GENEVA Street Musicians

Two wonderfully talented and friendly street musicians: 

He, in the Rustafarian garb, from Ghana played a lovely guitar and sang with verve and gusto in the style of Bob Marley and she, with the bright smile beat a rhythmic drum and sang with sentiment and feeling. I could have listened to them for hours.

From Innsbruck to Zurich

Through alpine regions to the rolling hills we reach Switzerland's largest City : Zurich.
The financial centre of Europe, its 383,500 inhabitants enjoy one of the highest standards of living anywhere.
Beautifully located at the end of Lake Zurich it is a city deserving a visit much longer than the one day we were able to give to it.

above and below:

The romanesque style of the Protestant church "Grossmünster"

 imposes its powerful presence over the city.

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St. Peter's Church boasts the largest clock face of any church in Europe

Along the Limmat river imposing structures line the shore.

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The "Frauenmünster Church" and "St.Peter's Church" as seen from one of the many bridges crossing the Limmat.

Well, so much for Zurich. Just a little taste.

I hope it's enough to make you want to visit this interesting place.

from Braunau to Innsbruck

From Bleiburg to Braunau it is 337 km and from Braunau to Innsbruck it is a further 250 km.
The trip is absolutely no hardship. It takes you through the most beautiful country side on good roads with limited traffic. So... don't just sit around, go there !!!

DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK ON PICTURES FOR EXTRA SIZE

Leave the front door of our Hotel

"To the Golden Eagel"

turn left, and this is what you see:

The Hafelekar.

A  chain of mountains, seemingly

going on and on and on.

The Golden Roof in Innsbruck

The Golden Roof

in Innsbruck was decorated in the year 1500
with 2738 fire gilded copper tiles
by Emporer Maximilian I

There is a quaint story connected with the "Goldene Dachl"

The rumour had spread in Austria, that Emperor Maximilian

was broke. The Treasury was empty.

In  order to counteract this rumour, the Emperor caused this roof to be covered 

with shingles made of pure Gold.

When the job was done, the people said:

If he wasn't broke at first, he surely shot the wad with this stupid roof.

Below:

We stayed at the 4 Star Hotel, The Golden Eagle.

consider this: in 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean blue...

and finally discovered America.

98 years earlier travellers dined in the Restaurant to the Golden Eagle.

"The Melodies"

Didn't I tell you that I played in a Jazz band, called 

"The Melodies" ?

well, here we are, about 1949 / 50

I'll give you 7 guesses which one I am.

First Leg of our MiniVac

I've told you that Christin and I went on a 10 day trip to Geneva, Switzerland. Our first stop was In my Old Home Town, Braunau am Inn ( on the river Inn).
About this town and about this part of my life I could write a book. I lived there from the age of 5 (1937) until I started to work and live in the Park Hotel in Linz (1953), but still kept coming back "home" until 1955 when I left Austria for my new home Canada in May of 1955.
Braunau is an absolutely beautiful town which has kept its charm from 'long ago', but is not averse to new trends and ideas. 
The river, Inn, invited us from early days to becoming good paddlers in kayaks and proficient swimmers,
and the river forest ( the Au ) growing for miles along the river shores, bacame an El Dorado for all of us.

From the age of 9 until almost 13 I marched, first with a fanfare and then with a big drum, up and down the main square as a member of the music group, called "Fanfarengruppe der Hitlerjugend, Braunau am Inn".
With me marched my good friends Karli (later Charly) Reicheneder and Fredi Aigner along with about 25 other enthusiastic musicians. Charley became an absolutely first class Clarinet and Tenor Sax player, making musik his life's work and Freddy Aigner became one of Austria's foremost drummers, ending up as the percussionist of the Symphonie Orchestra of Innsbruck. As you can see, I was in fine company.
Years later, in 1948 Charly invited me to join his Jazz band, "the Melodies" as their bassist and I was proud to become a member of this wonderful organisation.

All of this and much more was "Braunau" for me. The place where I grew from a child to a boy, to a teen-ager and finally to a young man.

So, let me show you a few pictures which I took during my last one day visit:

Stadtplatz 22, the house of my youth

and behind, the 100 meter high steeple of 

the Catholic church.

The Hotel Post, owned and operated by an old friend: 

Hans Lettner. 

this is now our home when we visit G.O.B.

The Main Square .. Der Stadtplatz during Market Day.

Back again Jiggedy-Jog

After a 10 day trip to Geneva we are back again in Bleiburg, Austria.
I will soon post a few pictures taken along this trip.