I Heart Salzburg

I'm not sure whether it was the beautiful drive or the Sound of Music--but either way, I already sort of had a crush on Salzburg before we even got there.  By the end of the day, it was true love.

I wish I could go back in time to the moment about 10 seconds before the above photos were taken.  It had been a hectic morning, I had no idea where to park, and we were all a little grumpy by the time we had gotten out of the car.  Nearby where we parked, there was a bridge over the river with a "golden statue" on it that Andrew ran right up to.

He hadn't heard someone say that it was really a person, and I'm glad he didn't.  Otherwise we would have missed the look of sheer terror on his face when the statue he had been poking suddenly came to life and reached out toward him.  He SPRINTED off the bridge.  I so wish I could have gotten it on camera.  He was a really good sport about it, and went back up to him to check him out a little closer.  And I gave the statue-man a good tip for having gotten our Salzburg day off to a very fun start.

I though I had a good idea of what to do after reading things on-line, but once I got there none of it made sense.  Which, as I've stated before, is a bad thing with four bored kids. So I went with the follow-a-random-tour-group-to-an-interesting-place strategy, and off we went.

We ended up at Mozart's birthplace, and decided to go have a look inside.  Pictures weren't permitted, so the outside will have to do.

After that, we wandered around to try to hit some Sound of Music spots.  We ended up here at a fountain that I remember seeing in the movie--but I can't remember which scene.
And we went through the cemetery that the Von Trapps hide in when they're trying to escape (only in the movie...it didn't actually happen like that).

We went to the bakery next to the cathedral, which is the oldest one in Salzburg.  The loaf of bread was easily the heaviest loaf of bread of I've ever hefted.  And Great Harvest it was not. It was sort of a rye/sourdough taste that I would have eaten back in the 16th century if I was a starving peasant.  But it didn't really go over well with starving kids.  It just served as extra weight in Ryan's backpack for the rest of the day.  Here is the bread, and Jen and Megan at the sign by the bakery:

We headed up to the fortress that overlooks Salzburg after that: 

I am in love with the huge mountains and green valleys of Salzburg.

 
Inside the fortress we were treated to a Marrionette Museum.  AKA Museum of creepiness.  The one in the photo was Andrew's favorite, since it cackled at you when you opened the cupboard.  There were windows in the floor that you could look through and had small openings.  When you looked down, you could see what looked like dead puppets laying on a dungeon floor surrounded by lots and lots of coins and cash.  I still am baffled by why people dropped money down to the dead puppets--perhaps so they wouldn't haunt them in their dreams? I forgot to take a picture, but here's a photo someone else took who found it equally as disturbing.  The puppet is about 8 feet below you, under the portal.  Very weird.

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Salzburg

Creepy puppet Sound of Music people.  Less creepy with my kids' faces, though. 

After the fortress, we went to the abbey where Maria Von Trapp was a nun.  And just like the Von Trapp kids when they went to figure out why Maria had left them, we only got as far as the gate.

And another great view on the way down that shows what a beautiful day it was.  

The day passed way faster than I would have liked, and we picked our last excursion to be Hellbrunn Fountains.  It was little bit of a trip out by bus, and the kids questioned whether it was worth it just for some fountains.  I think we'd all agree that in the end it was.

You have to go through on a tour, which I don't always love.  But after the first stop you can see why that's how you do it.  The whole garden/fountain area was designed by an Archbishop who liked a good joke.  Clearly the guy had too much time on his hands.  The guide asked for volunteers, and Katie's hand shot up.  Ryan and Mason also volunteered. And this is what happened:

 The archbishop liked to wait until people were drunk and eating at the table before he turned it on.  A real comedian, this one.

They were pretty good sports about having soaking wet bums for the a

I think it was pretty much a dream tour-guide job, since you spend the whole tour spraying people with hidden fountains.  It was a hit with all involved.  This tongue-sticking-out fountain was water-powered, and was equivalent to flipping people off.  I'm getting the feeling he wasn't a particularly devout archbishop.

Even the deer antlers sprayed water

The gardens were beautiful, in addition to being pretty funny.

 We got back to the car and headed home.  It was a four hour trip, so we stopped about halfway at a McDonalds to get some dinner.  We opted for the drive-through to save time.  After I gave her the first four orders, she seemed to tune out--like I was just kidding that there were more people than that in our car.  I kept saying, "and one more..."  It didn't help that her English was marginal and my German far worse.  In the end, we got about five of our eight orders and had to go back in and redo it.


We are quite a large group for Europe.  When Ryan went to check out of the campground on Friday morning, the person at the desk kept looking at her screen and not talking.  When she finally spoke, she said, "It says here you have FIVE children.  Is that a mistake?"  Granted, we technically only have four and our niece, but the reaction was pretty telling.  It would have been funny to respond to her question with something like, "sometimes we've felt like it's a mistake, but it's too late now."

Innsbruck

We spent Thursday in Innsbruck.  It was our non-driving day in between two driving days, so we had to take it pretty easy.  We took the kids to a zoo in the morning, and then let them watch a movie in the afternoon while Jen, Megan and I went out to lunch in the nearby city Hall on Tirol.  

We wandered around looking for somewhere to eat, and ended up in a cafe where we could point to what we wanted instead of trying to read a menu.  My sister made the mistake of getting bottled mineral water, which I feel is really just part of the European experience.

And since it was a low-key day, we finally got Ryan a haircut.  On the way home from the zoo, I hunted down a hair salon and went in to see if they had any openings. Making appointments for things like that is fun when you don’t speak a common language.  I knew the German word for “husband”, the universal sign for haircut (fingers snipping your hair), and I put four fingers up then pointing to the clock to mean 4:00.  Luckily I had also learned the word for “today” and the phrase for “how much does it cost” from my CD’s.  She got my meaning, and Ryan got his haircut at 4:00. Danke!

