Happy 40, my French brother!

Since more than 6 years Emmanuel from Angers (France) and myself can call each other very close friends! Being National IRO´s from our Round Table Association at the same periode we met the first time in some international meetings.

Our friendship was growing from meeting to meeting and reached a real personal highlight in 2004 when Emmanuel (called "Manu") asked me to be his wedding-witness in Angers!!!

Since this moment we´re like brothers and meet each other several times a year.

Now, 10 days ago Manu got 40 (!) and for me it has been really obvious to travel to France and help him in this "hard times"!

I spent 4 days in his house and had a real fantastic and relaxing time in the middle of his lovely family: his wife Isabelle, son Ugo (9 1/2) and "little baby-son" Timéo (2).

Manu is a real "gourmet" and connoisseur of French wines! - And me I´m always the big beneficiary of this comfortable situation.....

I´ve been honourary guest at a Round Table Meeting of RT 336 Angers (big fun!), have been taken to his private wine-cellar (in the wonderful Loire-Valley) and have been spoiled during a wonderful private dinner with some tabler-friends in Manu´s house!

For his birthday I brought him a typical Austrian souvenir: an original Austrian Lederhose (leather shorts)! Now Manu is accepted as adopted Austrian - and is able to come to any folcloric festivals in my home-area.....

Alpine Pasture Jour-fixe

My boss, Director of BKS Bank Villach, M.B. Georg Ahammer ("Atschi") every month calls all branch-managers of his region (9 branches) for a working-meeting - called "Jour-fixe".

But once a year this meeting is special!

As a lover of nature, hunting and hiking - "Atschi" wants to hold this meeting in the mountain-area around our town Villach - and all the managers meet for a full afternoon with a hiking-tour followed by a working-session and a very, very comfortable and easy supper (with couple of beers, of course....!!...).

This year´s the group followed my suggestion to climb our "house-mountain" Dobratsch and to have the meeting and the "alpine manager-party" at the "Rosstratten-Stueberl" (alpine hut) where the owner is a client of our branch!

The weather-forecast has not been the best - but thanks-to-got it stayed dry and we reached the peak after 1 1/2 hours walk (see group-picture). After a "beer-break" at the peak´s-hut we walked down for another hour, had our working session and then having been spoiled with culinaric highlights: spare-ribs, fried potatoes, cabbage and horseradish! Delicious!!!

"Wednesday´s-Bike-Team"

Since about 8 - 10 years a group of Mountainbike-lovers meet regularely each Wednesday for a joint bike-tour. Between the months of April and October meeting-point and meeting-time are the same and well-known by today about 25 members. You don´t have to call friends to go on a ride together - just come on Wednesdays at 5.30 p.m. - and meet on average 10-12 Bike-friends!

Here´s our website: http://www.villacherwadlbeisser.gnx.at/ - and here are some picture from last week´s ride:

Champagne Party

In May or June this year my bank-team and me - while discussing about the "sense of life" - have been deciding that you don´t have to wait for a "special moment" to open a bottle of champagne - just open and enjoy it as soon as you´ve got one!

Well, as I´ve got a nice "little" bottle of French Champagne for my birthday - I invited my entire bank-team for a nice little champagne-party - but it needed to wait until the end of the holiday´s season to have everybody on board...

This evening the moment has arrived: we met in my appartement - and we did it!!!

Beside this we had a nice Itlalian supper, some Tiramisu and excellent Italian red-wine - and we watched a picture-show from my Bhutan- and Nepal-trip(s) in 2004 and 2007.

Nice evening - fantastic team-spirit with my working-"friends" - great to have Brigitte, Martina, Sabine, Franz & Manfred!

Works outing to Friuli (Italy)

Once a year the whole bank-team of Villach-area (9 branches) is going on a fun-trip!

This year´s target: Friuli area (Italy) - just next door to our region....

