Salzburg 3

Thursday, 9-25.  Temp: 10°C, 50°F, cloudy but nice with prospect of sunshine later.  

Today is Marionette Theatre day in Salzburg, Die Zauberflöte, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  The show was very good, we enjoyed it a lot.  And my getting there and back home at night, came off without a hitch !  

I'm actually really impressed with the sizing of everything here.  When I described sizes of stuff in Italy, I think that they have gone a little overboard.  But here in Austria (and Germany) things are smaller and more compact for a reason, it seems.  I really welcome smaller fridges, smaller sinks, smaller stores, smaller packaging, etc, because a lot of it makes sense for people here, it saves waste, it saves the environment, people here a extremely green conscious.  The emphasis is on smaller and  compacter.   Everything in the US it seems is so geared for mass consumption.   

Here in St. Gilgen a curious thing happens when it comes to heating.  There is a plant here that burns wood by-products and pellets, for the whole town, to create steam and that steam gets delivered to houses that are hooked up to the system and then they pay for that service by the month.  The initial hook up is expensive if you are not already hooked up, but after that the cost is reasonable.  How smart is that ??

Today, Friday, we decided not to go to the Munich Oktoberfest by train.  The weather was not nice, too many people, my body was aching here and there and I was generally too tired and lazy, besides I was there the last time.  Runi had visitors and we just took it easy, relaxed, emailed, wrote and read and snacked. 

I was going for breakfast material this morning in this strange car of ours.  It is a Skoda station wagon as I mentioned earlier, it has so many bells and whistles that one would have to take a course to learn all their uses.  When you lock it in the evening, it not only locks it, turns off all the lights, naturally, but also folds in the side view mirrors !  At night when you unlock it, it not only unfolds the mirrors again but also has lights on them to show you where the door is and shines the light to get in the car.  Then there is the stopping of the engine every time it comes to a stop at a stop light, very disconcerting.  As soon as you take the foot off the break, the car starts again !!!  It seems hard on the battery but easy on gas, perhaps.  

A most relaxing day !!