Our Temporary Quarter in Upper Austria

(regional name "Pernzell")

The intention to move to a geographically more central area of Austria - faster to reach from Germany but also from our northern neighbour countries, the Czech and Slovak republics - caused us to move into a temporary quarter close to our target area, which would make the search for a house less time consuming (from our previous place near Semmering every drive to have a look at a house would use up a whole day.)

We are now renting two apartments in a farm house. Even if it is meant to be temporary, we truly enjoy our stay in this house. It is only a few decades old, built to modern standards, and is located in one of the most beautiful spots of Austria, a holiday area between Kirchdorf and Steyr, two cities in southern Upper Austria.

We are not going to start farming or gardening in this place, as we hope to move on before any garden would begin to yield crops, but we have been allowed to bring a row of containers with plants that I didn't want to leave behind - mainly because I have grown them from seeds and so they are kind of my "babys".

Two bee hives have also found a temporary home, and as our landlord has given up on chickens years ago, because they got wiped out by predators twice, we even found a perfectly equipped hen house which our 12 chickens loved instantly!

The kids walk a few minutes to the school bus in the morning - just to the next house across the property border, where the main road goes from West to East.

Pernzell is a quiet valley, running parallel to the wild-romantic valley which brings the green river Steyr to its final meeting with the river Enns. Both rivers are famous for their wildwater sport features.

It is part of the "Nationalpark Kalkalpen", a large nature reservate that attracts a lot of tourists - which is why so many farm houses here offer holiday apartments for rent. There is one more such holiday apartment available for rent in "our" house, so if somebody wants to visit us, they can book it for a few days!

To the left is the view to the West. In the middle distance, the white flowers that nearly look like bushes in blossoms, are horseraddish plants. It was good that I didn't take the time to dig the ones out that I had planted in my garden on Semmering (they now populate two areas in the garden - originally they were one root in a supermarket shelf, waiting for a cook to take it into his kitchen...)

To the right you see the view to the East. The property, close to the bottom of a shallow slope, is rich in water. Farming it for grain would probably not be possible, so the owner is raising Scottish Highlander cattle on it - a friendly and peaceful breed of animals that spend all year outside...

...unless, of course, it is winter and all the food is buried under a meter of snow! In which case they come inside only for eating.

Actually, the place would be perfect to stay forever - but it is too far south for our purposes and it doesn't have forest - so we will continue our search for the perfect location.

But not before we have made some more pictures!