Bicycling in Austria

The Vienna State Opera house, one of the many spectacular public buildings on the Ringstraße (1998)

 From the sublime to the rridiculous.  Dudelsackspieler (bagpipers) on parade in Bad Radkersburg, a fascinating small town in the far southeast along the Slovenian border.  A four-country (Austria, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland) bagpipe convention was in town.  The drum major with the fancy kilts is Scots; the Germans are the ones in the more sedate black uniform. (2002)

Dudelsackspelier in concert in main square of Bad Radkersburg. (2002)

A festival celebrating labor in Bad Ischl in the Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria.  It began with mass in the parish church complete with two brass bands in the choir loft playing Mozart, followed by a parade through town in which ages from the 50's to 90's were grouped.  The 90 year olds shown here got to ride in the horse drawn carriage. (2002)

The poor 80 year olds had to walk. (2002)

The Bad Ischl Musikkapelle (brass band) marching in Bad Ischl.  I can almost picture Emperor Franz Josef riding in a carriage. (2002)

Suburban Bad Ischl Musikkapelle getting ready to go. (2002)

An evening of Mozart opera music and string quartets at the Gotischer Saal (Gothic room) in Salzburg.  Actually this is designed for tourists. (1998)

Blassmusik (wind music) concert in the Maurach am Achensee town hall. (2001)

Blassmusik concert in Mirabel Gardens, Salzburg (1999).

We were rounding a corner into the small town of Peggau on the Murradweg in Steiermark one Sunday morning when it began to rain.  As luck would have it, right in front of us was a gasthof (typical informal neighborhood or small town restaurant) that was having some kind of "fest" with food, drink, and music outside under tents. (2002)

The musicians must have had pity on us because they offered each of us a glass of "Sturm", German for "storm", but actually an early wine that appears in September.  Because all previous trips were made in June, we had never encountered it. It comes in two varieties, red (shown here) and white.  It tastes like mountain dew, but has quite a kick.  From then on everyone ordered it at supper time.(2002)

Karen after too much sturm. (2002)

Combo entertaining while a large crowd waits for the Almtrieb in Radstadt along the Ennsradweg in Salzburg Province. (2002)

Almtrieb, the traditional bringing of cattle down from high Alpine pastures (Alm in German) to barns in the valley; turned into a tourist spectacle. Note the decorated cows and the boy on the right helping out with the small stick.  When this herd and several others had passed by, the street was still clean.  Only in Austria. (2002)

Everyone followed the cattle to a farm outside town where tables had been set up for, you guessed it, food and drink. A different combo entertained the crowd while the cattle grazed behind them with the Radstadter Alps in the background. (2002)

A typical Bavarian brass band (not to be confused with an oom-pah-pah group) on the second deck of the "Chinese Tower" (background) entertains at the beer garden of the same name in the English Garden in Munich.  We were on our way to another beer garden in the same park for supper, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to listen to the music and get in an extra beer. (2004)

Johan Strauss, Jr. statue in Stadtpark (City Park) in downtown Vienna. (2004)

Group playing rotary valve brass instruments entertaining on a Vienna street corner. (2004)

Brataslava, Slovak Republic, opera house being remodeled to include a casino (1997)

Entertainment during lunch at Die Klosterstube in Brataslava, Slovakia.  The wine cellar of a former Franciscan monastery had been turned into a restaurant. (1998)