Austria & Switzerland

We buckled up and made our way to Austria, Innsbruck. It was all systems go for Christmas and many street performers were already set up when we got there.

The in thing in Europe, in terms of street performance, seems to be posing as a statue for many long hours! Some of the artists were outstanding. It must take them hours to prepare and to stand for almost the whole day in the brisk winter sunshine, well I take my hat off to them! For me, I stayed sheltered by the wooden market huts and kept my jumper on, thank you very much!

Austria is very beautiful indeed, again so clean. By this time, I wondered if perhaps our country is actually quite dirty and that is why the litter free crisp and pristine streets were such a surprise to me!

There are smoking cafes in Austria for those who want to have a drink and a ciggie. That seems like quite a good compromise to me. That down a back lane, smokers can huddle together in the warmness of a bar to have a quick cuppa and a puff, rather than have to loiter in the cold and drop their butts on the floor!

If I thought Austria was beautiful I was in for more sharp intakes of breathes when we got to Switzerland! Maybe more so because I hadn’t really known what to expect. I love the way that they make spaces into beautiful places, with art work and sculpture so that artefacts that we would normally insist need to be locked in glass cupboards to stop them being graffiti tagged, are part of street galleries overlooking the most beautiful lakes.

I played on the little balconies overlooking the river which make fabulous performance spaces off the main thoroughfare.

We travelled onto Lucerne to spend the evening. Whilst in town I found a great project called Supentag, which re-distributes the left over food from the hotels and restaurants to re-distribute and raise funds for those who are on a low income. I played ukulele whilst dinners sat in the candle lit tents.

Very early the next morning we made our way to the quayside so that we could see Lake Lucerne in its full glory. It was kissed by the bight sun and the icy fingers of a mist that hovered gently above the still waters. If peace and calm were a place, this would be it! Swans and boats slide together across the water with no effort, even the cold felt magical.

The laid back captain was excited as we were to see the mists rolling on the water in the sunrise. I was completely lost in the moment and as I stepped back to dry land I thought to myself, I am definitely coming back here one day.