Austrian DKT - Tour

English is at the bottom

Linz und DDSG

Wir stiegen ins Auto. Die Reise konnte beginnen. Doch wohin ging die Reise? Nach Italien? Nach Kroatien? Vielleicht sogar schon nach Kanada  ;-). Doch zu diesen Antworten muss ich immer wieder NEIN sagen. Wir machen die wahrscheinlich erste österreichische große kaufmännische DKT  Reise. Doch was ist DKT??? Ein Frühstücksmüsli? Ein Brotaufstrich? Vielleicht sogar eine Elektromarke . Erstaunlicherweise ist DKT keins von diesen Sachen sondern ein typisch österreichisches Brettspiel. In diesem Spiel kann man acht von Österreichs neun Hauptstädten kaufen und sich darauf Häuser und Hotels bauen. Wer auf einem Haus oder Hotel landet bezahlt. Vor der Bank und dem Gefängnis muss man sich in acht nehmen. Wer wird Milliardär und wer nagt am Bettlerstab? Wir werden probieren jedes Feld, jeden Betrieb, und jede Linie zu besuchen. Wetten werden gerne angenommen. Werden wir jedes Feld schaffen?

Unsere Reise begann mit einem kurzen Stopp bei unseren Großeltern, bevor wir am 18.8 nach Linz fuhren. Nach kurzer Zeit rollten wir an der Stifter Straße vorbei. Wir gingen dann die Stifter Straße hinunter und suchten Stifter Straße 19. Warum ausgerechnet Stifter Straße 19? Weil auf dem DKT Brett das Feld 19 die Stifter Straße ist wollen wir auch ein Foto mit der Hausnummer Stifter Straße 19. Innerhalb wenigen Minuten fanden wir Stifter Straße 19.  Ehrlich gesagt war die Stifter Straße nicht eine sehr schöne Straße

          

                                                                                                                                                           

Kurze Zeit später gingen wir zum Linzer Dom. Wiener bitte nicht weiterlesen. Wegen dem 4 Meter hohem Kreuz auf der Spitze vom Dom ist der Linzer Dom 1 ganzer Meter höher als der Stephansdom. Bitte erzähle das aber den Wienern nicht weiter. In der sind interessanterweise hinten auf den Glasfenstern Geschichten von Mönchen und Kaisern abgebildet. Erst vorne bei einem Bild von Jesus und wo der Altar sind sind Wunder, Geschichten und Gleichnisse von Jesus abgebildet.

Ein paar Ecken später befanden wir uns in der Landstraße. Diese Straße war wahrscheinlich die schönste Straße die wir von den drei besucht haben.  Eine lange Straße mit Geschäften, Häuser und so weiter und so weiter und so fort. Leider konnten wir hier nicht die Hausnummer finden. Na ja, nicht direkt.

Nachdem wir ein kleines beim Kunstmuseum Lentos gegessen hatten machten wir uns auf dem Weg zur auf der einen alt und zusammengefallen auf der andern Seite alt und schön und guterhaltenen  Museumsstraße. Die Nummer 22  war ein altes weißes Haus neben einem anderen alten Haus wo ein Honda Schild drauf war.

Gleich nachdem wir die Museumsstraße besucht hatten sprangen wir ins Auto um nach Melk zu fahren. Warum nach Melk? Um bei DKT Feld 13 zu erfüllen. Eine Donau Dampschifffahrt. Mit der DDSG Blue Danube.

                                                                                                        

                                            

Wir waren froh dass wir nicht um zwölf Uhr mit dem Schiff gefahren sind. Es stiegen soooooo viele Leute aus. Wir hatten nachher auf dem Schiff soooooo viel Platz.

Lange Zeit später fuhren wir nach Wien und ruhten uns erst mal gut aus. Was für ein langer Tag.

We got into the car. The journey could begin. But where was the journey going? To Italy? To Croatia? Maybe even already to Canada ;-). But I  have to say NO to these answers. We will probably make the first Austrian DKT trip. But what is DKT ??? A breakfast cereal, A sport? Maybe even an electronic market. Surprisingly, DKT is not one of these things but a typical Austrian Boardgame. In this game, you can buy eight of Austria's nine main cities and build houses and hotels on them. Anyone who lands on someone elses property has to pay. You have to whatch out that you do not get in trouble with the law or the bank. Who will become a billionaire and who will beg on the streets? Like Monopoly. We will try to visit every fiels. Bets are accepted. Will we be able to go to every field?

Our journey started with a short stop at our grandparents before we drove to Linz on the 18^th of August.  After a short time in Linz  we rolled past Stifterstrasse. We then went down Stifterstrasse and found Stifterstraße 19. Why Stiffterstraße 19? Because on the DKT board field 19 is the Stifterstrasse we also want a photo with the house number Stifterstraße 19. Within a few minutes we found Stifterstraße 19. . Honestly, the Stifterstrasse was not a very nice street.

