Au(some)stria

Good morning! For some reason I woke up early this morning, and I thought I should take advantage of my extra awake time to write to all of you. Brenda and I will be leaving for the airport in about four hours where we will board a plane to the Big Apple. Once we arrive in New York later today, we will have been in four different countries over the last eight days. I've been having a great time bouncing around to different European locales, but then again I'm not the one who has to sing shortly after landing in each place. Brenda's most recent performance was part of the Schubertiade Festival in Schwarzenberg, Austria. She performed three pieces in an afternoon recital with two outstanding Swedish musicians. The performance was wonderful, and you can hear it yourself when the Austrian radio station Ö1 broadcasts it on Monday. You can find more information about the radio broadcast here (FYI, the broadcast is at 10 AM Austrian time which unfortunately means that anyone in the Americas will have to be awake in the middle of the night to hear it).

 A sign for the festival in Schwarzenberg.

 I went for a walk up the nearby mountain one afternoon and had a beautiful view of the town.

 Audience members milling about outside the performance hall during the intermission.

 Our hotel.

 During my walk I came across a friendly cat. 

When it meowed it had an adorable Austrian accent.

And then I met another local resident.

Brenda and I have a friend named Andreas who has worked for the Schubertiade for the past couple of years. This was our first opportunity to visit him in Austria, and we had a great time catching up.

It's time to start squeezing as much into our suitcases as possible. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday from Santa Fe!