Langenzersdorf

We moved into a little town called Langenzersdorf, just outside of the Vienna city limits.  Even though it is a closer commute than we had from the E Mt, people here consider it the country.  Two of our three sets of closest neighbors are only here in the summer, it is too far for them in the winter.  I thought I’d show a few pictures of our little town, one of the next blogs is going to be on the fantastic old houses on our street (just waiting for the sun to shine, so I can get some photos).

And we thought Albuquerque was old!

 

They had a 900 year birthday celebration for the town last fall.  They blocked off Main Street, otherwise known as Wienerstrasse, and had all sorts of booths for food, hot mulled wine, mead, and lots of folks in their medieval dress. 

Wagon load of skins

Wagon load of beer

We are just now heading into spring, after a long, dark, cold winter.  We had a lot of precipitation, but only a couple really deep snowfalls.  The law says you have to keep your sidewalk shoveled, so after my years of practise in Cedar Crest, I was able to do ours plus the very old lady’s next door.  People here are not very outgoing, as a rule, but shoveling someone else’s snow sure can endear you to the neighbors.  Russel got in one good snowman, too.

the Snowman

Backyard in winter

Summer here was really fantastic, hot, daylight until late at night (like 10:00!), we had a lot of dinners on the porch.  Our porch is above the garage, so we have a bird’s eye view of all the traffic on the street.  This street is called Kellergasse, which means Cellar Street, as in wine cellars.  We live up next to a hill called the Bisamberg, and all of these houses have huge wine cellars built in under the house and the into the hill.  We are in the heart of the Viennese wine district and surrounded by vineyards.  Lots of people walk, run, and bike ride, no matter what the weather.  We have joked about the Hummer baby carriages, with babies out in all weather, but we think their parents are just acclimating them sooner rather than later.  Austrians like to be outside; they even have a word, wandertag, that means take a day to go wandering around in the woods.  It is great to have the Bisamberg so close, it’s similar to having the Sandias in the backyard as far as being able to just go on a hike.

A view from the top of the Bisamberg

Russel and Jesse heading back home

The crocus have just started blooming, the tulips are about 6 inches high, and we are ready for it to look like this again.  Astro enjoys his yard, and we all enjoy watching the town go by from the porch.  This house is just across the street, empty.  It looks haunted but we haven’t seen any ghosts yet.  I can picture storks nesting on those chimneys too.  It was a nice sunset that evening.

sunset from the porch

Astro in the yard - summer version