Wunderbare Aussichten fürs Leben.
It was a warm, sunny day – high 20s. Tuesday the 16th July, 2019. 59 years and 364 Days after Achim was born. We were pretty busy working on the mill and I had a physiotherapy appointment in Aigen-Schlägl that I didn’t want to be late for. It was afternoon before we remembered that we still had to fence off part of the yard for the horses because everything else was already grazed off. So we worked hard until minutes before I had to head off to my appointment. But I had a surprise for Achim: After Aigen-Schlägl I wanted to take him to Lipno to a concert of Ivan Hlas in the tree top walk at the Moldau dam in the Czech Republic and camp there later. In the hurry we were in we couldn’t pack properly but we headed off anyway.
Ivan Hlas Trio
We got to Lipno about 1/2 hour before the concert and decided to go to the campground first and put up our tent so we didn’t have to do that after dark. We also weren’t sure whether we could still get in after 9 pm. So that’s what we did. It was getting rather cool but all I had with me was the summer dress I was wearing, a broad scarf and a pair of yoga pants and a long sleeve T-shirt to sleep in. Achim was wearing denims and a polo shirt but he had a jacket.
We found the directions to the tree top walk and found out that we had to take the chair lift up the mountain. The trip was wonderous. The light was fading, the moon was rising and we were able to hear music from afar. Up and up we went until we finally arrived at the top station, got off and saw the tower infront of us. We bought tickets and walked up. Achim had to try all the wobbly walks for kids and the young at heart. Ivan Hlas and his band welcomed us with „big beat“ music. A kind of soft rock. We loved it. While night was falling we walked all the way up, saw the red moon. Watched the partial eclipse of the moon sneek in, shivered, listenend, danced and were just happy to be alive.
Camping for Oldies
After the concert we went back to our tent and noticed that our sleeping bags and the fact that we were on an airbed was way too cold. There was nothing much we could do. The hotels were closed, so we froze our a… off until the morning.
We had a good breakfast and drove home. Got changed, grabbed our rubber dinghy and headed off to the Danube to our boat, where we spent another night.
Thursday and Friday we worked hard to get set up for the guests that were coming on Friday and Saturday. We got beer tables and benches, put up umbrellas, cooked and baked like mad, planted flowers, swept yards, and bought drinks.
On Friday night at about 6 pm Achim’s nephew Philip and his girl-friend rolled in, followed by Achim’s long standing friend Manni (Manfred), Philip’s mum Kirsten and his former girl-friend Mimi. Instead of working we had dinner and caught up some.
For the party I had made two vegetarian lasagne (ricotta, spinach), Pastitio, Sacher Torte, Zuccini cake, Mimi made potato salad, Kirsten and Kati make Souvlaki, Nisha brought Tsatziki, Touli (a vegetable stew) and Galaktobouriko, Brigitte (Angerer Farm) brought Tiramisu, Zupfbrot (a type of bread), lettuce, Sabine brought a pasta salad. Nisha’s mother-in-law brought wonderful home made pickled eggplant and tomatoes. We had enough bread to feed an army, tons of corn cobs and generally could have fed another 20 people easily.
Kinder lieben Eis!
Although some people didn’t show, we had 27 people come. All the adults of Rastbuechl were here bar the publican. Two of Achim’s sisters and their families drove a long way to be able to be here, old friends, new friends, and our growing family. It was happy, „foodful“, lovely afternoon. In the evening Tiziano came with the ice cream van and at night the Rastbuechl crew sat until 3 am.
Achim’s biggest present – from nearly all the guests – was a picture painted by his former boss Franz Atomir, in 1988. (If you want to see it, go here and look at page 39.) It touched him so much this wonderful man started to quake and had tears in his eyes. Danke, Mrs Schuster for organizing this special gift.
Sunday Breakfast
On Sunday we „killed“ Achim’s 60th „Brez’n“ for breakfast while it rained and our guests were getting ready to leave one by one. 6 days of celebration, hard work and party has come to an end. We are emotional, happy, grateful, touched and want to thank each and everyone who thought of Achim on the day and who helped make this party so memorable. Thank you Agi for the dishes, Oswald for the tables and benches and everyone for the fantastic food! One negative thing did happen, our very young white dove got taken by a bird of prey.
Now, while I was writing this, the phone rang and we have more people coming this weekend. Party end to end.
Our home
For those of you who wonder how we could have moved to „such a remote area“ let me tell you. We are 1/2 hour from Passau, little over one hour from Linz, 2 hrs from Prague, Vienna, Munich and Nuremberg. 1/2 hour to the Lipno (Moldau) dam and from there to UNESCO town Czeske Krumlov, 15 min to the snow fields in winter and cross country right outside the door. How long does it take you to get from A to B in a city? We are more central then we ever were in our previous homes and we live in a region where life is still a little slower then elsewhere. We have a quality of life that we never ever thought we could have. We need very little to live as nature provides for at least 9 months of the year. WE LOVE IT! If you haven’t been here, come and see. We’ve found new friends and we are still in touch with old ones.
Love and hugs, Achim & Helena