May 23 - Austria

The drive through Czech Republic to Kremsmunster, Austria took forever. The weather was fabulous.

So along the drive, we saw a man with taxidermy animals for sale! These were Guy's favorites.

And then we saw some yard ornaments at another road side stand.

 Bulbs all made of glass.

Every road seemed to be under reconstruction, detoured, jammed with cars and very frustrating to be on. But we finally made it to Walter's house, which was almost exactly as we remembered it 16 years ago. Even Walter looked the same, maybe younger looking.

He gave us a tour of his studio and showed us all his eye sample cards, plus one old sample card from the Fried Freres company. But no bead sample cards like the ones he showed us 16 years ago in his closet. His entire house was under construction and he had misplaced the sample cards. He promised to find them and send us pics.


He did gift us loads of old eyes and cabochons he and his brother had made over the years and just stashed away. Fantastic.

We interviewed him for a couple hours, checked out his teddy bear and doll collection he had and then followed him to a restaurant / hotel he recommended for dinner and to stay the night. It was a traditional Austrian establishment with wonderful food. The beer was good too.