Woodcarving classes in Austria

We attended “Austrian Woodcarving Weeks” in Elbigen-alp, Austria, Oct. 10-24, ’04. This was at the Geisler-Moroder Austrian Woodcarving School (A-6652 Elbigenalp 63, Austria; phone 43-5634-6215, e-mail geisler-moroder@aon.at or visit www.geisler-moroder.com. Geisler-Moroder’s U.S. representative is Carl G. Wiggins; phone 205/979-1111 or e-mail wiggs7@ aol.com).

The woodcarvers’ program cost $1,602 double and the noncarvers’ program, $1,102, including daily breakfast and dinner, with a 5-lunch ticket available for approximately $22.50. Airfare was not included.

Elbigenalp is in the Lech Valley, Tyrol. We flew into Munich, Germany, and for an extra $90 each were bused to and from Elbigenalp.

Our room was large, quiet and spotlessly clean, with a geranium-bedecked balcony. Laundry facilities were not available. Our meals were tasty — generous servings of typical Tyrolean dishes.

My husband received two solid weeks of theory and supervised carving classes from English-speaking Austrian teachers plus four tours, including visits to the mask museum in Imst, Austria (Imst Fasnacht Tirol Museum); a “crib” carver in Vils, Austria, and traditional carvers in Val Gardena, Italy.

As a noncarver, I was included on those tours but enjoyed four additional tours, including ones to Liechtenstein; Switzerland; Lake Constance; Neuschwanstein, Germany; an open-air history museum in Kramsach, Austria, and Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Innsbruck.

Elbigenalp is picture-book beautiful, and the noncarvers spent many free hours hiking to Alpine huts above it. Some of us also spent two days in the carvers’ staining/painting class. Inquire about this and other carving programs, including a new one in May which includes a week visiting Salzburg, Vienna and Venice followed by a week of carving instruction.

KAREN KEMP
Joplin, MO