A short time later we went to the Linz Cathedral. Viennese  please do not read on. Because of the

4 meter high cross on the top of the cathedral, the cathedral is one meter higher than

St. Stephen's Cathedral. But please do not tell the Viennese this. Interestingly, in the back of the church

on the windows, stories of monks and kings are showed. But at the front where the altar is and where

 the is a picture of Jesus parables, miracles and stories are shown on the glass windows.

A few corners later we were in the Landstraße. This street was probably the most beautiful street

 we visited from the three in Linz. A long street with shops, houses and so on and so on and so on. 

Unfortunately, we could not find the house number here. Well, not directly.

After eating a small lunch at the Lentos art museum, we made our way to the old and collapsed 

on the one side and new and beautiful and well-preserved on the other side Museumsstraße.

The number 22 was an old white house next to another old house where a Honda sign was on it.

Immediately after we had visited the museum street, we jumped into the car to go to Melk. Why Melk? 

To complete the field 13 of DKT. A Danube steamship ride.  With the DDSG Blue Danube.

We were glad that we did not go at twelve o'clock with the boat. There were soooooo many people on it.

We had soooooo much space on the ship at four thirty.

A long time later we drove to Vienna and rested and slept all night. What a long day.

A Late Rememberance of EASTER. By Jonathan.

I know that we haven't  written for a long time, but there was nothing going on. But now there is EASTER!!!!!!!  Everybody is normally happy when the EASTER holidays Start. So were Rebecca and Jonathan. On Friday a friend of Rebecca's came to play for the afternoon.  Rebecca's friend sleot over with her in the guests room upstairs. In Saturday morning Jonathan made pancakes for breakfast.  Rebecca's friend stayed for most of the day.

On Sunday after church Dominik and Jonathan went skiing. When they came back they were dead tired!!!! They said that the snow was really sticky. When they went full-speed they woiuld all of a sudden stop!!!!!  Jonathan fell head-first into a pile of snow. When he got up he had snow in his mouth and in his goggles!  They had to ski down really steep slopes to be able to ski. Even the 70% trail was hard to ski. But they made it!!!!! 

On Monday...STOP!!!!! How about I just tell you about EASTER Sunday?  Well, we went to church like normal but Jonathan got to preach with Dominik!!!!! They die a good job.  The kids all got to do an EASTER hunt in the church.

Then we went to Oma and Opa's (Austrian Grandma and Grampa's). There we had a good EASTER brunch with a lot of the family!!!!  Later the kids got to do another EASTER hunt. Everyone got their own basket. It was a nice EASTER! 

(Thank you, Jonathan, for  perservering in getting our EASTER blog finally finished. Thanks from Mummy who, unfortunately, hasn't taken the time to keep writing! Summer is here now and soon we will be off to England for our holiday. Hopefully there we can start blogging again!

Being back......

We have now been back for two months and finally I can sit down and write.  What is it like being back?  It is no where near as good as travelling!  There is endless cleaning and cooking and laundry, homework and youth groups, meetings and work.   This is normal life.  I know that.  But when I compare this 'normal life' to being together ALL THE TIME and doing everything TOGETHER, normal life isn't as nice.  The first few weeks that we were back almost everyone that I saw asked, "So, have you arrived yet in normal life?".   After being back for three weeks I'd heard it enough.  It is hard to say, 'Of course we have 'arrived' and we just have to accept how life is, but we still miss our time together'.   Some people were worried that I, the Canadian, would miss North America too badly having been back and would want to move over again.  No worries there.  It was great to be back and to see friends, but we are used to being in Europe.  Now, if God called us to move to England then that might be another story! ;-)

So, the flight back was fairly uneventful.  We had SO much baggage.  But the people at Air France were lovely and let us check some of our carry-on baggage.  That made it much easier. Jonathan, Josiah and I sat together and again I had a cot for Josiah to sleep in. The most memorable part of the flight came at the end when the man across the aisle from us was found to have stolen about 6 little bottles of wine and had drunk them all.  This was just before landing and the man essentially passed out, or was in a drunken stupor, didn't have his seat belt done up and was rocking then forwards and back when we were descending and landing.  Once he even went head-first into the seat in front of him!  The girls sitting beside him were a bit worried at first and then we all saw the humour in it. After landing the stewards let the girls off first (which were beside him) and then everyone else de-planed.  Finally they hauled him out and off of the plane, depositing the man beside the bathrooms at the gate.  What a lesson for Jonathan, who was sitting near him, on the wisdom of not over-indulging- if he remembers this when he is old enough to indulge!

