Alps

Today for me was a dream come true. After so many years of watching "The Sound of Music" I finally was able to hike in the Alps. But first, let me backtrack a little. We arrived in Schladming on Wednesday, driven here by a wonderful retired Doctor and Rotarian by the name of Vanner. It was a 3 hour drive through mountains and valleys that defy description. Vanner has hiked up all of the highest peaks of Austria and remembers WWII. He was drafted into the Austrian military and was discharged 2 days before the end of the war and remembers walking home to the city of Graz with hundreds of refugees before the ceasefire 2 days later.
We arrived in Schladming; everywhere you look you want to take a picture but a picture simply cannot describe the beauty of this area of our world. The mountains reach to the sky. The flowers are in bloom and the birds are singing. The people are simply gorgeous and so friendly. There are several people who still wear the traditional clothing because they are trying very hard to hold on to the things that make this country special.
I am living with a doctor of manual medicine and his wife who is a physical therapist. They have 3 children who have just arived for the weekend; Lena is 21, Mattiaus is 20 and Lisa is 17. I have visited Dr. Fritsch's practice and shared philosophy's with him. It is very interesting to hear the point of view from someone outside the US.
Schladming is a small city, 20,000 people and most of the families know each other well. They have an active Rotary club of 35 members and they have 1 or 2 members joining each year.
This is a skiing community. They host the World Cup Slalom skiing competition and about 50,0000 people are here during that time. This is also a traditional Austrian Community and they have a special way of dressing and still have a weekly farmer's market each Friday... I visited the market today with the 83 year old mother of Dr. George Fritsch and bought a bottle of oil typical for this area made from the seed of a pumpkin-like squash.
This afternoon I hiked with Dr. Fritsch and his wife to an Alpine Lake. It was a dream come true for me. There was still snow in patches and it felt very good to take some snow and put it on the back of my neck. I can just imagine Brody and Rylie, they would definitely want to have a snowball fight! We hiked across suspension bridges that took us above the treetops. I saw beautiful Alpine flowers and I can truly say that, in Austria, the hills really are alive with the sound of music!

Schladming, Austria