Hi everyone, wow, is Salzburg a beautiful city. I forgot to mention yesterday when we were at the church in the center plaza area, they had a section chain linked off and it looked like there was archaeological digging going on. What we found out was that they had discovered human bones in an old cemetry that the original church had been over and later the direction of the church had been changed. So they had uncovered what looked like square stone pillar bases and we saw two sets of workers laboring very diligently with small paint brushes over exposed human bone skeletons. It was cool to watch.
Well today we got up and caught the Panoramic tour bus that in the morning took us out to a salt mine about 45 minutes from town. Being a little nervous about going under ground in anything that resembled a cave, my mind was at war about not wanting to miss anything and getting the heck out of there. Well this tour was coooolllll! We rode a train car in (after we dressed in overalls over our clothes). We then traveled deep into the mountain where they had drilled for underground salt deposits. We walked around looking at the drilling equipment and you could see the salt right in the rock. It looked red because of iron ore deposits. Apparently they would look for large deposits, flood it with water, and then the pockets would sit for 30 years as the brine would settle out. We took a boat ride across one of these large ponds of settlement. It was kinda creepy but cool at the same time. We also got to go down two actual wood slides. You would sit on your butt just like Splash Mtn. at Disneyland and then slide down quite a long slide to a lower level. We got to do this twice. They showed us a pump that had runned for 110 years (1817-1927) without any breakdowns. Amazing technology for several hundred years. We've got pictures of us going down the slides. Pretty funny.
Then we came back and went on the Original Sound of Music Tour. This was actually cool. We had a tour guide who knew her stuff. We drove around Salzburg and saw the bridge and grass bank where they played in the drapes clothes. We saw the Mirabell gardens where they go around singing the Do Re Me song, saw the Abby up on the hill (hope to go find this abby tomorrow) for all the Nun scenes that is still an actual abby for Nuns today), then we went out for a drive to see all the lake district. We saw about 5 of about 50 lakes with all their local villages. Gorgous! We stopped at Mondsee lake and village where Julie Andrews married Christopher Plummer in the beautiful wedding scene. Saw the church, wow, and several more scenes. Plus we saw so much of the countryside. It was a full day but we loved it.
Our days are full and we get tired. But we are trying to cram in as much as we can in our short stays. But boy do I have dreams of where i would love to come back to.
Anyone is welcomed to come watch the Sound of Music at our house, just be prepared for "we saw that! we saw that too!" (just kidding!)
Miss all of you a lot. Hope you are all well. Love from all of us to all of you.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Hi from Salzburg!
Hi everyone, we are now in Salzburg, Austria. Wow, the home of Mozart and chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, I am going to go through serious withdrawals when I get home. There have been some days when I have chocolate 3 times a day. Some hotels had croissants with chocolate in them. Then we would find chocolate stores that were just calling us by name to stop and buy some, and then of course you need a chocolate chaser after dinner. We are walking so much that my clothes seem to still be fitting fine. But as soon as we get home, things will not be the same so I am going to enjoy it now while I can!
Yesterday we spent most of the day just getting here from Innsbruck. Today we did a walking tour around the old town. Their main cathedral was gorgous inside. We love to go in and check out all the different architecture and craftmanship in how they design their churches. No two are alike. Also, we saw the baptismal fountain that Mozart was baptised in. There were horse drawn carriages everywhere. We didnt do one today, I hope another time. There are a lot of upper class stores in the old town but its fun to window shop. But I draw the limit at €129 euros for a Porche wallet. This afternoon we rode a funicular (like the cog wheel trams) up to the Hohensalzburg fortress. It was huge and the original foundation was started in the 700s and as each ArchBishop in the church came along they built and expanded the buildings to form a huge fortress up on the mountain top overlooking the city. The views were spectacular. It is like the landmark for the city of Salzburg.
Craig is going to type now:
Time is short here at the Internet Cafe, so I will save my comments on transportation for another time. About Salzburg--it is a fairytale kind of place. Looking across the rooftops this afternoon as we rode up to the fortress was way better than Disneyland. The church towers and other old architecture is fascinating. We stood in a square today called Residenz Plaz, and listened to the Glockenspiel plaz--35 bells that are operated by a mechanism built by a watchmaker 400 years ago. It has been a blessing and a treat to see so much history. And there is so much that we don't have time for!
