Austria

Week #2 of the "20 Day Trip" found us in Salzburg, Austria. I knew after the craziness of trying to see as much as possible in Germany, that we would appreciate settling in 1 place for awhile. So we rented an apartment in Salzburg for a week. We had such a nice week, playing games and resting in the midst of more sightseeing. We had a beautiful view of the mountains from our apartment. The only downside of where we stayed was the commute to town - it was too far to walk and we never figured out the public transportation. So instead we had to search for an impossible-to-find parking spot each time we wanted to go downtown! But it was a small thing :-)

One thing we were excited about in going to Salzburg in August was being there during the yearly Music Festival. We knew we couldn't drag Katie to any symphony performances, but we hoped to find some part of the festival to participate in. We stumbled on a free concert in the square by the cathedral the first afternoon we were there! The next day we also attended a performance of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" for kids. Now the funny thing about this performance was that it was a teaching video for kids - but completely in German. The Magic Flute is also a very strange and confusing opera - even if we did speak German. I'm not sure any of us have been that bored in a very long time! :-) So as soon as we got home from the performance, we found info to explain the opera on Wikipedia (here if you're interested :-) ). We also were able to find a CD of the music from the opera and we have all been enjoying it since.

Of course, the real reason we chose to settle in Salzburg was to see all the Sound of Music sites and go on the tour! It was sooo fun to catch glimpses all week of things from the movie! It was definitely one of those things on my "bucket list"!! Katie's imagination has also been captured by the movie so she enjoyed it as much as I did. And Jason is such a good sport - I think he enjoyed it too :-) After all, "16 going on 17" is kind of our song - since that describes our ages when we started dating :-) The tour was a lot of fun - I think a highlight for me was driving through the Austrian countryside in the bus singing along to the music from the film! (near where they filmed the opening scene) It was just as beautiful as in the movie! So above, here we are at the gazebo where Ralf and Liesl danced, the house & lake they lived in for the movie, and the fountain in the center of town where Maria sang "I Have Confidence."

Mirabell gardens is the place where the children & Maria sing "Do Re Mi" and dance all around. So we enjoyed reenacting that a bit :-) So in order, these pics are the gardens themselves, dancing around the pegasus fountain, racing down the lane like the children do and finally, posing like the statues!

















Our only disappointment with the tour is that we didn't get to visit the Abbey! From their promotional materials, it makes it seem like you get to go inside it. But no. They just drive you to a good spot for taking a picture of it very far away :-). So Nonnberg Abbey is the red roofed church in the picture. Maria von Trapp actually was a novice there and she and the Captain were married there. (as we discovered, what happened to the Trapp family in real life was not always exactly what happened in the movie :-) Close, but not quite!)

We did do things in Salzburg that were unrelated to the Sound of Music :-). We thoroughly enjoyed a tour of the Durnnberg salt mine. Salzburg was made to be the city it is because of the salt mine that brought the rulers great wealth. The salt mine tour was great - we got to do many of the things that the miners used to do: ride the train into the mine, walk through the mine tunnels, slide down a wooden slide to get further into the mine, and ride on a boat to get across the salt lake underground. It was really really fun!



In the town of Hallein close to the salt mines, we stumbled across a Silent Night museum. The composer of Silent Night, Franz Gruber, served as parish priest in the church in Hallein and he is buried there. We had no idea we would find that so it was very cool. The museum even had the guitar that the song was first played on!





As we were leaving Hallein, Katie lost tooth #4 - now she is truly toothless and singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"!! Apparently, the tooth fairy knows where Austria is as well. :-)








When we took the Sound of Music tour, we really enjoyed seeing the Lake district near Salzburg. So one day, we drove out to explore the lakes. We rented an electric boat that went a blinding 8 kilometers per hour (about 5 mph). Amazingly, Jason & Katie swam in the freezing cold water - even though there was no ladder to use to get back into the boat and we had no towels. They loved it though! It was just so refreshing to be out on the lake (we miss our boat in TX!), especially surrounded by beautiful mountains! The only thing that would have made it more enjoyable for Jason would have been if he had his fishing pole :-)











