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icepixieSwitzerland - Day 1 - 3/22/05
If we had just taken some kind of boat, we would have taken every possible form of motorized transportation possible today. National Express bus (which left at 4:45 AM, OMG) to London, tube to Liverpool St., Stansted Express train to the airport, airplane to Basel, city bus to the Basel train station, train to Luzern. We got in about 7:30 PM European time. Augh. That was a painful day of traveling, oh yes, even if I did manage to sleep some on the plane.
But...Switzerland! This makes me an evil American, I know, but I have to admit to some relief to see signs and ticket machines and stuff in English at the airport and train station, 'cause at that point I spoke about three words of German. (Now I speak thirteen. It's all about the immersion. ;)) I was surprised that I saw more English advertisements plastered around than in either German or French, although I do remember reading somewhere that English has become something of a lingua franca in Switzerland, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
By the way, Swiss security and passport control was nonexistent. We just walked by a guy in a booth who didn't even look at our passports--I had mine out and ready to show him, but I swear, he just saw the blue back cover and waved me on. I was kind of hoping for a stamp, too...ah, well.
The train ride to Luzern was at dusk, but from what we could see, Ellen and I both decided that the landscape looked quite a bit like Tennessee--the hills were a little high for my part, a little low for hers, but there were definitely trailer parks, so yes. Tennessee all the way. (As far as the landscape goes, we realized the error of our observations quickly. More on that later.) And yes, Luzern is Gatlinburg. Or rather, Gatlinburg is a pale imitation of Luzern. But G'burg has pancake houses, and that counts for a lot.
The guy working reception at our hotel/hostel (I never did figure out quite which it was--it seemed to be a combination) when we got there was Scottish, so I didn't get to bust out the "Sprechen sie English?" at that point, which was probably a good thing, as I wasn't even sure was I was saying in my native tongue by that point, much less in a foreign one. And this guy was so nice--they'd messed up our reservation, so he moved us to a triple they rarely use instead of the double we were going to have. It was facing the river, right in front of Mt. Pilatus, and huge. And it had a bookshelf filled with books other residents had left! Wheee! Great room. One of my favorites so far.
Switzerland - Day 2 - 3/23/05
So, this morning I wake up and look out the window. "Is that the mountain [Pilatus]?" I ask, pointing vaguely in the direction of what is actually just a large hill, and wondering if this Swiss Alps thing is all a lie. "No, I think that is," Ellen replies, pointing at the tiny bit of Pilatus visible through the massive haze blanketing the city and environs. Oh. That mountain. Snow-capped and everything. Right.
We went into the old town via the remaining medieval tower wall, which was picturesque, even if the towers themselves were closed for winter. (But apparently Good Friday ends winter, despite the fact that the previous three days have been between 65 and 70 degrees. See Day 4.) Fantastic weather all week, except for the haze--it had me wishing I'd brought my sandals and maybe some shorts.
We spent a good deal of time, as we did every following day, down at the lake taking pictures from various benches, trees, piers, and "our good friend the railing" on the bridge over where the lake turns into the river. (It almost works as a tripod...) Oh, and trying to get recalcitrant, itchy swans to pose nicely for pictures. It rarely worked. But there were enough of them that if you just took random pictures, some of them were inevitably looking pretty. Usually. I guess their wings are clipped, because we never saw any of them flying, and they had this weird thing where they, well, ran across the water. That's the only word to describe it. I guess they were trying to take off and just couldn't. Again with the haze, though; I had no idea what was beyond where what I could see of the lake ended, but I never would have guessed it was, well...see Day 4 again.
We got lunch from a bakery-type place near the lake. We tried to order in German, or Ellen did, anyway, by pointing at the quiche in the glass counter and trying to pronounce it. The lady running the place let her get through about four syllables before taking pity and starting to speak English at us. It was a nice change from the condescension at dinner the previous night, anyway. We said our dankes and took our quiche to the lakeside. It must have been the most pleasant lunch I've had in a long time, especially considering the chocolate that followed it. ;)
For dinner, I actually ate healthily on vacation, for a change--the biggest Caesar salad ever from the supermarket. And I managed to pass myself off as a German speaker! Okay, all I did was nod hello, say "nein" to the do-you-have-a-Coop-card question (which I deduced only because there were a couple people in front of me who answered the same, and "karte" is pretty universal in a grocery store) and thank the cashier, but still. No pity! And cheap Swiss chocolate, too--50 Swiss cents for a giant bar of store-brand chocolate that's about the best I've ever tasted. Mmmm.
