal in sparking his interest in the occult, which gave birth to his ideas on the origins and purpose of the Germanic race and contributed to his belief in his own destiny as a world conqueror.

On October 12, 1938, not long after the German annexation of Austria, Hitler ordered the S.S. to seize the Spear and other artifacts from Vienna. They were taken by train to Nuremberg, where they were stored in St. Katherine’s Church. The Spear remained in St. Katherine’s until 1944, when it was moved to a specially constructed vault beneath the church, built in secret and at great expense, intended to protect it and the other stolen relics from Allied bombs. Nuremberg was captured by Allied troops in April of the following year. The vault was subsequently discovered by American Army officers. The Spear was confiscated by American forces on the afternoon of April 30, 1945, less than two hours before Hitler’s suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin. Like the Spear’s previous owners, Hitler perished after the relic was taken from him.”

Spooky!

This is one of four or so lances which are claimed to be the one which pierced Christ’s side.  They added the gold to it in the 1300′s, but they never said why.