Our final stop in Salzburg was to visit Hellbrunn Castle. Now it is basically part of the city, but it used to be a getaway palace "out of the city" that was built in the early 17th century. The coolest thing about the palace is its grounds - the Prince-Archbishop who designed them had an extensive knowledge of waterworks. He put trick fountains all through the garden and used to surprise guests with unexpected showers. All the things we saw were original from that time period and the tour was really fun. The guide would surprise us with a trickle (or deluge!) of water all over the place - for instance from a head of antlers posted on the wall! I thought the funniest one was a table in which the prince put fountains through each seat. If his guests got too bored or boring or sleepy or inebriated or ??, he could just turn on the fountains to wake them up again :-). The only seat that did not have a fountain was the head of the table :-).

So that's Salzburg - we had a great week! The last part of our trip was France - coming soon!

Germany

OK - you ready for the marathon Germany post? It's a long one, so hang in there!






The first week of our trip we spent in Germany. We arrived there on Friday, 31 July, and spent 3 nights in Heidelberg, which is on the west side of Germany near the Rhine River. They have a nice castle there, where this picture was taken from. In the picture, you can also see the Neckar River that runs through the town.

A highlight of Heidelberg was taking a boat cruise on the Neckar River. The trip took us up the river about an hour to Neckarsteinach. The Neckar River has a series of locks on it, so we enjoyed seeing how the locks raised and lowered the boat along the way. In Neckarsteinach we found 4 castle ruins, that used to guard the entrance to the area. We hiked up to explore one of the castles. It was really fun to see this castle that dated from 1100 AD!! The view was beautiful from the top of the hill by the ruins too!

There were tons of wild blackberries in and around the ruins. We especially enjoyed picking & eating our fill of berries! We don't get many berries in Spain, so that was a treat! (actually in German, blueberries are called Heidelbeeren, so we had so much fun eating Heidelbeeren from the market in Heidelberg!) To get to the castle ruins, we hiked past another of the 4 castles that has been restored and is privately owned. There were big signs everywhere saying "Private" so everyone would keep out. Katie told me later: "When I grow up, I want to be a princess and you can be a queen. Then we can own our own castle and we can be private." :-)

Our hotel was a little out of the main tourist part of town, which we enjoyed very much. (aside from the extra walking, that is :-) ) We were just across the street from a beautiful church. So Sunday morning, we decided to attend church in German. :-) We understood very little of the service, but it was fun to catch a word or meaning here and there. It was also a joy to be called to church by the pealing of the bells.



Because we live in Europe, we often feel that we get the added benefit to take it a little slower when we travel to see new cities. We don't feel the same panic to cram absolutely everything into our visit as we would if we were only coming to Europe for a week or 2. Our 1st night in Heidelberg, we experienced one of those priceless cultural moments, the kind you don't find in the typical tourist haunts. I was going downstairs to ask the front desk some questions to help us get oriented. All of a sudden, I heard a brass band coming down the street - like it was a parade or something like that. Turns out, it was a bachelor party, where the guys were going from bar to bar to play, sing and drink beer. (this was in Germany after all - the beer is really good in Germany!) So they stopped in front of our hotel to entertain the guests at the hotel restaurant and engage them in their songs. They came up playing "Que Sera, Sera," then moved on to "When the Saints Go Marching In." It was beginning to feel a bit like we were in New Orleans :-). During each song, they would get quieter to encourage different parts of the crowd to participate in the singing. Well, I was standing WAY away from the commotion, but very much enjoying the show and quietly singing along - you can see me on the far right side of the picture at left. Katie & Jason were by now hanging out of our hotel window to watch as well. Well, the song moved on to "Hey Jude" and I guess they finally noticed me standing quietly over to the side - so they made the whole crowd be quiet and motioned to me to sing ALL BY MYSELF!!! What was I supposed to do? I was sooo embarrassed, but I was NOT going to be a party pooper. :-) Thus I sang "Hey Jude" by myself, accompanied by a brass band in Heidelberg, Germany. :-) :-) Could I make this up??? :-)