Switzerland - Day 3 - 3/24/05
We kept running into a group of American teenagers and their (minimal) chaperones, and now I begin to see why everyone hates us. I'm beginning to hate Americans. Gah. Loud and obnoxious, yep. Why must these type of people give us a bad name?
In the morning, we hit the souvenir shops, 'cause Good Friday would apparently mean everything was closed, and we wanted some tacky mementos. (Oh, shut up. You know if you were in Switzerland, the first thing you'd buy is a cowbell. And a stuffed St. Bernard with a red cross barrel around its neck. And a t-shirt with "Switzerland: Founded 1291" on it. You so would.)
Pilatus was vaguely clear that morning, and we weren't entirely certain that the way up would be open on Friday, so we decided to chance going up in the afternoon, figuring if nothing else, the haze would burn off by 3 or 4 like it had the previous afternoon.
Ha. Hahahahahaha. Pilatus mocks us, as usual. Solid wall of cloud almost the entire time we were up there. There were a few breaks here and there, including a long-ish one towards the end of our time up there that let us see Luzern and a good bit of the lake (Vierwaldstättersee--say that four times fast), plus a few surrounding mountains. Obviously this is a mountain to go up in June. It was still worth it for the cable car rides, terrifying though the second one was, though. At least there we were below the cloud and could see around a good bit. And on the way down, we passed over some sheep wearing cowbells, which we could hear jingling in the wind. Hee. And we got to see, you know, snow in Switzerland. Quite a lot of snow, in fact. And drunken Germans singing lieder in harmony as they walked up one of the paths. Speaking of which, only two of the five were open. Sigh. Mocked again.
While waiting for the giant pouring rainstorm to stop after dinner, I bought a Kinder Egg from some little kiosk shop, and was all prepared to "danke" when the lady running the shop gave me a "merci" instead. Pick a language, people! Although at least I can understand/speak French a little better than I can German. Thank you, five years of Spanish.
Switzerland - Day 4 - 3/25/05
OMGWTFMountains! Who knew there were so many mountains around Luzern? Not me, that's for sure. The rain cleared away all the haze (but it was still warm), and whoa...whole new perspective on this town. We spent a lot of time at the lake taking pictures early in the morning, since lately I'm always waking up thirty minutes before my alarm. So pretty.
What wasn't so pretty was the massive hoard of tourists that descended on the city that day. Apparently Good Friday starts tourist season in Europe. Who knew? Sheesh.
Once we'd photographed a bit, we hiked over to the dying lion monument via the tower wall. And apparently the people maintaining the towers decided it was not winter anymore (possibly to coincide with the ravaging horde of tourists), 'cause the four you can go in were open. So of course, we had to go in all of them, including the clock tower, the chime of which deafened us both. Guess who forgot that it gets to go off a minute before the hour on account of it being the oldest clock in town? Yeah. Ow. Didn't hustle down those steps quite fast enough.
Right. Lion monument. Mark Twain called it the most moving piece of rock in the world, and he was right. It's a memorial to the Swiss soldiers who died in the French Revolution, and an amazing piece of artistry. You can almost hear it wailing.
Right next door was the "Glacier Garden," a weird agglomeration of a museum and an archaeological site. Apparently glaciers made potholes in the rock under Luzern during the ice age, and this is important. Or something. Neat things to take pictures of, anyway. There was also a hall of mirrors that was way cool, a museum made out of an old house filled with maps and models of Switzerland, some odd wooden gnomes in grottos, and samples of all the alpine flowers we couldn't see up on Pilatus. Definitely worth the entrance fee, but...weird. Very strange.
Switzerland and Austria - 3/26/05
The mountains were outlined in blue mist this morning, so...more pictures. I think we begin to see why I had to go to the photo place at the train station and get the ones on my big memory card burned into a CD so I would have some room left for Salzburg.
Ellen left to go back to Exeter, and around noon, I began my seven-hour odyssey to Salzburg. It started with a trip to Zurich on one of those way cool double-decker trains. The Swiss train system is just amazing. I love it. Always on time, spotlessly clean, incredibly cheap...I love it. Why can't the UK have such nice trains?
I had a horrifying few minutes at the Zurich bahnhof when the international trains departure board was only listing the final city for each train, and I had no idea what the one for mine, "Wien," was, but a quick chat with the train info guy cleared that up. Right. "W" is "V." Gotta remember that. Anyway, got on the right train, and it was totally a Harry Potter train(!!!). Compartments and everything. Cushy compartments, too, even for second class--six big padded seats, sliding glass door, big luggage storage space above your heads...I had one all to myself for several hours, until the people who actually had it reserved got on. Whoops. Although the sign indicating it was reserved was impossibly small and well above my eye level, so I don't feel too embarrassed. Anyway, I had to move to a smoking compartment, which was much less fun. But the ride itself was absolutely incredible. We would often go into a tunnel, and when the train would come out, there would be this breathtaking mountain right there. And we passed several mountains that just descended into lakes without any kind of break, which was neat. And we were definitely hanging off the sides of some other mountains. We must have gotten pretty high up, since there was snow all over and my ears were popping like mad.