Back to Carol---
We feel like there is so much to see and not enough time. We know that we are only scratching the surface. But heck, there are always more trips in the future!
Tomorrow we are heading for a salt mine, Salzburg means salt city. Then in the afternoon we are doing The Sound of Music tour. We thought it would be cheezy, but Rick Steves actually recommended in his 2007 book so we're going to try it.
Love to all from all of us.
Yesterday we spent most of the day just getting here from Innsbruck. Today we did a walking tour around the old town. Their main cathedral was gorgous inside. We love to go in and check out all the different architecture and craftmanship in how they design their churches. No two are alike. Also, we saw the baptismal fountain that Mozart was baptised in. There were horse drawn carriages everywhere. We didnt do one today, I hope another time. There are a lot of upper class stores in the old town but its fun to window shop. But I draw the limit at €129 euros for a Porche wallet. This afternoon we rode a funicular (like the cog wheel trams) up to the Hohensalzburg fortress. It was huge and the original foundation was started in the 700s and as each ArchBishop in the church came along they built and expanded the buildings to form a huge fortress up on the mountain top overlooking the city. The views were spectacular. It is like the landmark for the city of Salzburg.
Craig is going to type now:
Time is short here at the Internet Cafe, so I will save my comments on transportation for another time. About Salzburg--it is a fairytale kind of place. Looking across the rooftops this afternoon as we rode up to the fortress was way better than Disneyland. The church towers and other old architecture is fascinating. We stood in a square today called Residenz Plaz, and listened to the Glockenspiel plaz--35 bells that are operated by a mechanism built by a watchmaker 400 years ago. It has been a blessing and a treat to see so much history. And there is so much that we don't have time for!
Back to Carol---
We feel like there is so much to see and not enough time. We know that we are only scratching the surface. But heck, there are always more trips in the future!
Tomorrow we are heading for a salt mine, Salzburg means salt city. Then in the afternoon we are doing The Sound of Music tour. We thought it would be cheezy, but Rick Steves actually recommended in his 2007 book so we're going to try it.
Love to all from all of us.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Hi from Craig, still in Innsbruck, Austria
Austria is a beautiful place. I just finished walking around through part of old town, and the old architecture is just beautiful. Many of the buildings hear are 500 years old and very well maintained. I really like it here. But, I really need to elaborate on the way things work. The public transportation is wonderful--efficient and on time, the water is fresh, cold, and plentiful, and the plumbing is, well, top notch. When we were in London, the toilet in our hotel had a problem, but since I didn't have a chance to do a decent survey, I will reserve judgement. But ever since, there has been no such thing as a second flush, and I say that after sampling flush efficiency in five countries. Maybe they have a lot of water here, but let me give you a good example. In our current hotel, the toilet has two buttons on the wall. They aren't labeled, but I have concluded from experimentation that the big one is for #2, and the small one is for #1. As you might guess, the #1 button uses less water, which makes the whole system quite efficient and effective. And when the situation calls for a #2 flush, one time is all you need. Why can't we have this technology in the United States? When it comes to bathroom plumbing, we are behind the times. Another remarkable unit was the public restrooms in Bellagio, Italy. They cost .5 Euros to use, but the entire interior of the restroom was cleaned and sanitized automatically between each user. Awesome!
Tomorrow we leave for Salzburg, Austria, and more beautiful scenery, nice people, and good food. Last night I had Wienerschitzel with salad and roasted potatoes. Delicious. You may hear from Carol next--she is napping right now. But I will take the opportunity to elaborate on transportation in my next post. Auf Weidersehen!
Tomorrow we leave for Salzburg, Austria, and more beautiful scenery, nice people, and good food. Last night I had Wienerschitzel with salad and roasted potatoes. Delicious. You may hear from Carol next--she is napping right now. But I will take the opportunity to elaborate on transportation in my next post. Auf Weidersehen!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Hi from Innsbruck, Austria!
Hi everyone,
Well we are in Innsbruck, Austria and we are still doing great. During our second day in Como we went out for the taxi ride on the lake and saw wonderful villas on the waters edge. We rode up to a big villa called Bollagio with gardens and walked around. But we messed up on the time to come back and so we just rode the taxi boat back. didnt have time to get off anywhere else. But the taxi ride was great. Clear weather and warm breezes. Lake Como is like a huge upside down letter Y and it took several hours just to do one section of it.