On Monday, we took off for our next destination. On our way, we stopped along Germany's Romantic Road in Dinkelsbuhl. The Romantic Road is a road that roughly goes from Frankfurt to Munich. It is marketing creation to link these medieval towns together. The towns themselves, however, are the real deal! Our book says that until recently (as in 30 years or so), these medieval walled cities still housed more livestock than tourists! Dinkelsbuhl is a very pretty little town with beautifully painted houses, flower boxes full of trailing flower arrangements and a cool wall encircling it (see me up in the wall?). We took a tour of the town in a horse drawn wagon. Note to self: make sure when you take such tours that you speak whatever language the tour is given in :-). We still enjoyed the tour, however, because of the driver's dog that must be kin to our rotten Daisy :-) It was very entertaining to watch her find whatever trouble she could while the driver was simultaneously trying to drive, give the tour and keep her out of trouble :-)

Finally we made it to our next city: Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This was our favorite city by far! Unbelievable - it really feels like it must be a manufactured place like Disney because it is so quaint and perfect - but it is the real deal that is hundreds of years old!! We enjoyed hiking around the town (going on a bit of a wild goose chase - it's a bit difficult to find reliable directions when everything is in German and you don't speak ANY!) and ended up hiking up and up and up. The end result was not where we had intended to go, but the view was pretty! :-)

We also hiked up the many steep steps to the top of the white tower main square in the above picture. Wow was it tall! I almost lost my breath when we first stepped out onto the teeny tiny viewing platform! Yikes :-) We literally had to back down the stairs to get out of there! And yes, Miss Katie was such a trooper to march up there with us :-)

Oh - I would be remiss if I didn't mention our (my?) other favorite activity in Rothenburg: SHOPPING!! They have a fabulous Christmas store there called Kathe Wohlfart and it was too much fun!! This place was huge - I think there were 4 or 5 stores that comprised their Christmas empire :-) It was awesome!

At the last minute on our last day in Rothenburg, I decided that we really should walk up on the wall that we had read so much about. It was amazing - like instantly stepping back in time! You could almost see the guards guarding the city and hear them shooting their arrows at intruders. Very very cool. I'm sooo glad we didn't miss that experience!





We took off on Wednesday for our last destination in Germany. On our way, we got to stop in Stuttgart. Now, the reason for the stop was to see a childhood friend of mine, Kristen, whose husband is stationed there for a few years. We also got to meet her cute little boy, Braydon. What it provided as well was a fabulous excuse to go to the Porsche museum!!! I don't think I can do it justice, so I'll leave it for Jason to describe if he wishes. Suffice it to say that he was in his own world for 2 hours!! :-) Katie & I enjoyed it too, but I don't think our enjoyment was in the same ballpark :-)

Our next destination was Fussen, a little town in the Bavarian Alps, almost to the border of Austria. It was so peaceful and relaxing to be in the mountains - I instantly called to cancel our planned hotel in Munich so we could stay in Fussen another night! We love the mountains and needed a peaceful break after all our sightseeing of the 1st week. We had a wonderful hotel with a wonderful restaurant and a wonderful view. We enjoyed a bit of hiking, as well as watching the local ski jump team do ski jumps without any snow :-).

The reason we went to Fussen was to visit the nearby castles of "Mad" King Ludwig. This is the castle that inspired the people who were creating the castle for the original DisneyLand in California. It is called Neuschawnstein and it is absolutely beautiful. Our first glimpse of it was through the morning mist and it was breathtaking. I'll just include this one picture of it because our pics truly do not do it justice!! King Ludwig's parents lived in a castle called Hohenschwangau, built in 1836, which we enjoyed touring more. It is not much to look at on the outside, but the interior is really cool. See it - it's the orange castle by the lake. (by contrast, we didn't like the fancier castle's interior as much) These 2 castles were definitely major tourist destinations - there were a LOT of people there!

Our last stop in Germany was to go through Munich for lunch on our way to Salzburg. We visited the Hofbrauhaus - a very famous beer hall owned by the state. It was pure kitsch, but SOOO much fun! Oompa band and all :-) Great beer and great sausage :-)

Whew! Thanks for sticking it out with me if you're still reading! Next up: Salzburg!!