This time I did get a stamp on my passport for Austrian customs. Woo-hoo! At least the customs official didn't try to make conversation like the conductor did. I think the conductor might have been trying to flirt with me, but I couldn't tell; maybe he was just being really friendly (or, from what I could gather, he was possibly seriously questioning my resemblance to my passport picture, for which I don't blame him in the least). I had to give him a blank look at all the German, and I could just see his face fall. He was a nice guy, I just fail at German.
And okay, I'll admit it: I was totally listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack on my iPod once we got into Austria. I am a walking (er, sitting/riding) cliche. But a happy cliche.
I met up with Annie at the train station, and on the walk to the hostel, I was amazed for the first, but certainly not the last, time by her amazing facility with maps and directions. The whole next two days, we could just decide where we wanted to go, and she would lead us infallibly there. I followed in awe.
Hostel was...hostely. The beds were scary, as they were basically cement slabs on bunks. The Lafrowda cement hammock is lookin' pretty good after that. The place was full of Americans and Aussies, and all the staff pretty much spoke only English, which I probably should have come to expect, but was still surprised to see. All the notices and stuff were only in English. We met a lot of people doing a year or semester abroad in the UK who were traveling over spring break like us, which was fun.
Church bells were literally ringing all night long, I suppose because of Easter. I don't think the cathedral bell stopped once, at least not from whenever I started noticing it to when I fell asleep around 1 or 2. It was cool, although it got old after a bit.
Salzburg - Day 1 - 3/27/05
Most things were, shockingly enough, open on Easter Sunday. Annie and I decided to go for the Sound of Music tour in the morning. Yes, we are big fat geeks, but that was huge part of my childhood, and I would regret it forever if I didn't do this tour while I was in Salzburg. Just about everyone else in our eight-girl dorm had the same idea; we all slunk downstairs individually only to meet up with our roommates and have a great geeky camaraderie.
As for the tour itself--it was way less kitschy than I'd feared, and I really enjoyed myself. We had absolutely perfect weather for it--not a cloud in the sky, and it was about 60 or 65 down in Salzburg, a little cooler up in the mountains. I'm not fond of being part of such a huge tour group and being herded around and told when to meet back and all that stuff, but getting hassle-free transport to all the places on the tour was worth it, not to mentioned the enthusiastic (but not to the point of creepiness) and jolly tour guide. Even if you had no interest in the movie, getting to go through part of the lake district and into the mountains was pretty nice. I definitely got pictures of me in front of the gazebo (which you can't go in, alas) and standing on the fountain and the steps in Mirabelle Gardens. Annie tried climbing some of the trees the children climbed in the movie, but found that they've grown a bit in the past four decades. (The movie is 40 years old now. God, how many children the world over learned their C major scale from that film? I know I did.) We saw Leopoldskon, aka the back of the Trapp house, the wedding church in Mondsee, various scenic bits used in the opening in St. Gilgen, and had the mountain the featured in the opening and closing pointed out to us. I think Mondsee was my favorite part, though, as we had some time to sit outside a cafe and order a snack. I went for the full geek experience and had apple strudel. Hee.
That afternoon, we went up to the big fortress, Hohensalzburg. It was kind of like the Tower of London or Edinburgh Castle, only not as detailed, I guess; not as many things open to the public, and not as big in the first place. The audioguide was fantastic, though; better than at any other similar site I've been to. Although that's possibly because the Austro-Hungarian Empire is a minor pet empire of mine in a way that England and Scotland aren't. But anyway. Part of it involved a cattle-herding touring technique that was just awful, but was worth it to get to the viewing platform at the very top. Again, perfect weather to see the whole city and off into the mountains. Salzburg is simply gorgeous.
We hung out in the various squares around the cathedral in the afternoon. I tried taking pictures that conveyed their massive grandeur, but I don't think it really shows. The whole area reminded me of my idea of Florence or Venice rather that Austria, with all the white stone and green domes and stuff. I was surprised to see so many onion domes on the various churches around town, too; I suppose Austria is more Eastern Europe than I was thinking. We had dinner outside at a pizza stand set up in one of the squares. Also going on all around us were bunches of tented stalls selling lots of Easter things--painted eggshells were big, as were various things involving dried flowers--souvenirs, food, etc. It was all very colorful and fun to look at.
