Alex's Alliterative Adventures

September 23, 2008

I spent most of my second day in Austria driving with Felix and Nina to the tiny Austrian village of Obertraun. We stopped in Admont along the way to visit a monastery called Benediktinerstift Admont. The abbey contains a massive library, the biggest monastery library room in the world. It was built in 1074, and it comes fully equipped with fake bookshelves that cover hidden windows that doubled as emergency exits in dire times. We also saw books that were more than 1000 years old. It turns out that the scribes of old doodled as much as we do today.

The monastery also had an awesome TV.

When we’d had our fill of plasma screens and priestage, we took in the sights.

The restaurant was closed, so dinner was not one of those sights.

When we arrived in Obertraun, we met the owners of Landhaus Osborne, the wonderful country house we stayed in. They gave us the grand tour of their “humble establishment”, complete with heated garden gazebo and outdoor jacuzzi. The owners, retired project managers at Novell, said they loved skiing, mountains, and the quaint traditional Austrian life, so who better to ask for recommendations for local traditonal Austrian food? If you’re in the area, you’d be foolish to not order the garlic cream soup (Knoblauchcremesuppe) from Gasthof Höllwirt. It was without a doubt the best soup I’ve ever had:

Tip of the day: In English Canada, it’s common to wish someone a good night if you’re parting ways in the evening. In German, that’s reserved for wishing someone a good night’s sleep. So, telling a waitress to have a good night? Oh yes. Now that’s smooth.

We’re going to spend the rest of the night catering to Nina’s whims and smashing our heads against a 750 piece puzzle. Tomorrow’s trip to the ice caves should be fun…