Of happy pigs, old trains, and cabbages

Austrian Adventures

I want to continue telling you about my Austrian adventures. For a week in August my daughter and I joined my parents in the Zillertal in Tirol. We witnessed old traditions and visited happy cows, we went on a dangerous hike, and searched for fairytale creatures in the woods.

The hotel/restaurant we were staying at has not yet developed complete self sufficiency but can provide certain things for its everyday business. Thus most of the meat served comes from their own farm, which in our present day is amazing. For example we went to visit some pigs.
They were healthy and happy. Munching away at clovers, very chique left overs from the kitchen (the cuisine here is exquisite), they seemed to be smiling at us. These piggies were living on straw, not on some metal things like you see most of the time now. I discovered that pigs are very clean animals. I had seen pigs before as a kid, but never payed a lot of attention to their hygiene. Every now and then a pig would leave and hide behind a wall to pee. They have their living and eating quarters and their toilet. So why must we always say that one is dirty as a pig?
Is it because they like covering themselves in dirt to avoid the flies? Is it because they go crazy when they get served their lunch?
These pigs were happy, healthy, and had great hygiene standards.
Not only the meat came from home production, also the flowers used to decorate the bedrooms and the restaurant tables were home grown. Ingredients for salads, and soups as well.

Call me an ignorant, I had no idea what a cabbage looked liked whist still growing. I grew up in urban areas with no one growing cauliflower in their garden. I was impressed by the size and beauty of the different cabbages that were growing in this garden.

Traveling to Austria, we managed to catch a glimpse of the Orient Express. It was not the only old and historical train that we would see on our trip. In the Zillertal there is the Zillertalbahn, an old steam train that has slimmer rails then what is used in other valleys. I did not manage to catch it for a photo this time. But I took a few of the Achenseebahn, or Achensee Railway, which is according to wikipedia “Europe’s oldest cog railway which is still steam operated”.

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Pictures hosted on flickr
© Solveig Werner 2015. All rights reserved.