After dinner, we decided we hadn't had enough punishment walking up the near-vertical path to the fortress, so we went up to the monastery hill to watch the sunset. We were totally climbing every mountain, man. It was worth it, but not really for the sunset--behind the monastery is a park stretching across the top of the hill/baby mountain, and when I followed one of the trails, it led me to what must be the only clear view of Nonnberg Abbey in town. I'd been hunting for a good spot to take a picture since we'd gone to it on our way down from the fortress. I was inside one of the hollowed-out fort thingies attached to the old city wall, which was cool as well--not as spectacular as Luzern's wall, but neat nonetheless.
I came back to the hostel to discover I definitely had a red and sunburned nose, and my scalp is still itchy and peeling and thoroughly burnt. That part may have started in Switzerland, but Austria finished the job. I still have trouble believing this.
Salzburg - Day 2 - 3/28/05
We found out why everyone was working on Sunday--Monday they all took the day off. Definitely a public holiday, that one. And a very rainy one at that. Annie and I saw our plans for an alpine picnic on the Untersburg go down in, well, rain. We were foiled for both breakfast outside the hostel and the Festival Hall (you can't go in without a guided tour, and even on that you can't see the smaller hall they used for SoM), and drenched besides, so since the hostel shows SoM every morning, we decided to just camp out and refresh our memories by watching it. We did eventually go back outside; up to the terrace by the modern art museum used in the movie (I told you we were geeks), back to Mirabelle Gardens for a bit, and around the booths in the Residenzplatz. I got a pizza pretzel (that was more like pizza dough than a pretzel, but anyway) and the best cinnamon roll I've ever eaten. It wasn't a roll, exactly, but more like a huge hollow cylinder made of cinnamon sugar-covered dough. I also broke down and bought myself one of the painted eggshells; thankfully they gave me part of an egg carton to take it home with. It made it back to Exeter in one piece, anyway.
I really want to go back to Salzburg someday, maybe in August when the music festival is going on. Or maybe I could go back for a couple days in June if I can convince someone to go with me... *looks at Pez* I want to go frolic on that mountain, maybe do some of the Mozart stuff, just wander around some more and look at the beautiful buildings and fountains and stuff. Actually do the tour of the Festival Hall this time, maybe, or go when there's any kind of concert there.
And now I ought to go to bed after my nice long journey back from Austria today...
If we had just taken some kind of boat, we would have taken every possible form of motorized transportation possible today. National Express bus (which left at 4:45 AM, OMG) to London, tube to Liverpool St., Stansted Express train to the airport, airplane to Basel, city bus to the Basel train station, train to Luzern. We got in about 7:30 PM European time. Augh. That was a painful day of traveling, oh yes, even if I did manage to sleep some on the plane.
But...Switzerland! This makes me an evil American, I know, but I have to admit to some relief to see signs and ticket machines and stuff in English at the airport and train station, 'cause at that point I spoke about three words of German. (Now I speak thirteen. It's all about the immersion. ;)) I was surprised that I saw more English advertisements plastered around than in either German or French, although I do remember reading somewhere that English has become something of a lingua franca in Switzerland, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
By the way, Swiss security and passport control was nonexistent. We just walked by a guy in a booth who didn't even look at our passports--I had mine out and ready to show him, but I swear, he just saw the blue back cover and waved me on. I was kind of hoping for a stamp, too...ah, well.
The train ride to Luzern was at dusk, but from what we could see, Ellen and I both decided that the landscape looked quite a bit like Tennessee--the hills were a little high for my part, a little low for hers, but there were definitely trailer parks, so yes. Tennessee all the way. (As far as the landscape goes, we realized the error of our observations quickly. More on that later.) And yes, Luzern is Gatlinburg. Or rather, Gatlinburg is a pale imitation of Luzern. But G'burg has pancake houses, and that counts for a lot.
The guy working reception at our hotel/hostel (I never did figure out quite which it was--it seemed to be a combination) when we got there was Scottish, so I didn't get to bust out the "Sprechen sie English?" at that point, which was probably a good thing, as I wasn't even sure was I was saying in my native tongue by that point, much less in a foreign one. And this guy was so nice--they'd messed up our reservation, so he moved us to a triple they rarely use instead of the double we were going to have. It was facing the river, right in front of Mt. Pilatus, and huge. And it had a bookshelf filled with books other residents had left! Wheee! Great room. One of my favorites so far.
