I really enjoyed my two days here in Hall. Today I started off with a guided tour of the city. There were only 3 of us and the other two were German so this poor tour guide had to repeat everything twice. Just so amazed at how bilingual they are and how freely they can switch languages. She then confirmed why I loved this little town so much. Today they were having a festival to celebrate the local pastry called Kiachlfest! It looked like a big donut topped with different toppings. As you can see by the pic, the closest two are filled with ratatouille, the top one is chocolate, the lower one closest is sauerkraut and pork and the last one was just powdered sugar. I wanted to try one but I was still full from breakfast. But I’m going to ask NC to add this to their State Fair menu. Should give deep fried Oreos a run for their money! Lol
They also had an Austrian Oompah band playing for entertainment. Check out the guys big belts (looks like something out of a World Wrestling Title!). For you videophiles, I have one of them playing as well as people dancing so let me know if you want to see it.
Then I decided to do my own version of the Hop on Hop Off Bus. My hotel had given me a card for free bus transportation around the area so I went to check out some of the little towns. First was Thaur and then Wattens. Just took some pics of the low lying clouds against their buildings and the mountains. I also included a pic of a cute church. They were having a wedding inside and I kept waiting for the bride and groom to come out so I could get their pic but my bus was coming and I had to go.
And then I started on my spiritual pilgrimage to the little town of Absam. There lies the story of the miracle at the Shrine of Our Lady of Absam.
On a snowy Jan 17, 1797, eighteen year old Rosina Buecher was quietly sewing at the family dinner table when she felt a sudden terror. Her father, who was at work in the salt mine, came immediately to her mind and she feared he had been in a terrible accident.
Instinctively, she looked out the window – and beheld quite an unexpected sight. An image of a beautiful young woman had appeared in the windowpane next to her. She called to her mother, who saw it too, and they both thought it must be the Blessed Virgin. They contacted the parish priest and alerted the neighbors, and everyone agreed the image was a portrait of the Virgin Mary.
Rosina’s mother worried the image was a bad sign, but Rosina herself hoped it was a message that her father and brother would return home safely despite her premonition. Indeed they did and, moreover, reported that they had barely escaped involvement in an accident at the salt mine.
The parish priest had the windowpane removed for examination by experts, who discovered that the image disappeared when submerged in water, but reappeared as before when dry. The origin of the image was declared undetermined, and both the priest and bishop declared the image to be miraculous.
The window was returned to the Buecher family, but at the request of the villagers they donated it to the parish church for veneration. News of it quickly spread, and pilgrims began to flock to Absam to pray before the image.
Soon, miraculous healings began to occur after praying to Our Lady of Absam. Those who were healed donated ex-votos of small paintings to the church, most of which depict a sick person lying in bed or a worshipper at prayer, with the words ex-voto (“out of thanks”), a date, and a small image of the apparition (see pic). I also included a pic of the glass pane where you should be able to see the image (if you can’t, ouch that may be a really bad sign for you! Lol) It actually was hard to see at first and you could only see it at the right angle. Very interesting!
After all that, I came home to another great meal at the hotel. Tonight I had roast pork with dumplings and a salad but these Austrian “dumplings” were more like a bread stuffing (and very good) rather than like the German potato dumplings I had the other day.
Well I’m off to Salzburg tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Jeff
PS: Happy First Day of Fall! Fun Fact – It’s called the Fall Equinox and the word equinox comes from the Latin words “aequalis” and “nox” meaning equal night. On the Autumn (and Spring) equinox, day and night are both roughly 12 hours long over most of the world.
The Wandering Italian 