Category Archives: Austria

Weekend Hits

Posted on by
Reply

Things you might find interesting, but I haven’t had the time or inclination to blog about:

  • With the world’s focus on asset bubbles, how is it that I didn’t sniff the garlic bubble?  The Financial Times reported last week that the price of garlic has risen 15-fold in Beijing markets since March.  Seems that Chinese farmers (the world’s biggest garlic growers) had reduced acreage in the pungent bulb, but had not anticipated that consumers would think that garlic wards off swine flu.  Hey, it works against vampires and unwanted dates, doesn’t it?  So now there is garlic hoarding in China and schools buying garlic in bulk to serve in school lunches.
  • Friends Kathryn and Craig Hall made it into the New York Times last Sunday.  Kathy was my ambassador in Vienna and the boss impressed the wine-making Austrians when she served her own excellent cabernets at Embassy dinners.  The Times article, naturally enough, is about Hall Vineyards in Napa Valley. I just might open a bottle of Hall merlot this evening.
  • The Chinese wedding market is not one I follow.  I have been married nearly forty years, so the latest trends  for wedding spending in China are not on my screen.  But that is what the South China Morning Post looked at this week.  Having lived in Taiwan, it did not knock me over that a lot of money is spent on jewelery and that each Chinese bride must have at least two wedding outfits – one Chinese, one Western.  What did make me sit up was the construction boom for small apartments and houses, with purchases by newly weds potentially sopping up 16% of the entire Chinese market for new residential construction.  That’s a lot of work for architects and construction firms, a big market for materials, and a huge opportunity for all the goods that one needs to set up a household.  Of course, much of that will be supplied from Chinese factories, but certainly not all.
  • Currency fluctuations are a two-edged sword, each rise or fall in a currency helps some and hurts others.  There was an interesting take on the falling U.S. dollar and the rising Canadian dollar in the New York Times this week.  I don’t follow ice hockey out here in Hawaii, but apparently exchange rates are contributing mightily to the prominence of Canadian teams in the National Hockey League.  I guess I am climatically challenged.  I think I’ll go paddle my outrigger.

Checking Out Czechs

Posted on by
1

Český Krumlov – Driving from Austria into the Czech Republic revealed a stark picture of recession for the first time on this journey. We crossed the border north of Linz bound for Český Krumlov. It wasn’t the proliferation of casinos on the Czech side of the border that caught our attention. This is an agricultural area with low population density, but we were surprised at the immediate difference between the well-groomed Austrian fields and the less-cared-for Czech farms. An even stronger image was the number of prostitutes waiting on the country roads we were driving. In the first five kilometers across the border we must have seen at least three dozen young women (girls, really) in provocative poses at bus stops, by dirt roads, or just by the highway. I’m not sure if this is a comment on the Czech economy, Austrian men, or both.

Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov

Our mood lightened considerably upon pulling into Český Krumlov, a UNESCO World Heritage site, that has been one of our favorite places for years. Truly worth the journey, Český Krumlov is largely unchanged since the 15th century and boasts a superb castle with dynamite views.  One of our favorite things to buy in Český Krumlov is marvelous reproductions of Renaissance glassware – the sort with bubbles in the glass and rough places for greasy fingers to hold on to.

We left the Czech Republic through an extremely rural area before crossing into Bavaria. This crossing featured few people and no prostitutes.

Vienna’s Lookin Good!

Posted on by
Reply

Klosterneuburg – We are staying in Klosterneuburg, a suburb on the north side of Vienna, just over the hill from the house in Grinzing where we lived for four years. Like Illmitz in the previous post, Vienna appears to be weathering the recession well. There is obvious stimulus money being spent, as many of Vienna’s streets in the First District are torn up for improvements. The Austrians seem to have become Keynesian enough to target much of their stimulus package at infrastructure to get the money moving into the economy quickly. That said, there are other signs of the recession: shops that don’t seem quite as full as they were the last time we visited, and a marked reduction in the number of Turkish and Middle Eastern faces about the city. One assumes they were among the first to be let go.

Shopping on the Graben

Shopping on the Graben

Friends in Vienna tell me that, of course, Austria has felt the pain of countries further east because the Austrian banks were and are among the primary lenders in this part of the world. Others say that Austria’s industrial companies seem as busy as ever. One commented that real estate prices really haven’t dropped, especially among high-end properties. The city and the surrounding countryside seem as prosperous as ever. Perhaps income is down slightly, but past savings will keep this economy going for a long while to come.

Tourism note: Vienna itself has enough top sites to keep any visitor occupied, but give some thought to seeing the abbey at Klosterneuburg.  This abbey was founded in the 11th century by the Babenburgs and the Habsburgs added a palace.  The tours are fascinating.