HL fotoeins

Posts by HL fotoeins

Einöden, Gasthof Hauserwirt, Wörgl, Tyrol, Tirol, Kufstein, Austria, Österreich, fotoeins.com

Small towns in the Austrian countryside

Above/featured: Bovine goodness with Gasthof Hauserwirt in the background, in Einöden at the outskirts of Wörgl – 13 May 2018.

Österreichische Dörfer auf dem Land

Spending a few weeks exploring Austria in spring between peak winter and summer seasons got me to examine a variety of artistic and cultural aspects, including:

• a search for Erwin Schrödinger’s grave,
• a century of Vienna Modernism,
• a day-trip from Vienna to Bratislava with a boat on the Danube, and
• looking for modern Salzburg beyond Mozart and The Sound of Music,

Because I’m all about trains and buses in Europe, there were many towns encountered: some passed by, and others planned and visited. The following examples of small towns in Austria includes a generous portion of mountains from the Austrian Alps.

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Bumble Bee Ranch Adventures, Bumble Bee, ghost town, Sunset Point Rest Stop, Black Canyon City, AZ, USA, fotoeins.com

Small towns in the American Southwest

Above/featured: I-17 Sunset Point Rest Stop, near ghost town of Bumble Bee: Black Canyon City, AZ – 17 Oct 2018 (X70).

A memorable road trip through the American Southwest included over three-thousand miles of driving through Arizona (AZ) and New Mexico (NM). We encountered many small towns: some of them were easy to pass through, while others were “must see”. We wanted to stop in as many as we could, but time and itinerary were as always the usual culprits. Guess we’ll have to return.

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Worms: Holy Sand, Europe’s oldest surviving Jewish cemetery

I’m looking for a “thousand-year history” in the city of Worms located in southwest Germany. This has nothing to do helminthology or nematology, as the town’s name is derived from “Warmaisa”, the former Jewish name of the city. This is about an important part of Jewish-German history and peaceful coexistence of the Judeo-Christian communities within Europe. The town’s fame and reputation is also partly derived from Martin Luther; I’ve already visited the site where Luther was on trial to answer charges of heresy, as well as the world’s largest Reformation monument.

This part of the Rhein river area is considered the “cradle of European Jewry”, known also as “little Jerusalem on the Rhine.” In medieval times, flourishing Jewish communities in the cathedral cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz facilitated the creation of a common Jewish league with the name ShUM (SchUM), spelled out by the first letters of the Hebrew names for the three cities. As emphasis on the influence of Jewish heritage in Europe and the ongoing process of preservation and education, the Holy Sand cemetery is one of four constituents in the newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021).

On a breezy late-autumn afternoon, light fades quick, casting solemn shadows on this ground. In the town’s old Jewish cemetery, I’m the only person present, and I’ve placed a small stone on top of a number of gravestones. I’m surrounded by apparitions over an millennium’s age and by the remaining physical traces in various shapes, stones, and size.

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ABQ: world’s largest hot-air balloon festival (2018)

What colourful and interesting sights of light and balloons you might see, whether it’s your first or the umpteenth time at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Every year beginning the first weekend in October, hundreds of thousands of visitors descend upon central New Mexico to see several hundred hot-air balloons ascend into the skies over the Duke City.

To kick off our time in the American Southwest, we drove into Albuquerque for our first time in the city and to attend our first Balloon Fiesta. We purchased in advance tickets to day 1’s morning session with park-and-ride, day 2’s evening session with park-and-ride, and day 3’s morning session without park-and-ride.

For opening day, clear skies and crisp conditions waited for us as we struggled mightily out of bed, but headed out into the dark of the early morning with great anticipation. Even with massive crowds and some traffic chaos, the long wait was worth the sight of seeing the balloons as oval dots on the horizon and as shapely giants up close.

I have to mention the breakfast chile relleno burritos which everybody recommended we seek and try on the festival grounds. How about a version consisting of a New Mexico green chile stuffed with cheese and batter fried, enveloped in a scrambled egg and cheese mixture, all wrapped in a soft corn tortilla and lightly grilled to provide a little bit of outside crunch and crisp? That’s a big resounding yes to breakfast burritos and big balloons.

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Albuquerque: highlights in the Duke City

To begin our journey through the American Southwest, one of our first destinations was the International Balloon Fiesta. The largest balloon festival in North America is held every October in Albuquerque, the most populous city in the American state of New Mexico. Located roughly in the centre of the state and bisected by two major interstate highways I-25 and I-40, Albuquerque has seen its fair share of human activity and history:

Inland trade road between Meso-America and southern Rocky Mountains, c. 1000 AD/CE.
El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro established between Mexico City and Santa Fe for the colony of New Spain.
City founded 1706 AD/CE, in a wooded area along the east bank of the Rio Grande river.
City named after Viceroy of New Spain who was the 10th Duke of Alburquerque; 1st ‘r’ dropped to ease spelling and pronunciation.
City population: over 560-thousand, metro area over 910-thousand.
City elevation, average: 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mile).
City shaped by Spanish presence, railroad, University of New Mexico, Route 66, Sandia National Laboratories, TV- & film-production.

Having arrived from our respective cities at sea-level, we needed about a day or two to adjust to 20% less atmosphere^# at the city’s mile-high elevation. Not only did the balloon festival exceed our expectations, we’re happy to share some of our favourite moments and places in and around “The Duke City”. With a limited number of days in the city, a rental car is the easiest way of getting around the city.

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