The next day we took a local train down to Milan. What an incredible city. It was waz bigger than we expected. We walked from the train station down toward the Duomo which is their big plaza with their huge cathedral. what we didnt know what that this church is the 3rd largest in the world. The outside is ornate in Gothic style and unbelievable detail. The church inside was dark and dark stone but very tall and I love the gorgous stain glass windows. the colors are so vibrant when the sun shines through them, I could stare at them forever. We then walked through a huge fortress that is in the center of town that a Viscount built in the 1300s.
We have been on the move and staying busy.
But yesterday we took the train from Como to Innsbruck and we went through ´Zurich. It took 4 hours to get there and then 4 hours to get from Zurich to Innsbruck. We were exhausted last night but we got a train this time with an actual compartment. Like what the kids ride in going to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.But the train system is great over here and its too bad that Americans cant figure this out, because the pollution over here is so much less.
Today we found another sightseeing tour bus around Innsbruck and we took trams up to the mountain peak called Hafelekarspitze at about 7000 feet. It was something to stand that high and see the Austrian alps to the north and south and could determine where Switzerland and Italy was from up there. Is is so easy to find a perch on a wall and just sit and soak in the grandeur of the mountain jagged peaks and the spectacular views. I know that the pictures when we get home wont do them justice.
We are eating good. We arnt begging for food yet. We discovered that the grocery stores are pretty cheap. So we eat our free breakfast at the hotel, we make peanut butter and jam sandwiches (Nutella chocolate sandwiches), fruit and cookies and then eat out for dinner at restaurants. Its really making a difference in the high cost over here.
Miss you all very much. We are going back to our hotel and going to the basement to swim at their cool looking hotel swimming pool.
Take care and talk to you soon. Love from all of us to all of yzou.
Please forgive the typing errors, its still an european computer keyboard!
Well we are in Innsbruck, Austria and we are still doing great. During our second day in Como we went out for the taxi ride on the lake and saw wonderful villas on the waters edge. We rode up to a big villa called Bollagio with gardens and walked around. But we messed up on the time to come back and so we just rode the taxi boat back. didnt have time to get off anywhere else. But the taxi ride was great. Clear weather and warm breezes. Lake Como is like a huge upside down letter Y and it took several hours just to do one section of it.
The next day we took a local train down to Milan. What an incredible city. It was waz bigger than we expected. We walked from the train station down toward the Duomo which is their big plaza with their huge cathedral. what we didnt know what that this church is the 3rd largest in the world. The outside is ornate in Gothic style and unbelievable detail. The church inside was dark and dark stone but very tall and I love the gorgous stain glass windows. the colors are so vibrant when the sun shines through them, I could stare at them forever. We then walked through a huge fortress that is in the center of town that a Viscount built in the 1300s.
We have been on the move and staying busy.
But yesterday we took the train from Como to Innsbruck and we went through ´Zurich. It took 4 hours to get there and then 4 hours to get from Zurich to Innsbruck. We were exhausted last night but we got a train this time with an actual compartment. Like what the kids ride in going to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.But the train system is great over here and its too bad that Americans cant figure this out, because the pollution over here is so much less.
Today we found another sightseeing tour bus around Innsbruck and we took trams up to the mountain peak called Hafelekarspitze at about 7000 feet. It was something to stand that high and see the Austrian alps to the north and south and could determine where Switzerland and Italy was from up there. Is is so easy to find a perch on a wall and just sit and soak in the grandeur of the mountain jagged peaks and the spectacular views. I know that the pictures when we get home wont do them justice.
We are eating good. We arnt begging for food yet. We discovered that the grocery stores are pretty cheap. So we eat our free breakfast at the hotel, we make peanut butter and jam sandwiches (Nutella chocolate sandwiches), fruit and cookies and then eat out for dinner at restaurants. Its really making a difference in the high cost over here.
Miss you all very much. We are going back to our hotel and going to the basement to swim at their cool looking hotel swimming pool.
Take care and talk to you soon. Love from all of us to all of yzou.
Please forgive the typing errors, its still an european computer keyboard!
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