Days fly past ...

... yes they really do at the moment. And that is why we only found time this weekend to fulfill dad's birthday present - his birthday was already one month ago ...
Our (Edith, Richard and mine) present for him was that we would go to Linz and see the exhebitions of the world's best photographs 2006. Linz is only about 1 hour drive east of Salzburg and we left on late morning on Saturday. The exhibition was good, we all enjoyed having a look at the pictures. Some were really amazing and some of course I didn't like at all, especially those that were obviously edited. After visiting the exhibition we went for a nice Austrian lunch and a coffee and cake in one of the best coffee-houses in Austria I know of. In the late afternoon we visited the Botanical garden - well, the glass house of the botanical garden, where they had lots of exotic butterflies flying free. It was beautiful and a great end to a really nice day!

I also want to post a few pictures today of Hanna and her friends. Since last June we are having a "Babyclub" here in Henndorf. 5 mums with kids between 6 months and 1 year and 3 older siblings (between 2 and 3 years) are meeting every 2 weeks at somebody elses place. Obviously that is always a very loud and messy ocasion however it's great fun - not only for the kids!
Also Hanna and I go to an organised Babyclub. Part of that Babyclub is a 1 year old girl called Julia. Julia was born without hands. She is an amazing girl. She crawls, picks up balls and books as well as chains just as well as any other Baby in that group. She is quite an inspiration concerning will and determination!

Have a great day!
Christine

Venice

Late last night we returned from a weekend in Venice. As usual we had a great time and also Hanna seemed to have enjoyed herself. We left Henndorf on Friday early afternoon and arrived in Mestre just in time to have a nice italian dinner. Mestre is an industrial town on the mainland just opposite Venice. After a late breakfast on Saturday we took the train to Venice. It took us about 10 minutes and as trains are leaving every couple of minutes it is very convinient. We spent the day in the old city, just walking around, having coffees and enjoying the relatively warm weather.

Yesterday was the orienteering event and just in time for the start the sun came out. Richard and I both had relatively early start times and still the narrow roads where very crouded in some places and we had to slow down quite a lot. Nevertheless I had a good run and even after studying the map again and again I think I made the correct route choices. I even managed to run quite fast in the beginning - well at least it felt fast - however it felt like I was slowing down the longer the race took. However that was also a result of the way the course was set - the beginning was technically easy and the last 2/3 were very tricky! Of course I was very pleased to learn that I actually won! My first win in Venice! The drive back was not as long as expected but meeting the snow north of the Alps was a bit of a shock after having drunk our coffee in the sun at 4 o'clock in the afternoon :-).

I hope you guys also had a great weekend!
Christine