Switzerland - Day 2 - 3/23/05
So, this morning I wake up and look out the window. "Is that the mountain [Pilatus]?" I ask, pointing vaguely in the direction of what is actually just a large hill, and wondering if this Swiss Alps thing is all a lie. "No, I think that is," Ellen replies, pointing at the tiny bit of Pilatus visible through the massive haze blanketing the city and environs. Oh. That mountain. Snow-capped and everything. Right.
We went into the old town via the remaining medieval tower wall, which was picturesque, even if the towers themselves were closed for winter. (But apparently Good Friday ends winter, despite the fact that the previous three days have been between 65 and 70 degrees. See Day 4.) Fantastic weather all week, except for the haze--it had me wishing I'd brought my sandals and maybe some shorts.
We spent a good deal of time, as we did every following day, down at the lake taking pictures from various benches, trees, piers, and "our good friend the railing" on the bridge over where the lake turns into the river. (It almost works as a tripod...) Oh, and trying to get recalcitrant, itchy swans to pose nicely for pictures. It rarely worked. But there were enough of them that if you just took random pictures, some of them were inevitably looking pretty. Usually. I guess their wings are clipped, because we never saw any of them flying, and they had this weird thing where they, well, ran across the water. That's the only word to describe it. I guess they were trying to take off and just couldn't. Again with the haze, though; I had no idea what was beyond where what I could see of the lake ended, but I never would have guessed it was, well...see Day 4 again.
We got lunch from a bakery-type place near the lake. We tried to order in German, or Ellen did, anyway, by pointing at the quiche in the glass counter and trying to pronounce it. The lady running the place let her get through about four syllables before taking pity and starting to speak English at us. It was a nice change from the condescension at dinner the previous night, anyway. We said our dankes and took our quiche to the lakeside. It must have been the most pleasant lunch I've had in a long time, especially considering the chocolate that followed it. ;)
For dinner, I actually ate healthily on vacation, for a change--the biggest Caesar salad ever from the supermarket. And I managed to pass myself off as a German speaker! Okay, all I did was nod hello, say "nein" to the do-you-have-a-Coop-card question (which I deduced only because there were a couple people in front of me who answered the same, and "karte" is pretty universal in a grocery store) and thank the cashier, but still. No pity! And cheap Swiss chocolate, too--50 Swiss cents for a giant bar of store-brand chocolate that's about the best I've ever tasted. Mmmm.
Switzerland - Day 3 - 3/24/05
We kept running into a group of American teenagers and their (minimal) chaperones, and now I begin to see why everyone hates us. I'm beginning to hate Americans. Gah. Loud and obnoxious, yep. Why must these type of people give us a bad name?
In the morning, we hit the souvenir shops, 'cause Good Friday would apparently mean everything was closed, and we wanted some tacky mementos. (Oh, shut up. You know if you were in Switzerland, the first thing you'd buy is a cowbell. And a stuffed St. Bernard with a red cross barrel around its neck. And a t-shirt with "Switzerland: Founded 1291" on it. You so would.)
Pilatus was vaguely clear that morning, and we weren't entirely certain that the way up would be open on Friday, so we decided to chance going up in the afternoon, figuring if nothing else, the haze would burn off by 3 or 4 like it had the previous afternoon.
Ha. Hahahahahaha. Pilatus mocks us, as usual. Solid wall of cloud almost the entire time we were up there. There were a few breaks here and there, including a long-ish one towards the end of our time up there that let us see Luzern and a good bit of the lake (Vierwaldstättersee--say that four times fast), plus a few surrounding mountains. Obviously this is a mountain to go up in June. It was still worth it for the cable car rides, terrifying though the second one was, though. At least there we were below the cloud and could see around a good bit. And on the way down, we passed over some sheep wearing cowbells, which we could hear jingling in the wind. Hee. And we got to see, you know, snow in Switzerland. Quite a lot of snow, in fact. And drunken Germans singing lieder in harmony as they walked up one of the paths. Speaking of which, only two of the five were open. Sigh. Mocked again.
While waiting for the giant pouring rainstorm to stop after dinner, I bought a Kinder Egg from some little kiosk shop, and was all prepared to "danke" when the lady running the shop gave me a "merci" instead. Pick a language, people! Although at least I can understand/speak French a little better than I can German. Thank you, five years of Spanish.
Switzerland - Day 4 - 3/25/05
OMGWTFMountains! Who knew there were so many mountains around Luzern? Not me, that's for sure. The rain cleared away all the haze (but it was still warm), and whoa...whole new perspective on this town. We spent a lot of time at the lake taking pictures early in the morning, since lately I'm always waking up thirty minutes before my alarm. So pretty.
