Wednesday 29 August 2012

Meeting Marga


This blog is read all around the world. In some cases friends and family read it but in many other countries, such as Russia, where I have no acquaintances, how it is found and why it is read, I know not. 

Marga
However, it pleases me greatly to think that all over the world people are reading about the unassuming Alpine farming village I now call home – a home which is so different from where I spent most of my life, London.

It was a special pleasure this past week to meet for the first time a regular reader of EmbachTimes. Marga has lead a colourful life. She was born in east Germany, grew up in England, has lived in Hong Kong and now lives in rural France. Marga was visiting relatives in Austria and had expressed a wish to meet this blogger.

Embach welcomes all visitors and if you are coming this way, make a detour up the mountain to find us in this little paradise on earth.

Saturday 25 August 2012

A dedicated follower of tradition



The dirndlkleid is in. Lederhosen are high fashion and at the same time, work-a-day clothing for some. You might think these are only worn to entertain tourists, but here on Embach's big day, the village has seen a brilliant array of traditional dress worn as “Sunday best” rather than fancy dress.


Tradition doesn't end with the clothing. If there is something to celebrate, there is a formula that has been honed through the ages, is followed faithfully and enjoyed immensely.

Put your head out of the window while I am writing this, and you will hear the oompah of big brass instruments thumping out folk music. Today we hosted he official launch of Bauernherbst, farmers' autumn, the annual promotional campaign to woo tourists to visit during the lovely autumn months.

Preparations have been going on at fever pitch for the past few days and the village street early this morning was lined with stands, a climbing wall had appeared, band instruments polished and uniforms cleaned, vats of gulasch were being heated and bauernkrapfen fried (these are farmer-size doughnuts often eaten with sauerkraut).

By mid-morning the tables and benches in rustic bars constructed along the street were filling up, fields were taken over as car parks, stands were busy and the band was playing the old traditional “heimat” numbers. A bevy of officials, VIPs from the regional administration managed to break with tradition to deliver speeches pretty much within the 30 minutes allotted. Then rather than cutting a ribbon, tradition says you hit the whole thing off with a mallet walloping a tap into a (full) beer keg.


A parade of eccentric floats, folk dancing, a bit of thigh-slapping schuhplattler, music and whip cracking demonstration by a local group of schnaltzers, followed by gulasch in the fire brigade garage, coffee and cake outside one resident's house, gröstl in the village centre, bread being baked along the street, stands selling locally-made produce and everywhere folk and patriotic music played by local groups and Embach's village band.

Dancing in the street - the village centre was packed

Everyone was in a good mood, everyone greeting friends and acquaintances, children had fun, families enjoyed themselves, teenage boys goggled at the girls in dirndls rather than their usual jeans, older folk strolled, soaking up the atmosphere and the beer.

Dirndls are in even for fashion-conscious teenagers

That traditions are very much alive is demonstrated in music, in dress, in food and drink and the way the village parties; not for reasons of publicity and to entertain visitors, but because it is the way small village communities have done things for a long time for themselves. Tourists who came across our big day by chance, struck lucky and will be telling the folks back home what fun they had.

Even horses were dressed for the occasion

Sunday 12 August 2012

Keep our charms under your hat

Embach, traditional charm on a sunny plateau

Embach is preparing to host the official launch of Bauernherbst – which means farmers' autumn. Bauernherbst is not an ancient tradition, but a marketing exercise throughout the province of Salzburg to prolong the summer tourist season. As such it is justifiable as September and October are often wonderful months with sunny days, clear skies and ideal temperatures for strolling in the mountains. It is just unfortunate that “autumn” has to start almost before the summer has got into top gear.

The honour of being the official opening village, is appropriate as Embach is primarily a farming village. The modest number of visitors on holiday does not overwhelm the local community and the main attraction in summer on this sunny plateau are wonderful marked routes for walking in the mountains.

Embach has finally won a long legal battle to prove that the thermal spring water which rises in the mountain behind the village, does not belong to the spa in the next valley. Now the question is how it should be used and who is going to finance the project. The general proposal is to use it to attract more visitors, rather than to directly benefit the inhabitants.

The balance between farming and tourism could change if a long-planned hotel with outdoor swimming lake with the naturally warm spring water is finally constructed. But we have waited years for this and it could take a few more years to come to fruition.

This problem of balance was evident on a recent journey through the Mosel valley in Germany. Here one or two villages have become “tourist attractions”. Arriving at such a village one first meets a huge and crowded car park, then a series of tour coaches disgorging snap-happy visitors, while on the river, huge cruise vessels bring more sightseers to join the throng squeezing into the main street. Shops providing everyday needs have disappeared in favour of those offering giant traditional beer mugs (steins), cuckoo clocks, postcards and souvenir tat.

A few kilometers along the valley and one reaches the next village, nestling against the steep vineyards, it is home to a few vintners and one or two modest hotels. It is quiet, and residents can go about their daily lives without having to battle their way through a mass of visitors filling in time until their tour departs to the next attraction.

Even with its spring water, proposed hotel and hosting the Bauernherbst launch, it is, thank goodness, hard to imagine Embach becoming a “must” on the package tour circuit. Farming in this part of the world is small-scale and hard work. These are family businesses with a long tradition of maintaining the local environment. Swamping them with tourists would destroy the village's most attractive asset...so if you have discovered Embach's charms, keep them under your hat.
Villages like this can be swamped by tourism, making life intolerable for inhabitants