We were back at a Eurocamp (our 5th out of 10 we will use during our trip).  I still love Eurocamp for how it caters to exactly what we need for the cost we can afford--but going back into 400 sq. feet isn’t easy.  Andrew’s response when getting into the camp was delight as he saw the lakes and the playgrounds.  Then he realized we were going back to a “caravan”, and he said, “Not one of THOSE houses again!”  

This camp had some cool air-guns we hadn't seen before.

And once again, internet was an issue.  It’s not bad when there’s nothing going on in your lives that you need internet for.  Unfortunately, Ryan really needs it to work, and we also had to deal with negotiations on our house and finalizing our lease in Utah.  They both got worked out, and both to our favor.  

The realtor for the people buying our house missed the deadline to turn in the buyers’ requests from the home inspection, which left us with no legal obligation to fix anything.  We offered to do about a third of what they asked, and the buyers’ realtor ended up taking a hit in his commission to cover the rest.  And we found a house in Provo right by the temple that will let us have a pet--so the lease is now signed and we have a home to move to.  And Ryan can continue having a walkable commute for another year.  

I don't think I'm ready to face all of that reality yet, though, so I'm going to keep my head in my  life here for one more month and be glad that I don't have to deal with the move.  My reality hear is really about all I can handle.

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Wednesday morning, my sister Jennifer flew into Zurich.  We drove back to our house, got our things ready to go, and headed out.  First we headed to Neuschwanstein Castle.  It's the castle Walt Disney used for inspiration for his Sleeping Beauty castle.  I had read that it was under renovations on the outside, which was pretty disappointing.  But we decided to go anyway, and it was well worth the trip.

Scaffolding on the castle

The castle was still  beautiful, and made even more so by the amazing location.  We were going to make our kids walk up the mountain to the castle, but they lucked out and we passed a bus that would get us up with very little effort and was way cheaper and less smelly than the horse drawn carriages.  We made sure they walked back down, though.  

It was very cute when we got on the bus and there weren’t any seats left, there was a couple from an eastern European country (not sure--they didn’t speak much English) where the guy patted his lap as an offer to let Chloe sit there.  She hopped right up and was very cute and smiley and said thank you.  Perfect manners!  Until she picked her nose.  Repeatedly.  Aarrgh.  We’re working on that.  It pretty much cancels out all cuteness.

Once we got to the top, we had a little time before our scheduled tour (it’s the only way you can go through the castle).  So we went up to St Mary’s bridge, which spans a deep gorge close to the castle.  As if being on a bridge over a gorge doesn’t give you a little bit of panic as is, this one takes it up a notch.  Most of the wooden boards that you walk on have a decent amount of give to them--to the point where some  make you wonder how close they are to breaking.  And sending you plunging to your death.  But it was pretty fantastic nonetheless, and made you appreciate solid ground.

The view from the bridge.  A-MAZ-ING.

You can see the bridge up at the top.

It was a looongg way down

Luckily the scaffolding from the back doesn't get in the way too much. 

The castle itself is unfinished inside, but you get to see the 1/3 of the castle that was done.  The rooms are beautiful, and I would have loved to see what “Mad King Ludwig” would have accomplished if he hadn’t died a suspicious death when he was 41.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside, so here are a couple from the internet:

There were picture-perfect views on the way down, and we found a store with some cute hats.  

 

After we were done, we headed to Innsbruck, Austria where we were going to stay for two nights.  The drive was amazing, and we caught the sunset before we went to bed.

Willie Wonka/Don't Let the Door Hit You On the Way Out

We took the day off on Monday and just played around the house.  I can only do that for a day, though, so we found somewhere to go today that was just a few miles from our house.  It’s a chocolate factory that lets you go through it and watch everything being made.  There’s a sort of glass-lined catwalk-type walkway above all of the people and machines that are making the chocolate.  

When we got there, Andrew wasn’t too impressed.  I think after seeing the Willie Wonka movie, a building like this isn’t so inspirational.  No oompa-loompas, no chocolate grass, etc.  You enter through a gift/chocolate shop, which is the same way you leave.  Needless to say, we bought some chocolate.  But not until after we had all been mesmerized by the entire process.  The smell was heavenly.

On our way home, we got stopped by a heard of cows with their clanking bells.  And one was by our parking spot once we got back to our woods that caught Chloe’s attention.  There are those cast-iron tubs in every field we pass.

One of the specialties in the factory we went to is a chocolate “ladybird.”  They also have little chocolate mice that we saw being packaged during our tour.  And after they made it home with us, they joined the ranks of the many non-toy toys that our kids have used while we’ve been here.

We’re all excited to go to Zurich tomorrow to pick up my sister Jennifer who will be spending the week with us.  She had a little glitch on her way out on account of having used frequent flier miles from two different airlines flying in and out of two different cities (Zurich and Munich).  

It turns out Switzerland won’t let you come visit unless you can show that you will be leaving within 3 months.  Her ticket home is out of Munich, but for some reason that wasn’t enough proof that she was leaving Switzerland. Do they not know the Munich is in GER-MA-NY?  She needed a plane ticket or train ticket to show how and when she would be vacating the country or they wouldn’t let her in.  The airlines were nice enough to offer her an $800 refundable ticket from Zurich to Munich that would allow her to get through customs, which she bought since there weren’t any other options other than staying home.  So...welcome to Switzerland.  Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.