What wasn't so pretty was the massive hoard of tourists that descended on the city that day. Apparently Good Friday starts tourist season in Europe. Who knew? Sheesh.
Once we'd photographed a bit, we hiked over to the dying lion monument via the tower wall. And apparently the people maintaining the towers decided it was not winter anymore (possibly to coincide with the ravaging horde of tourists), 'cause the four you can go in were open. So of course, we had to go in all of them, including the clock tower, the chime of which deafened us both. Guess who forgot that it gets to go off a minute before the hour on account of it being the oldest clock in town? Yeah. Ow. Didn't hustle down those steps quite fast enough.
Right. Lion monument. Mark Twain called it the most moving piece of rock in the world, and he was right. It's a memorial to the Swiss soldiers who died in the French Revolution, and an amazing piece of artistry. You can almost hear it wailing.
Right next door was the "Glacier Garden," a weird agglomeration of a museum and an archaeological site. Apparently glaciers made potholes in the rock under Luzern during the ice age, and this is important. Or something. Neat things to take pictures of, anyway. There was also a hall of mirrors that was way cool, a museum made out of an old house filled with maps and models of Switzerland, some odd wooden gnomes in grottos, and samples of all the alpine flowers we couldn't see up on Pilatus. Definitely worth the entrance fee, but...weird. Very strange.
Switzerland and Austria - 3/26/05
The mountains were outlined in blue mist this morning, so...more pictures. I think we begin to see why I had to go to the photo place at the train station and get the ones on my big memory card burned into a CD so I would have some room left for Salzburg.
Ellen left to go back to Exeter, and around noon, I began my seven-hour odyssey to Salzburg. It started with a trip to Zurich on one of those way cool double-decker trains. The Swiss train system is just amazing. I love it. Always on time, spotlessly clean, incredibly cheap...I love it. Why can't the UK have such nice trains?
I had a horrifying few minutes at the Zurich bahnhof when the international trains departure board was only listing the final city for each train, and I had no idea what the one for mine, "Wien," was, but a quick chat with the train info guy cleared that up. Right. "W" is "V." Gotta remember that. Anyway, got on the right train, and it was totally a Harry Potter train(!!!). Compartments and everything. Cushy compartments, too, even for second class--six big padded seats, sliding glass door, big luggage storage space above your heads...I had one all to myself for several hours, until the people who actually had it reserved got on. Whoops. Although the sign indicating it was reserved was impossibly small and well above my eye level, so I don't feel too embarrassed. Anyway, I had to move to a smoking compartment, which was much less fun. But the ride itself was absolutely incredible. We would often go into a tunnel, and when the train would come out, there would be this breathtaking mountain right there. And we passed several mountains that just descended into lakes without any kind of break, which was neat. And we were definitely hanging off the sides of some other mountains. We must have gotten pretty high up, since there was snow all over and my ears were popping like mad.
This time I did get a stamp on my passport for Austrian customs. Woo-hoo! At least the customs official didn't try to make conversation like the conductor did. I think the conductor might have been trying to flirt with me, but I couldn't tell; maybe he was just being really friendly (or, from what I could gather, he was possibly seriously questioning my resemblance to my passport picture, for which I don't blame him in the least). I had to give him a blank look at all the German, and I could just see his face fall. He was a nice guy, I just fail at German.
And okay, I'll admit it: I was totally listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack on my iPod once we got into Austria. I am a walking (er, sitting/riding) cliche. But a happy cliche.
I met up with Annie at the train station, and on the walk to the hostel, I was amazed for the first, but certainly not the last, time by her amazing facility with maps and directions. The whole next two days, we could just decide where we wanted to go, and she would lead us infallibly there. I followed in awe.
Hostel was...hostely. The beds were scary, as they were basically cement slabs on bunks. The Lafrowda cement hammock is lookin' pretty good after that. The place was full of Americans and Aussies, and all the staff pretty much spoke only English, which I probably should have come to expect, but was still surprised to see. All the notices and stuff were only in English. We met a lot of people doing a year or semester abroad in the UK who were traveling over spring break like us, which was fun.
Church bells were literally ringing all night long, I suppose because of Easter. I don't think the cathedral bell stopped once, at least not from whenever I started noticing it to when I fell asleep around 1 or 2. It was cool, although it got old after a bit.
