Mixsonian Barbara Morris

Vacation in Austria

Friday, May 8

Dad, Brenda and the boysBrenda, Jeremy, Kristopher and Dad

We left Linz about 10:30 for a retreat at Bad Ischl. Tom actually got all of our luggage and the baby carriage in the back of and on top of the station wagon, but we were packed in tight. Tom thought he might have to send out suitcases by bus. It was a beautiful drive up to Bad Ischl, which is situated in the mountains. It is a tourist resort city and a beautifully river runs right though the city  We had a very nice small hotel about 6-8 blocks from downtown. We had all of our meals served at the hotel – the menu was planned by the hotel. This was the first retreat that the missionaries have had. Tom & Sandy Honeycutt with their two boys Miles, age 10 and Steven age 18 months from Vienna (spelled Wien here), Ray and Evelyn Benfield who have been here since January 1981 and are still in language school in Prien, Germany. In July they will start their work in Salzburg. They are about our age, they have 2 sons in their twenties. Then the newest missionaries are the Millers, Butch, Cheryl, Mindy age 10, Sarah, age 7, and Mark age 3. They just arrived 7 days before we got here (April 24) They will be in Prien in language school for the next year. They have a brand new, very nice apartment only one block from downtown. Their apartment is over a grocery store.  It has a very large living room/dining room with balcony on two sides, large kitchen, two large bedrooms, bath and half. Large hallway, and all carpeted. Very large and light and clean.  They will move to Graz after language school. Pray for the girls as they start school, it is very difficult for them – one can imagine going to school and not understanding a work the teacher says! John McTyere, the journeyman in Saltsburg did not make it this weekend.

We left Linz about 10:30 for a retreat at Bad Ischl. Tom actually got all of our luggage and the baby carriage in the back of and on top of the station wagon, but we were packed in tight. Tom thought he might have to send out suitcases by bus. It was a beautiful drive up to Bad Ischl, which is situated in the mountains. It is a tourist resort city and a beautifully river runs right though the city  We had a very nice small hotel about 6-8 blocks from downtown. We had all of our meals served at the hotel – the menu was planned by the hotel. This was the first retreat that the missionaries have had. Tom & Sandy Honeycutt with their two boys Miles, age 10 and Steven age 18 months from Vienna (spelled Wien here), Ray and Evelyn Benfield who have been here since January 1981 and are still in language school in Prien, Germany. In July they will start their work in Salzburg. They are about our age, they have 2 sons in their twenties. Then the newest missionaries are the Millers, Butch, Cheryl, Mindy age 10, Sarah, age 7, and Mark age 3. They just arrived 7 days before we got here (April 24) They will be in Prien in language school for the next year. They have a brand new, very nice apartment only one block from downtown. Their apartment is over a grocery store.  It has a very large living room/dining room with balcony on two sides, large kitchen, two large bedrooms, bath and half. Large hallway, and all carpeted. Very large and light and clean.  They will move to Graz after language school. Pray for the girls as they start school, it is very difficult for them – one can imagine going to school and not understanding a work the teacher says! John McTyere, the journeyman in Saltsburg did not make it this weekend.

Here is a map of Bad Ischl
(from Mom’s Journal)

Map of Bad Ischl

By 5:00 o’clock all of the missionaries have arrived and we all eat at six.  We are the only guests at the hotel so we have excellent service. A young man of 17 years old is our waiter for the whole time we’re there except on Sunday when a young girl helps him.  By Sunday there were a few other guests (I counted four!)  We are served in a very nice dining room with a plaid cloth tablecloth and then a smaller white one over that. We have soup with every meal. Our small dessert spoon or small fork is laid cross ways above the soup bowl (indicating there will be desert). Our waiter brings in the soup in individual silver bowls with a handle and pours it into our China soup bowl – or coffee or hot chocolate is served individually on a very small tray in a silver coffee pot, enough for 2 coups, very strong, silver cream picture (milk for coffee is always warm) and a China cup and saucer. Coffee is good.  Very elegant! Our salad is served in a small clear glass bowl on a glass plate. Our salad (every time) consisted of lettuce leaves on top (not our kind of lettuce, but more like leaf lettuce) then either German potato salad  or sauerkraut underneath, with something like and Italian dressing over it.  I really like it. All cold drinks are served without ice! No ice tea! Our waiter finally learned that we liked “tap” water (versus bought mineral water) and would bring us extra glasses and two pictures of water! But never do they server water unless you ask!

The owner and our host at the hotel remined me of Grandpa Jr*. (He was about his size and was always talking to us and asking if everything was O.K.) He spoke some English as he was a prisoner of war and was taken prisoner by the Americans in Africa and sent to a prison camp in California! (As I am writing this Morris is on the living room couch sleeping and snoring, Brenda is taking a nap, as Jeremy is) Tom is studying, Kristopher is playing under the dining room table like he’s on a boat (I just had to stop and get him cookies and a drink) and Andrew is on the floor on a blanket looking up at me and smiling and trying to talk to me. He is such a good baby.

It is a cool cloudy day today and off and on its rained some. This is the first day the sun hasn’t been out since the first Monday we got here.

Back to our meals at the hotel.  I must tell you about breakfast. We were served fresh rolls called “semmels” with a plate of cheese and thinly sliced luncheon meats, fresh butter and 3 kinds of jam or jelly and your choice of drink. This is standard breakfast everywhere and it comes in the price of your hotel bill. I love it and can eat 2 semmels. I also like them for lunch. Today Morris and I took, walked, Jeremy and Kristopher over to the corner grocery store to get something for lunch. They make the best sandwiches! Brenda says everyone eats them. In fact you can see girls coming from the bakeries carrying big baskets of them (no cover on top of them) delivering them to the various restaurants down town. They are round and hard crusty on the outside. And very soft on the inside. I would like to take a suite case back to America with me!!

After supper on last Friday and Saturday nights we (all 18 of us) met in a small conference room at the hotel for a fun time-devotion time that Tom had planned for us. As now one knew the miller family nor the Benfields very well, we broke up into three groups with families splitting up and Tom directed us in a series of questions and answers to get to know each other better. Then gave us each a large sheet of paper and crayons for each group to come up with a family crest and name for our group. We kept this same group again on Saturday morning for our time of devotions and again Saturday night.

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