TRAVEL: Austria: A country and its wondrous mountains

Vomperberg, Austria

By YINKA FABOWALE (Who was in Vomperberg, Austria)

The whir of the engine grew into a loud roar, as the huge kite sprang from the tarmac of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and dared the night sky. It was 10.04 pm on September 3, 2013.

It has been quite a while since I last flew in a plane, and I could not help savouring as I always did, that magical moment, when, despite the dreadful realization that your safety was now in God’s hands, as the wheels of the aircraft lost contact with the more assuring solid earth, you felt gripped by a sensational thrill at being airborne.

From the window, Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, presented a lustrous spectacle of thousands of tiny sparkling stars below. Then the shimmering sea of lights dissolved into a shroud of utter darkness, as the airbus soared and gained higher altitude. Occasionally, slight tremor ran through the body of the plane as it tackled and struggled against the buffeting columns of wind.

Then peace.

Moments later, the voice of the Lufthansa airbus pilot crackled over the public address system, as he announced that we have reached cruising level. My six hours and 25 minutes journey to Frankfurt, Germany had begun. Well, the headquarters of the German airline, reputed to be one of the best in Europe, was not exactly my final destination. I was merely to switch flights there to Innsbruck from where I hoped to catch a train or a taxi cab to take me to or near Vomperberg in neighbouring Austria, where I was billed to participate in an annual retreat of the Grail Movement International.

The trip was uneventful and pleasant all the way. Thanks to the smart and gorgeous cabin crew, who, with all smiles, almost had us the passengers constipated with food and drinks for as long as the journey lasted. I had brought along my half-read copy of Chinua Achebe’s There Was A Country in the hope that I would doze off while reading. But, I hardly flipped a page as the lavish hospitality by the airhostesses and engrossing musical videos beamed on the television screen affixed to the passengers’ back seats kept me entertained. As a result, there was little exchange between me and my seat partner, a young man traveling on business. And before I knew it, it was touch down time.

We arrived 5. 15 am Frankfurt time. Immediately after immigration formalities, I proceeded to the boarding gate where I was to take my connecting flight and sat with other passengers, who had arrived on other flights that kept landing almost every second at the big airport.

Big? That’s an understatement. Frankfurt Airport is the size of a huge town that seems to stretch endlessly, with malls, restaurants, and boutiques occupying vast spaces.

Although I felt tired and drowsy by the long journey from Nigeria, I found I could not sleep.  Since I had about seven hours before my next flight, I decided to kill boredom by going window-shopping and so began a tour of the vast complex. All the items in the shops were enchanting, but carried price tags which, if I were to succumb to the temptation of buying, would instantly have exhausted my pockets. So, I contented myself with feeding my eyes, making mental note of what I could pick on my return, provided there was still enough cash on me.

Up and down I went, returning to my seat and leaving again. After about two hours of this restless adventure, I noticed a policeman suddenly materialized at my back as I was returning on an escalator to join my co-passengers, where they were seated.

He took some steps behind me and then stopped, eyeing me censoriously, while the escalator bore us along. Then another two- a man and a woman, emerged from the opposite direction.

Although there was no reason to panic, the surprise appearance and demeanour of the policemen and woman got me slightly nervous, as it occurred to me that my movements within the airport had probably aroused security attention. I needed nobody to tell me it was time to end the “sorties”, as being taken in on suspicion of being a shoplifter; bomber or terrorist was my last dream of this mission in Europe. I went and sat down quietly to the less harmless game of watching aircraft land and take off.

Fabowale on The Grail Settlement, Vomperberg.

At last, my flight was announced and together with other passengers, I was driven in a shuttle bus to another section of the airport where we boarded a smaller plane with the name Austrian, run by Tyrolean Airways.

Understandably, the trip was not as comfortable as the one I just had, owing to the smallness and noisy drone of the plane, a member of De Havilland DHC-8 400 series.

However, it afforded me a splendid view of the beautiful scenery and natural landscapes of Germany and Austria, especially the magnificent Alps which, I understand traversed the two countries and at least three or more others in Europe including France, Switzerland and Northern Italy.

The Alps! It was awe-inspiring watching the mighty crags and mountains in their intimidating majestic height, size and impregnability as well as the depths of the corresponding gorges from the sky. They drummed home to me, the Psalmist’s exultation of the Greatness of the Maker in relation to the smallness of insignificant man.

The Alps! The same that Atila, the great Barbarian conqueror, threatened to cross (or actually crossed) with his army during campaigns in the yore days? I watched on in astonishment as the plane crossed the border of the countries.