Salzburg - Day 1 - 3/27/05
Most things were, shockingly enough, open on Easter Sunday. Annie and I decided to go for the Sound of Music tour in the morning. Yes, we are big fat geeks, but that was huge part of my childhood, and I would regret it forever if I didn't do this tour while I was in Salzburg. Just about everyone else in our eight-girl dorm had the same idea; we all slunk downstairs individually only to meet up with our roommates and have a great geeky camaraderie.
As for the tour itself--it was way less kitschy than I'd feared, and I really enjoyed myself. We had absolutely perfect weather for it--not a cloud in the sky, and it was about 60 or 65 down in Salzburg, a little cooler up in the mountains. I'm not fond of being part of such a huge tour group and being herded around and told when to meet back and all that stuff, but getting hassle-free transport to all the places on the tour was worth it, not to mentioned the enthusiastic (but not to the point of creepiness) and jolly tour guide. Even if you had no interest in the movie, getting to go through part of the lake district and into the mountains was pretty nice. I definitely got pictures of me in front of the gazebo (which you can't go in, alas) and standing on the fountain and the steps in Mirabelle Gardens. Annie tried climbing some of the trees the children climbed in the movie, but found that they've grown a bit in the past four decades. (The movie is 40 years old now. God, how many children the world over learned their C major scale from that film? I know I did.) We saw Leopoldskon, aka the back of the Trapp house, the wedding church in Mondsee, various scenic bits used in the opening in St. Gilgen, and had the mountain the featured in the opening and closing pointed out to us. I think Mondsee was my favorite part, though, as we had some time to sit outside a cafe and order a snack. I went for the full geek experience and had apple strudel. Hee.
That afternoon, we went up to the big fortress, Hohensalzburg. It was kind of like the Tower of London or Edinburgh Castle, only not as detailed, I guess; not as many things open to the public, and not as big in the first place. The audioguide was fantastic, though; better than at any other similar site I've been to. Although that's possibly because the Austro-Hungarian Empire is a minor pet empire of mine in a way that England and Scotland aren't. But anyway. Part of it involved a cattle-herding touring technique that was just awful, but was worth it to get to the viewing platform at the very top. Again, perfect weather to see the whole city and off into the mountains. Salzburg is simply gorgeous.
We hung out in the various squares around the cathedral in the afternoon. I tried taking pictures that conveyed their massive grandeur, but I don't think it really shows. The whole area reminded me of my idea of Florence or Venice rather that Austria, with all the white stone and green domes and stuff. I was surprised to see so many onion domes on the various churches around town, too; I suppose Austria is more Eastern Europe than I was thinking. We had dinner outside at a pizza stand set up in one of the squares. Also going on all around us were bunches of tented stalls selling lots of Easter things--painted eggshells were big, as were various things involving dried flowers--souvenirs, food, etc. It was all very colorful and fun to look at.
After dinner, we decided we hadn't had enough punishment walking up the near-vertical path to the fortress, so we went up to the monastery hill to watch the sunset. We were totally climbing every mountain, man. It was worth it, but not really for the sunset--behind the monastery is a park stretching across the top of the hill/baby mountain, and when I followed one of the trails, it led me to what must be the only clear view of Nonnberg Abbey in town. I'd been hunting for a good spot to take a picture since we'd gone to it on our way down from the fortress. I was inside one of the hollowed-out fort thingies attached to the old city wall, which was cool as well--not as spectacular as Luzern's wall, but neat nonetheless.
I came back to the hostel to discover I definitely had a red and sunburned nose, and my scalp is still itchy and peeling and thoroughly burnt. That part may have started in Switzerland, but Austria finished the job. I still have trouble believing this.
Salzburg - Day 2 - 3/28/05
We found out why everyone was working on Sunday--Monday they all took the day off. Definitely a public holiday, that one. And a very rainy one at that. Annie and I saw our plans for an alpine picnic on the Untersburg go down in, well, rain. We were foiled for both breakfast outside the hostel and the Festival Hall (you can't go in without a guided tour, and even on that you can't see the smaller hall they used for SoM), and drenched besides, so since the hostel shows SoM every morning, we decided to just camp out and refresh our memories by watching it. We did eventually go back outside; up to the terrace by the modern art museum used in the movie (I told you we were geeks), back to Mirabelle Gardens for a bit, and around the booths in the Residenzplatz. I got a pizza pretzel (that was more like pizza dough than a pretzel, but anyway) and the best cinnamon roll I've ever eaten. It wasn't a roll, exactly, but more like a huge hollow cylinder made of cinnamon sugar-covered dough. I also broke down and bought myself one of the painted eggshells; thankfully they gave me part of an egg carton to take it home with. It made it back to Exeter in one piece, anyway.