My brother-in-law picked us up in Vienna and we made our was back to our flat where we had friends waiting to welcome us.  Heather and Günther and their two girls had come the day before from Germany to enjoy the snow and to have a New Year's party with us.  It was so wonderful to come in to a warm flat with a full fridge and friendly faces all around.  We had a nap and then celebrated!  So, our New Year's time was good. We weren't entirely on our own and were kept busy, catching up with everyone over the next few days.  It was good to have a week to get settled and over the jet-lag before school and kindergarten began.

Since then it has been great getting to see friends again and to meet a new family at the Schloss.
Their children and ours have since been playing together a lot and we are really pleased to have them as friends.
Jeremiah started at the kindergarten for the first time, leaving Josiah and I alone at home. After being together all the time for five months this was a big change for Josiah. At first he really didn't know what to do with himself when I had to clean or cook. Now he plays on his own or 'helps' me with laundry or cooking. Jeremiah loves his time in his group at kindy. At first he was unhappy that he isn't in Elena's group, but now he has his own friends and has adjusted. One big change for him was
language. We realised towards the end of our time in Canada that Jeremiah had forgotten how
to say some things in German, but this was much more apparent when he started kindergarten with
teachers who speak only German. Apparently Elena had to do some translation for him! Jeremiah had no trouble understanding what everyone else said because Dominik had spoken German with him throughout our trip. Now, however, he is back to normal! We haven't had this happen before with any of the others but then we had never spent so much time in the States or Canada before. Anyway, it is interesting to see how language develops in children when they have more than one language to learn.

In January we travelled up to Vienna one weekend to visit some good friends and to go to a
suprise birthday party for another. The Birthday Boy and his family live in Ireland but his wife was bringing him back to Austria for a party for him and a couple of other friends who were turning 40. He had no idea that he was going anywhere that weekend until she drove with him to the airport in Dublin! It was so good to see them again!  After we left the party, we headed out into the snowy streets of Vienna with Steve and Ria to find their car. Steve had dropped us off at the party and had then parked, something which can take time in Vienna. Well, we walked and walked and yet found no car. Steve had saved the name of the street on the navi on his mobile but then something
happened that he couldn't find the street name. In the end Dominik, Ria and I waited in a
sheltered garage entrance until Steve found the car. He finally did and we headed back to their
house, figuring that by this time Josiah would be up and crying. Miraculously he had slept the entire time that we had been away and didn't wake to be fed until 2am!  I was amazed, and still am as that was the only time he has done it yet!

January was a time of tests for the Jonathan and Rebecca and the rest of their classmates.  The semester marks are then sent out to the school of choice of the 4th years (Jonathan's class).  We were a bit stressed then because he needed really good marks to get into the school that we prefer (one that is located in a very old monastary, just for interest!)  It was founded in 1355!!!  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlierbach_Abbey).  We prayed about it and I tried to relax, I just don't like any of the other options, and then we found out that he is accepted.  He has to keep his marks high, which they should be if he isn't sloppy.  Next year he will be going to school by train.  This is a normal European concept but is really foreign for North Americans.  Anyway....

Apart from school and work keeping us busy, we have also been through the local village ski race.  Every year Dominik has competed and all the children have also competed since around 3.5-4 years of age.  Whenever they could steer and stop on their skiis.  Dominik starts them skiing when they are two and the ski race is a family highlight for us.  Even if we don't have winners we have always enjoyed a day out on the mountain, including myself and whatever little baby is in tow.  This year was no exception. Steve and Ria and family were visiting and snow boarding and my father-in-law came to ski with the kids as well.  It was a good year for us and they all placed:  Jeremiah- 2nd, Elena- 1st, Rebecca- 2nd, Jonathan- 1st, and Dominik was first in his age category as well as being this year's village champion!  It is all in good fun and we had a beautiful day out.

So, on goes life....  I will try to be more regular with writing as I really enjoy our little blog.  I enjoy seeing who's reading it too!  But sometimes it is hard to get motivated, when I think back on the lovely time that we had, compared with the work that we have now.  Still, there is always something going on, including planning our next adventure!  This summer we will take our holiday in England!  Two friends and one young boy will be travelling with us and I'm in the middle of sorting out where we can stay, with whom and for how long.  Then we will move on to what to see and do.  I used to live in England and so it is familiar to me, planning isn't hard.  Well, except that there is more to see and do than we will have time for.  But!  We have already bought tickets to go and see Highclere Castle, the set of Downton Abbey!  I am so excited about that!  No, NOT Dominik ;-).  The two girls coming with us and myself, the Downton fans, we'll go.  This will leave Dominik with 6 children but we will reward him.  Let's see what else I can plan!