Innsbruck, Austria

But I was to see more of the mountains at the countryside of Austria, especially Vomperberg, where I and many participants attending the Grail gathering from no fewer than 16 countries were lucky to be officially accommodated. Others who could not secure accommodation, took hotel rooms at Vomp, Schwaz, Watten and other neighbouring towns.

I was allocated an apartment at Pension Zildererhof, which I shared with Michael Balota, a German from Munich and Davies Onukwu a fellow Nigerian who works in Benin, Edo State.

I was captivated by the natural beauty of Vomperberg, a small community set on a mountain situated above Vomp, another town at the foot of the mount.

The crags that seemed to encircle the towns are strapped by lush forest of naturally growing Alpine trees that used to be home to wildlife. Yet, the people have built roads, houses and even farms right up and along the undulating mountain, the sides of which they also aesthetically dressed with well manicured lawns, exotic flowers and maize plantations that presented a wonderful mosaic, replicated across the country.

In the early mornings, fog floated from the woods and rose above the mountains up into the sky to form the clouds. I was made to understand that the mist was a condensation of nitrogen and oxygen emitted by the trees that later formed the clouds and fell as rains.

The local people have names by which they called the different mountains. There was “Karweidel” towering above Schwaz and its sister, “Kellerjoch”, on which stood a hut inhabited by human beings.

Adventurous tourists and skiers, I was told, always descended on this mountain from all over Europe and America to ski every winter – a past time which fetched a lot of income not just for the country, but also the local economy.

View north of Maria Theresienstrasse and Alps, Innsbruck

Then, there was “Eibelschrofen”, which Tobi Akinbiyi, a Nigerian-born Austrian citizen resident in Schwaz, said, used to be a silver mining site, but which was no longer active.

There is as well Vomperberg, which in German simply means: “the Mountain (Berg) on Vomp”. This has served as the abode of Abd-Ru-Shin  (civil names – Oskar Ernst Bernhardt) a prolific author of many spiritual writings who lived between 1875 and 1941.

Abd-Ru-Shin, who established the settlement endured a lot of persecution and earthly trials, particularly under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, in His resolve to carry out His God-ordained mission – which was to liberate mankind from ignorance and distorted concepts about Almighty God through His teachings and writings and thus help evolve a new generation of God-willed men that would not only consciously fulfill the purpose of existence, but transform the earth into another paradise. He left a legacy in His great book, In The Light of Truth: The Grail Message and other associated writings.

Vomperberg is the headquarters of the Grail Movement International, formed by readers who have come to the recognition and appreciation of the immense value of the book’s content and try to guide their lives accordingly.

I took part in this year’s meet, which held from September 6 to 8 and which theme reemphasized one of the core values that Abd-Ru-Shin said man and woman needed to cultivate and safeguard at all times, if they must reach God and attain earthly peace and joy – purity. And so, the occasion was a celebration of and reverence for Divine Purity, which is in the Godhead alone, with supplications for spiritual enervation and blessing:

However, beyond the meeting, I took time to explore the host community and the surroundings. I discovered on my visits to the major towns particularly Innsbruck and Schwaz, that they were not significantly different from the rural areas, save, perhaps, for their bigger sizes. The villages and other smaller towns had nearly everything you would find in the cities – malls, electricity, pipe borne water, gas, good roads, telecommunication facilities and other infrastructure. Consequently, unlike in Nigeria, there was no incentive for rural-urban migration.

The cities were also neat, tidy and relatively serene. No rush. No hustle bustle here.

Austrians, I found to be very simple, friendly, and helpful, albeit strict people.

Despite the language barrier, many greeted you with warm smiles on lanes and would engage you in a lively chat at dinner tables on in small circles, even when meeting you for the first time. They could also go the extra mile to assist strangers. A Nigerian couple that arrived Vomperberg at 1.20am on September 5, told of how they were almost stranded at the train station in Schwaz on arriving from Vienna, where they flew in from Nigeria. The station was deserted, but for a white lad, who assisted them phone a taxi cab at a public phone booth, waited till the cab driver arrived and then handed them into his care. The cab driver took them right to the doorstep of the guesthouse they had booked from Nigeria, where the key to their room and a welcome note with instructions were waiting for them. “My wife had begun to fear we were going to sleep out in the open, because everybody had closed”, the husband recalled later in relief.