I really want to go back to Salzburg someday, maybe in August when the music festival is going on. Or maybe I could go back for a couple days in June if I can convince someone to go with me... *looks at Pez* I want to go frolic on that mountain, maybe do some of the Mozart stuff, just wander around some more and look at the beautiful buildings and fountains and stuff. Actually do the tour of the Festival Hall this time, maybe, or go when there's any kind of concert there.
And now I ought to go to bed after my nice long journey back from Austria today...
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Date: 2005-03-30 03:49 am (UTC)Hee. Even my mom, quite the world traveler, brought back a toy St. Bernard from Switzerland. She calls him Bernie and keeps him for when I bring my children over to her house.
It sounds like you had so much fun! I can't wait until you post pictures.
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Date: 2005-03-30 03:52 pm (UTC)Oooh, Bernie's a good name. Mine looks kind of like a Bernie. Actually, mine looks slightly manic, to be honest, but anyway. ;)
It sounds like you had so much fun!
Oh my, yes. I want to do this every spring break. *g*
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Date: 2005-03-30 05:51 am (UTC)Yeah, 'cause then you can do the whole big tour with the train up the other side and all!
It was still worth it for the cable car rides, terrifying though the second one was, though.
On the first big one, there was a girl in front of us crouched down below the window, hanging on for dear life and trying very hard not to have a breakdown. Her mean friends were teasing her...
And on the way down, we passed over some sheep wearing cowbells, which we could hear jingling in the wind.
Isn't that cool? :) It's so quiet and peaceful, and then you hear the cowbells off in the distance - then boom, there they are!
the four you can go in were open.
Oooh, jealous! We only had time to see them at night, so they were already closed.
Glacier Garden
Very cool. Again, wish I'd had more time to check that out.
60 or 65 down in Salzburg
Ugh, lucky! It was more like 90+ when we were there. Blech.
Mondsee was my favorite part
It's such a pretty little town.
the viewing platform at the very top
That's where we spent most of our time, 'cause there was actually a breeze up there!
painted eggshells were big
Oooh, I loved those! I got one that just has the Salzburg city-scape on it, basically. My mom got one that was cut out to look like lace.
There was a whole shop that was nothing but eggshells when we were there - it was huge, and they had about anything you could imagine on them. Of course, we found the shop half an hour before we had to be back at the bus. Grrr. It was way down by the river, so I have the sinking feeling that it was wiped out in the floods. :(
I'm glad you had a good time!
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Date: 2005-03-30 04:00 pm (UTC)That would've been nice. We picked a weird time to go...it wasn't wintery enough for the sledding to be open (which was sad, sad, sad), and not summery enough for anything else to really be open. And of course, there was the cloud that sat around the mountain the entire time...
On the first big one, there was a girl in front of us crouched down below the window, hanging on for dear life and trying very hard not to have a breakdown. Her mean friends were teasing her...
Dude, I was that girl. I wasn't crouched, exactly, but I was very close. I didn't see much on the way up during that part of the ride. Going down was much better.
Oooh, jealous! We only had time to see them at night, so they were already closed.
They were quite awesome. The first one had a spectacular view over the city. And of course you get to walk on the wall between three of the others, which was neat.
Very cool. Again, wish I'd had more time to check that out.
Such a strange, strange thing. But fun. It mostly satisfied our desire to go to the Nature Museum (whose admission was something like 30 francs, so no).
Ugh, lucky! It was more like 90+ when we were there. Blech.
90? Ew. Maybe I don't want to go back in June. Ugh.
It's such a pretty little town.
I want a house up there.
That's where we spent most of our time, 'cause there was actually a breeze up there!
Salzburg was actually chillier than Luzern--the first day was chilly int he morning, but warmish int eh afternoon, and the second day was rainy and cold. We were kind of trying to stay out of the cool breezes... ;)
Oooh, I loved those! I got one that just has the Salzburg city-scape on it, basically. My mom got one that was cut out to look like lace.
Oh, I missed those kind. Mine is purple with 3D flower decorations.
There was a whole shop that was nothing but eggshells when we were there - it was huge, and they had about anything you could imagine on them. Of course, we found the shop half an hour before we had to be back at the bus. Grrr. It was way down by the river, so I have the sinking feeling that it was wiped out in the floods. :(
I saw a "Salzburg Easter Shop" in the old town that I wish I'd seen before I got my egg; I actually got it at the Christmas shop, which I think is probably owned by the same people who own the Easter one, and they were tryin to get rid of some of their stock. ;)
I'm glad you had a good time!
Thanks!
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Date: 2005-03-30 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 04:02 pm (UTC)