Germany Trip Part 6 - Salzburg, Austria, Day 1

Our trip to Salzburg took us through the Alps at sunset and it was truly beautiful.  Oh, and S got his personal best speed on the Autobahn!  The numbers on the spedometer are in km/hr, but it converts to 150 mph!

 

We got to Salzburg with our GPS directions to our apartment rental for the next 3 nights and then immediately hit a roadblock.  Literally.  It turns out that the Old Town Salzburg area where we were staying is only open to motorized traffic between 9 am and 11 am.  We were arriving around 7 pm.  We tried to get up to the apartment 3 different ways, the third of which led us to a tiny little alleyway surrounded by tall stone walls in which our big BMW barely fit.  S was driving and wound up having to perform a VERY stressful "3 point turn" (it took closer to 9-10 points) in said alley without damaging our rental after we'd hit a dead end.  At that point we called the landlord and she rushed down to find us and lead us to a parking garage.  We then had to basically jog through Old Town, hauling our luggage over the cobblestones so that we could catch the very last train, or festungsbahn, up to Salzburg castle.  

Why were we catching the last train up to Salzburg castle with all of our luggage at 8 pm?  Well, the apartment we were staying in was actually IN the castle!!!!  Hohensalzburg Castle is one of the oldest castles in Europe, it's first structures being built back in 1077!  The picture above was taken by S and the building up at the top of the hill is the castle.  We unfortunately did miss the last train up another night and had to walk up that massive hill, but that's later in the story...  So we finally made it to our apartment in the castle, ate some sandwiches for dinner and passed out from a long, eventful, and unfortunately at the end, stressful day (don't forget, this is still the same day that we went on the 2 castle tours!)

The next morning we woke up to this.  Nearly deserted castle streets and a crazy beautiful view of the valley and the city of Salzburg below.  Day 1 in Salzburg was going to be a busy day - we were heading out on the Sound of Music tour (touristy I know, but SO worth it) and then finishing up our day with a Mozart concert and dinner.

 

 

Funnily enough, most of the people of Salzburg have never seen the Sound of Music.  It was filmed there, but it was never shown successfully in the theaters of Austria - they have no interest.  Despite this, tour advertisements are all over the place for us American tourists who just can't get enough of the VonTrapp family!  K and I were giddy and S was mildly interested (though he did wind up enjoying it)  The tour started off with the gazebo from the backyard of the VonTrapp family mansion, which has been relocated since filming completed as too many people had tried to break into it to re-perform the scene from "16 Going On 17".  After seeing the gazebo we headed over to the lake and backyard of the VonTrapp family.  Little known fact: the house and the backyard/lake are two very separate sites in Salzburg and they are brought together in the film by the magic of Hollywood.  You'll notice now that I've mentioned it to you that in the movie you never see both settings in the same shot... The house in the middle picture is the site of the backyard and the lake behind it, surrounded by beautiful trees and mountains was absolutely picturesque.

 

 

From there we headed into the Alps toward the little town of Mondsee, where more scenes were filmed.  On the way, we stopped along the road for a photo op - a lake and small town surrounded by snow capped mountains.  According to our guide, there is usually too much fog to get any kind of good view here, but we happened upon an absolutely beautiful day with few clouds and clear views - lovely!

Our next stop was the town of Mondsee where we were given a little over an hour to explore on our own.  Mondsee contains two classic scenes from the movie: THE church where the wedding was held and the avenue of trees that the kids climbed in wearing their play clothes made of the old curtains.  The church was absolutely magificent, the interior was quite large and filled with domed ceilings, black and gold statues, three organs, and a huge balcony.  It was like the Neuschwanstein of churches. After exploring the church we stopped in a little cafe for some pastries and then took a look at the avenue of trees before heading back to our bus.

Our tour then took us back toward Salzburg, passing by the yellow house that was actually used at the VonTrapp family "house" in the movie (we didn't get to go in and unfortunately I didn't get a good picture when we drove by) and ending at Mirabelle Gardens, where Do-Re-Mi was filmed.  It was a beautiful garden with a fantastic view, elaborately swirling flower beds, marble statues, and fountains that have been carefully refinished to dissuade Sound of Music aficionados from marching atop the perimeter a la Maria.  From there we quickly walked back into Old Town and caught the festungsbahn back up to the castle to change for dinner.  We walked back down through the main square and over to the St. Peter Stiftskeller, the oldest restaurant in Europe, for our 3 course dinner accompanied by a Mozart Concert!