But, so you could also feel the icy side of this people, they had absolute abhorrence, if not contempt for lateness. The following morning I arrived Vomperberg, I had gone to the restaurant to have breakfast. Unfortunately, the jet lag and consequent exhaustion caused me to oversleep and so was late. I walked in two minutes past 9.30 am, when the breakfast had closed. The waiters and waitresses were already packing the buffet table and the only diner left in the hall was getting ready to leave.

The head waitress, a tall, thin woman with a stern face, albeit friendly disposition showed understanding. She ordered that I be served, but turned to me and reproached courteously: “It’d be nice if you can come before 9.30 am. As you can see, we’re already packing”. I promised to and went to enjoy my meal.

But, the next morning, I was embarrassingly late again, having done some writing that kept me up in the night. The time was 9.33 am and all the chairs and tables were empty.

This time, I didn’t see the head waitress around. But one of her attendants I met cleaning up went to fetch her. I saw her face cloud and her pupils dilate in their sockets when she saw me”. “You again?” she cried.

I bowed politely and tried to mutter an apology. But she cut me short: “That’s alright. But if you are late tomorrow, you will have nothing”, she warned in a tone that conveyed an unmistaken severity.

Of course, on the third day, I made sure I was among the early callers at the restaurant. Not only because I nursed no doubt about her resolve to make good her threat and make me go hungry all morning, but because I felt it a patriotic duty to correct the impression she might have gained that one was coming from a culture where punctuality was altogether alien. When she saw me, the head waitress gave a wry smile and remarked: “You made it early today”.

I simply laughed.

Beer Basted Rib Eye Roast

Austria is rich in food. That is probably understandable as it is an agro-based economy. A friend, Mrs. Jibola Lawal, who had visited Vomperberg earlier, had told me we guests were going to be spoilt with all manner of drinks, juices and cuisines, particularly vegetables and fruits. She could not have been more right. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all buffet. But you needed not fear losing shape by the time leaving. The topography of the place ensured you burn excess weight you might have gained through walking exercises.

I took several walks up the mountain and into the woods in company of friends on sight seeing.  We kept strictly to the narrow, but motorable lane that meandered up the hills and could not believe it when on one occasion we saw a white couple, obviously natives of the place, emerged with dogs out of the woods descending directly from the steep incline of the mountain tops.

The culture of keeping pets appeared still very much alive here. Here and there you found the young and old walking their dogs or cuddling their kittens in the frontage of their houses. The dogs and the cats were so big and looked very well fed that Dr. John Obiejesie, a fellow participant from Nigeria, said he doubted if there were any of such lean and hungry-looking ones as we had back home. However, Anochie Uche, another Nigerian living in Cologne, Germany, disclosed that we could actually find a few, but explained that these would belong to owners who were either irresponsible or drunks that had little or no time to care for the animals.

The law is no respecter of anyone here – foreigners and citizens alike. Although you would not find the security apparatchik or uniformed police as ubiquitous as in Nigeria, I was assured they were as present as they were efficient. Little infraction such as stealing a ride on a train without buying ticket could earn a foreigner instant deportation and forfeiture of future possibility to enter the country.

Yet, this is one of the few countries in Europe that attracts tourists, because it has retained its quaintness and serenity. Vomperberg was, in fact, a melting pot of tongues and people for the period I was there – Scot, Britons, Canadians, French, Spaniards, Romanians, Russians, Germans and people from various African countries. There were so many Nigerians I saw including: Rome-based President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Felix Nwanze; former Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke; Senator Kassim Victor Oyofo, the renowned medical expert, Dr. Abayomi Ayesimoju; former President, Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors and Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ajanlekoko and the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Ondo State, Mr. Akin Orebiyi.

I had sighted Duke on the first day of the retreat, but he disappeared before I could detach from a circle of friends I was with, for a long-sought audience.

But, I seized the opportunity on the final day and accosted him, telling him I had been trying to see him for sometime.

The young, charming former governor turned round smiling. Jovially, he replied in pidgin: “Haba, I dey hide? How could you say you’ve been trying to see me and you could not? I am not hiding now”.

We laughed together as I introduced myself, giving him a message from Dr, Akin Onigbinde, a cousin of mine and old classmate of his, and then, naturally, requesting an interview.

He readily agreed, but cautioned that he was not going to speak about Nigeria for now. Duke’s childlike simplicity and unassumingness during the encounter was rather touching.

The environment was even more idyllic and sublime after many of the visitors dispersed the following day. I stayed back for the next two days to enjoy the abundant cool breeze and vegetables and fruits.

But, by 6.10am on September 11, I too bid Austria goodbye and said: Danke Herr, fur die Geleganheit dieses Besoches.