Hello Everyone

Hello everyone! I have been in Austria now for 4 days. We arrived in Vienna Saturday afternoon and then we were driven to Waidhofen an der Ybbs. There is another Waidhofen in Austria; this one is called "an der Ybbs" because it is along the Ybbs river that eventually runs into the Danube river not far from here. Waidhofen is a medieval town; the first settlements here occured more than 1000 years ago and Waidhofen was first written of in the year 996. 11 years ago they celebrated their 1,000 year anniversary. There are about 20,000 people living in this area although it has a very rural-small town atmosphere. Today was the weekly market day, a tradition that dates back for centuries. The farmers outside of town bring in their goods; even live chickens and pigs, to be sold at the market on the Upper Main Street. Here the difference between upper and lower Main Street is an actual height difference of about 4 stories and the buildings are built right into the hillside. All of the original buildings have multiple levels of cellars and many buildings are connected through the cellars so if the town was invaded you had a place to escape! There is a castle that was last owned by the Rothschilde family around 100 years ago. It is now owned by a museum and is a cultural center where artists in town can exhibit their musical and artistic talents. We heard an opera singer there Saturday night. Although I could not understand a word of the music, his voice was incredible! There is a very old church next to the castle and the bells are ringing all day long. On Sunday we took a walking tour of the town with Peter, an eye surgeon, who lives and works in Waidhofen. He is a member of Rotary and he was born in Ethiopia to Austrian parents and grew up near an American military base so he speaks very good English! He travels back to Ethiopia to do surgeries for people who could otherwise not have surgery and has worked very hard to improve the quality of drinking water in Ethiopia. He is a wonderful humanitarian. Peter also showed us his home and took us to visit a local blacksmith who has returned to the traditional way of working with iron. This area of Austria is known as the "Iron working" area because it was the center of the iron trade for centuries. We also travelled up into the hills to see where the lumberjacks would send the logs down the river in order to make charcoal to burn for the blacksmith's fires. The fires need to burn hot and for a long time! We hiked through a valley and I saw snow covered mountains that seemed to go right to the sky! I drank from a fresh mountain stream and the water was the best I have ever tasted. The people here believe that it is the fountain of youth so I drank a lot of it...in fact, I splashed it all over just to be sure I would get the most benefit!!For the past 2 days I have been visiting different people who are working in health care. There is a lot of difference between how we take care of our health in the United States and how they do it here. It has been very interesting and I have a lot of new ideas that I will be sharing with other healthcare providers when I get home. I have seen a lot of children! They look a lot like the kids at Middleburgh Elementary school! They get to go home and eat their lunches if their family lives in town and their school day is much shorter than ours! They also learn about 4 languages on average before graduating. The Austrian people are very friendly and they laugh a lot. They are very gracious and our time in Waidhofen has been wonderful and beyond any expectation I ever had. The mountains are so tall and green and the houses and buildings are charming. This town belongs in a story book. I can imagine dwarves and princesses and if I try very hard I can almost hear the sound of horses hooves on the cobbled streets.I miss everyone in Middleburgh but I am having a wonderful time.Kim

Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Austria