This was also a bit touristy of us, but it was another experience that we all very much thought was worth it.  Mozart was born and raised in Salzburg, so he's huge here - we got to listen to his music in the very town in which most of it was written!  The food was quite delicious and all of the musical selections were pretty familiar, at least for someone like me who grew up playing piano.  To be honest, S knew most of them too as the themes are used in movies and such all the time.  The performers did a lovely job and the singers especially put on a very lively performance.  The biggest surprise of the night, though, was how much we all enjoyed the White Lemon Soup with Curd Cheese Rosemary Dumplings...

The dinner let out long after the festungsbahn had made it's last run of the night, so we enjoyed a steep, meandering trip up to the top of the hill on foot in order to make it back to our apartment for the evening.  We actually got to walk through the "front door" of the castle, though (to which we had an actual key!) so that was a part of the castle that we all agreed we probably never would have gotten to experience otherwise.  All in all, day 1 in Salzburg was thoroughly enjoyable!

Randomness

Been busy lately and have a lot coming up too.  I know that the Germany trip was a whopping 3 months ago and I still don't have all of the pictures posted yet and so I probably shouldn't be posting "randomness", but I need something to mix it up every now and then.  And hence, randomness....

The pescatarian diet is going surprisingly well!  Although we've been craving a burger like crazy, we haven't yet succumbed to red meat's siren song!  We've been eating some very delicious, very healthy meals AND we've actually been working out about 3x/week with our p90x DVD's, so things are going well!  Some of the highlights from the month so far have been a make your own sushi night with B and J (it was SOOOOO yummy and way cheaper than a sushi restaurant.  though I admit we could use some help getting the sizing of the rolls right - we had issues fitting most of them in our mouths....), a crazy good kale salad that I pretty much crave daily now, and these chipotle black bean and sweet potato tacos that are so delicious that I swear we didn't even miss the meat.

In other news, we are having trouble staying put at home for extended periods of time, despite the fact that we were basically gone most of the winter and autumn months.  Although I'm admittedly pretty thrilled that S loves to travel as much as I do!  We have a ski trip (I just found this random ski cartoon comparing skiing in 1982 vs skiing in 2012 that has me cracking up) and a trip to Chicago (to see family, friends, and the Chicago car show) planned in the upcoming months.  So lots of cold weather and  yet, despite my southern blood, I can't wait!

This video is funny because it's true.  And if you're a 30-something you'll totally appreciate it as well.

Other randomness:

• I was reading about barre workout classes and was thinking I wanted to try one.  But $20 for a single class when I can work out for free at home or the NASA gym seems a little steep...
• Been dying to learn how to blow glass and I actually found a place in the Houston area that offers classes.  It's pretty pricy at $300 for 2 days, and I'm somewhat nervous given how generally clumsy I am (a bad combination with super hot molten glass...) but it would be one more thing I could cross off my life list.  They only offer classes in the cooler months since both Texas and the furnaces get super duper hot, so my time frame is limited.  I'll keep you updated.
• I've been wanting to get back into art more in general lately.  My trip to Germany was REALLY inspiring me to start painting again.  Not to mention I still owe artwork to various family members - like my cousin who got married 8 years ago and wanted one of my copper tooling pieces....  Problem is, these all take time, which I don't ever seem to have much of anymore.  Thinking I will try to ease into it with smaller projects like this, this, or this first. (Did fit in some time to make one of these over the break too!)
• Speaking of art, how mind blowing is this shadow art?!?

(top image from here, snowman pic here)

Germany Trip Part 5 - The Castles

We woke up to the most picturesque day possible for our castle tours of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein!  The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the leaves were changing colors, and the surrounding mountains were snow capped, it was perfection! After a quick breakfast at our hotel we packed up the car and headed up the nearby road to the base of the castles.  Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein are absolutely beautiful castles owned by the last of the Kings of Bavaria, Maximillian and his son Ludwig.  They were only built in the 19th century, so they're hardly the oldest castles we saw in German, but they were by far the most elaborate. Here were the views when we left our hotel:

 After we parked we headed over to Hohenshwangau first, which is the older of the two castles first built by Ludwig's father Maximillian.  It was their "vacation home" and while the castle was definitely lovely, it was the views and scenery that truly blew my mind...

