Droll Designs

23 May, 2005 in art pottery by admin

Droll Designs

Austria Off The Beaten Path

Mention Austria and everyone thinks of Vienna and Salzburg. In addition to great names, Zell am See, Innsbruck and Bad Gastein are great locations off the beaten path.

Zell am See

Zell...am...See. The name just rolls off the tongue, but it pails in comparison to the place. Often described as heaven on earth, Zell am See is a dream location in the mountains of Austria. With towering mountains on one side and a lake on the other, the town looks like something out of a postcard. If you pull up photographs of the town, you'll swear they have been touched up with a software program. This town is simply that beautiful. In the winter, Zell am See is all about skiing with numerous resorts for glacier skiing. In the summer, one can lounge on a boat on the lake or hit the mountains for hiking, camping and rock climbing. The Krimml Waterfalls are extremely impressive. Zell am See isn't the cheapest of travel destinations, but it should top the list if money isn't a concern. The best month to go is December when skiing is good and winter festivals occur in the town.

Innsbruck

Built on the Inn River, Innsbruck was the home to the 1976 Winter Olympics. And for good reason. As with much of Austria, the town is picturesquely set against mountains and ripe with street cafes and surrounding areas that look like something out of the movie Heidi. As the Olympic designation would suggest, the town is a good launching point for hitting the slopes, but there is much more to it. The historic district has the cobblestone atmosphere you've come to expect from town in the Alps. In addition to atmosphere, you can visit historic locations such as the tomb of Emperor Maximilian 1.

My only gripe with Innsbruck is the boring, modern developments around the core of the town that were brought on by the Olympics. They sort of kill the mood, which brings us to Bad Gastein.

Bad Gastein

Bad Gastein definitely gets a nomination for name of the year. It just sounds like a town where bikers would hang out. Admittedly, it is hard to image Austrian Hells Angels, but you get my drift.

Bad Gastein is an old Austrian village without the droll modern fixtures of Innsbruck. Built overlooking a valley, the town has some incredible views. Historically, Bad Gastein is the spa town of Austria with emperors and other VIPs taking in treatment. For atmosphere, the town feels like it hasn't changed since the 19th century. If you're looking for old world Austria, this is the place. Make sure to hurry though as the town is supposedly grabbing the attention of developers who are thinking hotels and casinos are a must.

If you visit Austria, Vienna and Salzburg are definite destinations. Just make sure you get out to the incredible towns in the mountains.

About the Author

To read about kava tea and shortening substitute, visit the Knowledge Galaxy site.

That droll actor, Ben Stein, is making a movie extolling the virtues of intelligent design?

Here are some questions I have for him:

1. Why would an intelligent designer create humans in such a way that so many babies are born with horrible birth defects?

2. Why would an intelligent designer make species that die out? After all, well over 99.99% of species that have walked this earth no longer exist.

3. I know a group that believes the "intelligent designer" is lizard people from another galaxy. Is this what Ben Stein can possibly mean, or must his designer be an omnipotent omnipresent invisible single entity?

4. Why create all those other humanoid type beings of which we're discovering more of every few years, only to have them go extinct? Where's the intelligence behind that?

So many people these days are confusing biblical creationism with intelligent design. "Intelligent Design is the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as the result of intelligence" (Dr. William Dembski). That's it; it says nothing of who the creator is and how he/she/it/they did it. Intelligent Design encompasses every "creation" story, even aliens seeding life on this planet.

Many “poor design” arguments come from ignorance:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/vestigialorgans.asp

And if the creator is the God of the Bible, then we are told that this is a cursed earth (e.g. Genesis 3); bad things are supposed to happen and things are expected to get worse (e.g. mutational load). God is giving us a taste of existence without Him.

The Journal of Edwin Carp