Schedule for the day: City of Venzone (breakfast and guided tour), Municipality of San Daniele (worldfamous for "Prosciutto" - the San Daniele Ham), Aquileia (ancient Roman city), Grado (Harbour-, Spa- and Beach-Town / located at Adriatic Sea) and finally Municipality if Cividale (medieval center / wine-area).

The weather forecast haven´t been the best - but nevertheless about 40 of us climbed on the bus early morning. - Fun started immediately - as the "bad boys (and girls)" found their seats next to each other (as always.....).

First stop in Venzone we had a typical Italian breakfast (cappuccino and brioche) and a very interesting guided city-tour (almost the whole municipality have been destroyed during an earthquake in 1976 and originally re-constructed the last twenty years).

Around lunch-time we reached San Daniele where we had (of course!) a fantastic prosciutto-tasting (accompanied by good Friulian wines...)!

Then the weather-forecast turned to be right - and it has been raining cats & dogs.

Therefore we didn´t stop for the Aquileia-ruins (just saw some of them throught the bus-windows.....) and spent the whole afternoon in a nice bar in Grado - enjoying red wine and grappa (grape-based pomace-brandy)!

The dinner we had in one of the best restaurants of Friuli Area - in the town-center of Cividale - the big and fantastic final of a real nice and funny day!

Coming back some minutes after midnight - being tired from singing and laughing all the way back....

Hiking-Tour "Saualpe"

After having a very early flight from vcfoo-meeting in Cologne yesterday, Sunday (get-up at 4.45 / flight at 7.00), - I had a full day for another hiking-tour in our beautiful mountain-area!

Eva, a friend I met last weekend on the way down from my "Mittagskogel-Tour" has suggested to hike more on the east-end of our region - as the weather-forecast has been reporting about clouds coming from south-west!

Her plan sounded great (have never been in this part of the Alps) and so we planed a nice round.

We did two peaks ("Ladinger Spitz", 2.079 m / 6.820 ft and "Gertrusk", 2.044 m / 6.706 ft) - quite close from each other. - Quite windy up there - but beautiful! The landscape for me seemed to be quite similiar to the Scottish Highlands (have been there end of May this year!) - very soothing....

On the way down the same like last weekend: loosing track, scouting around, finding and picking mushrooms, finding right footpath again and after 5 hours reaching the final mountain-cabin - where we had a nice rest in the afternoon-sun and a good alpine supper.....

vcfoo-meeting in Cologne

During the Round Table #11 Euro-meeting 2003 in Ravenna (Italy) a bunch of close friends decided that one meeting per year isn´t enough.....

The "vcfoo"-group has been born! vcfoo = very close friends of our´s!

Me as the first voted chairman together with my friend Hannes have organised the first vcfoo-meeting in Austria (ski-weekend)!

The 6th vcfoo-weekend have now been organised in Cologne (Germany) - arriving there on Thursday evening and meeting the first friends Hans-Joerg (host), Kendal (Scottland), Gildas (France), Gunnar & Nanny (Norway), Jack & Iris (Netherlands). Friday three more vcfoo-members arrived: Birger (Denmark), Nicolas (France) and Charles (Scottland).

The program has been rich in varied activities: nice dinners, cool bars, visit to Bonn (former German capital), House of History (museum), jogging in the morning, visit to Cologne Cathedral (one of the biggest cathedrals in the world - overtopping the whole city!) - here we had a "special" guided tour to the roof framework and the roof of the cathedral - really breath-taking! - Further we did a bicycle-tour along the Rhine-river, some shopping and finally we had a fantastic barbecue-party at Hans-Joerg and Evelin´s house - with unbelieveably lots of jokes, fun and laughs...!!!...

Nice side-story: Saturday night there´s been the soccer-game (World-Cup-Qualify) Austria against France - and the French friends Nicolas and Gildas didn´t take it serious when I told them the day before that Austria (as THE big outsider!) will win the match 3:1! - During the barbecue (I´ve been wearing an Austrian team-jersey) we´ve been following the live-ticker on internet - and it came as it had to come: Austria beates France 3:1..... (see picture of sad French fans....)!