Our 20 Day Trip

Hello all -

I can't say that I've ever been that punctual with writing this blog. But now we have Facebook... which has zapped any motivation I might have retained for keeping up here in a timely manner. Facebook is just soooo much easier to upload pics - and since I don't write much commentary there, it takes much less time. Fortunately many of you are also my Facebook friends... though that fact also serves to de-motivate me to get this done. But I do still have a desire to keep this blog as a thorough record of our time here in Madrid: for one, because hopefully you all enjoy hearing the details, facebook friends or no; but also because I want to have this record while it's reasonably fresh in my mind so that when I get around to scrapbooking our adventures, it will be here. I would love to be more current as well - I think it stops me from writing about everyday life sort of things. I mean I can't write about something going on this week when I have outstanding entries from 2 months ago, can I?

But enough complaining - I should "just do it"!!

I titled this our 20 Day Trip because that is how Katie refers to it. When she's talking about something that she did or bought on our trip, she never says that it was in Germany or Austria or France. She always says she did that on "our 20 Day Trip." It was a remarkable opportunity to take such a big trip - even without discussing what we got to see! We were very conscious of the fact that living in America rarely provides the opportunity for 3 week vacations - who knows if we'll ever take such a long vacation again. So I guess our astonishment made an impression on Katie :-). Just before we left on our trip, Jason pointed out that we've been planning to take a 2 week European trip since 1998. When my grandmother passed away in '98, she & my grandfather left us some money. My grandmother loved to travel, so part of that money we saved to take a European trip someday. For some reason or another, we never had gotten around to it. Who knew we'd be DRIVING to go on that trip because we LIVE in Europe!! I think the longer we're here, the more it strikes me how crazy this is that we've had this adventure of living in Spain!

It was so much fun to be together w/o distractions for so many days. The good news is that Jason & Katie are my 2 favorite people to be with in the world! We saw lots of castles, lots of old stuff, lots of beautiful scenery; but we also had time to read together, play games together - many of the things that get lost in our every day busy lives. It was such fun.

It still blows my mind what we saw during this trip - many things that have been on our "must see" or "must do" lists for many many years were done on this trip (the Sound of Music! the Autobahn!) We are truly blessed beyond measure.

We started off by driving 2 days to get to Heidelberg, Germany. Next we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany and finally to Fussen, Germany (for a total of a week in the south of Germany). Then we spent a week in Salzburg, Austria. After driving a day back to Paris, we met some friends from Madrid who are now living in Dubai (see the post from when they left here). We finished our trip by spending 3 days with them in the Loire Valley of France seeing the beautiful castles there. Then it was a day to drive back to Madrid, through the beautiful Basque country of Spain. It was wonderful!!

We were really glad that we drove instead of flying. I, for one, was really worried about the driving because nearly every European we mentioned it to reacted SO strongly. "What? You're driving?" "Why are you driving?" "How many hours a day are you planning to drive??" etc etc. I thought maybe that it just wasn't possible to drive 10 hour days in Europe due to traffic or some unknown problem that we did not understand. But we only ran into 1 traffic jam where we were stopped for an hour in France. We saw many other traffic jams, but always going the opposite way. It was helpful that most Europeans go to the beach in August and we were going away from the beach. I think the bottom line is that the US is a big place - and Europe not so much! We are just used to driving a long ways, every time we want to go to Colorado or Florida. Here it is considered far to go to France, which is only 4 hours drive from Madrid. :-) So I was very glad in the end that Jason was so confident we could do it :-) We enjoyed having our own car and we were able to take pretty much whatever we wanted to. (our favorite thing we brought: the coffeepot!! Waiting an hour or 2 for coffee when you're in a hotel is NOT our favorite thing!! Hotels in Europe don't so much have coffeepots in the room!!) We also felt like we got to see so much of the countryside of France & Germany. Especially in France, we drove on 3 sides of the country during our travels - it was very cool! One missed opportunity: we realized afterwards that we drove right through the area that was the major battlefield of WWI. They still have trenches there and a cemetery with 16,000 French graves (in contrast with the American cemetery in Normandy with 9000 - which was very overwhelming already!!) Such a bummer that we did not realize it was there. But cool that we were so close to it at least! We ended up driving at least 5000 kilometers (3100 miles), broken into 4 long days and many shorter drives.

I think the logical part of my brain is insisting that I stop this post now and start a new one to begin sharing the details so I can group it by country. Doing it now, so I promise the next post will come soon! :-)

Becca :-)