 

 We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the castles.  I admit I snuck a few, but they didn't turn out all that great since they were hurried pics that I couldn't frame or focus properly.  To be honest, I don't know that the pictures would do them justice anyway.  After our tour of Hohenschwangau (say that 5x fast....) we were going to take the bus up the mountain on the approximately 1 mile trip to Neusschwanstein, the newer of the two castles built by the crazy king Ludwig.  However, due to an abundance of Asian tourists (waiting in the line would have taken longer than just walking), we decided to make the trek on foot.  The weather was perfect for it and the mountain wasn't particularly steep, but it did give us a whole new appreciation for the craftsman and artisans that had to make that trek daily (with massive blocks of stone no less!) in order to build the castle.

 The snow capped mountains reflecting in the mirror smooth lake and with the leaves changing colors just rocked my world.  It was SO insanely gorgeous.  That picture above with the golden ceiling was taken from the gilded throne room and it was by far the most elaborate room I have ever been in in my life. The chandeliers were studded with huge rhinestones and nearly everything was covered in gold.  The excess was actually kind of ridiculous, but stunning none the less.  After our tour of the second castle we hit up some gift shops for souveniers and an overpriced restaurant with rude waiters  for food.  As we made our way back down the mountain we lost S at one point and found him minutes later with a beer in one hand and a giant pretzel in the other - he had finally reached the beer-land of Bavaria!!!!  He'd only been waiting the entire trip for a good German beer....

We left the castles awestruck, full of beer and pretzels, and ready for our next adventure!  On our way out we caught one last image of the glory of Neuschwanstein against a setting of nearby pastures.

We then drove 3 hours through farmland and over the Alps to the 6th part of German(ish) adventure - coming up next: Salzburg, Austria!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2014!!!  I just returned from a completely lovely trip to FL with S.  We flew up to Jackson, MS to meet up with my brother D and his girlfriend B and we then made the 13 hour drive down to the family's townhouse.  We drove through the night, so it wasn't the easiest of trips, but it was worth it to get to spend some extra time with the family!  The weather wasn't phenomenal, so we were only able to hit up the beach twice over the course of the week, but we still had a blast hanging out with the rest of the family, eating my Grandma's incredible cooking, doing a girls' craft afternoon, and of course doing some post-holiday shopping!

D and S skim boarding at the beach

My mom reading to the girls

My Texas Star mosaic from our girls' crafting trip

We spent New Years Eve at the bowling alley again with a big group of family.  We all had fun bowling, eating pizza, and drinking beer together while we cheered for all of our strikes and spares and boo-ed all of the near misses and splits.  At midnight we had a champagne toast and I finally got my first NYE kiss from S!

The massage train at the alley - gotta keep those shoulders loose!

Grandma kicking ass on the lanes and B glowing in her signature fluorescent garb

So thankful I got to ring in the New Year with family!

 So what are my plans for the upcoming year?  I don't really make "New Year's Resolutions" because those are associated with the breaking of goals.  But some of the ways I'm starting out 2014 include:

• Start exercising again.  I fell off the wagon after the Germany trip and never really got back on.  S and I have decided to give p90x a try this month, and my goal is to exercise 3x/week minimum.
• Speaking of Germany,  I promise to get the rest of my pictures from the trip posted to the blog.  
• Food wise, January has been deemed "Pescatarian Month"!  S and I are going to forgo all meat and poultry and also work on reducing our processed wheat flour, sugar, and dairy intake (the "white foods") in an effort to detox a bit.  I have been gathering a bunch of pescatarian-friendly recipes here on Pinterest and will be sure to post updates on how that is going!  
• S and I also want to try to get more restaurants crossed off our list in the city.  I'm going to be moving in with S about mid way through the year when my lease is up and we want to take advantage of the easy access of having a place in the city while we can.

So those are the short term plans.  As the year progresses, I'll be sure to keep you updated on other events/obsessions/sucesses as they happen.   2013 was a fantastic year, so here's to another one in 2014!

(top picture from here)