Salzburg, Austria

We are a little over three months into our time here and already the experience is bearing fruit.  Last week we were busy getting dinner ready and the kids were playing outside.  Haaken comes in from outside and while I'm chopping vegetables asks me for a cup which I assume was for a glass of water.  I gave him the cup and continued to chop, leaving Haaken to get his drink.  Some time later I look outside and see Haaken at the end of the driveway.  He had brought a bucket out of the garage and turned it upside down to use as a stool.  So there he sat, playing his electronic 'tar (guitar) with the cup I had given him placed in front of him to collect money, just like the street musicians and beggars we've seen in Prague, Paris, etc.  At one point he ran in excitedly saying a woman from the neighborhood had walked by and was laughing at him.

Over the weekend we took a trip to Salzburg, Austria.  Salzburg is about a three and a half hour drive from here and we decided to leave Saturday morning to save money on the Friday night hotel stay since I've been stressed about finances and our son is begging in the street.  Turned out to be a bad idea in the end due to the kids getting tired, but we had a pretty enjoyable day wandering around Mozart's hometown.  We arrived at about 11 after a long and foggy drive.  Luckily when we got to the Park and Ride to take us into town the sky cleared, which revealed the beautiful hills and mountains surrounding the town.  Once we got into town we headed straight to the Farmer's market we'd read about to grab some lunch.  The kids had hot dogs, fresh blueberries, and a giant Nutella covered, pretzel shaped donut.  We hit the recommended spots - The Getreidegasse - a famous shopping street known for it's iron signs and the place that Mozart was born and lived until he was 17, the Salzburg Cathedral which is the place that Mozart was baptized and served as the organist, St Peter's church and cemetery which is the most beautiful cemetery I have ever seen.  It's sandwiched between 3 churches and a sheer rock wall and lined with cobblestone walkways and beautiful flowers.  After a few hours we found a little cafe and intended on just having a drink, but ended up having dinner.  

Salzburg Market

Haaken getting some pointers

Mozart's old neigborhood

Salzburg Cathedral

Mozartplatz

After dinner we took the bus back to the Park and Ride only to discover that we had left our guidebook back at the restaurant, so I jumped back on the bus while Carissa and the kids waited at the car.  Once I got back we drove to the Farberhaus (our B&B) , which was about 30 minutes away in a little mountain town called Lofer.  From the pictures the hotel's advertisement it didn't give the impression of being in the mountains, but this town is literally surrounded by the jagged mountains of the Alps on all sides.  The couple that owned it had moved from England and bought it a year ago.  They were a super nice couple who had quit their jobs and poured all their money into renovating the building and setting up this new business.  The place was great for us, but we got the sense that things were pretty slow for the owners so far and they were pretty worried about making it.

Sunday we were planning on doing the Sound of  Music Tour (Salzburg is where the movie was filmed), but the tour started early and the kids were so tired the day before we scrapped that idea and headed by Berchtesgaden and Hitler's Eagle's Nest instead.  After a lovely drive through the mountains we made it to Berchtesgaden and then willed the Hoopty up the extremely steep road to the starting point of the tour, the Nazi Documentation Center.  From this point the only way to the Eagles Nest is either by walking or by bus, so we chose the latter.  The bus climbed up a one lane road, equally as steep, and at some points all that separated us from a very long fall was a wooden and stone railing.  When we got off the bus we immeadiately went through the granite tunnel that leads to the elevator up to the summit where Eagle's Nest is perched.  The tunnel was really incredible and the elevator was larger than I expected - it fit probably 30 people.  This must've been quite the surprise for Hitler - he was given it by the government for his 50th birthday in 1938 (I think).  Sounds like he didn't use it much - was only there 12 times over the next 7 years.  Too busy trying to take over the world I suppose.  At the top you exit right into the building itself, which is now a restaurant.  The guidebook we had said you can only go through the building if you have a guided tour so as not to disturb the diners, but it was a beautiful day anyway so we decided to hike up the mountain a bit more and enjoy the views which were great.

Tunnel to Eagle's  Nest

Eagles's Nest

After hiking around we went back the Eagle's Nest which has a great patio and decided to have some lunch.  We ordered a meat and cheese plate that included some sort of liver sausage and Head cheese, and also some edible meats.  I couldn't get the kids to try it but told them I was going to keep it in case any of them misbehaved.  Instead of a timeout, they could eat some head cheese.  At one point Haaken had to go to the bathroom and we "accidentally" walked through the whole restaurant on the way out.  It's actually not that big of a place, but the views are stunning and we saw the marble fireplace that Mussolini provided.  It has chips out of it from American soldiers who wanted a souvenier at the end of the war.

Hitler's Conference room

After lunch we went back down the mountain, headed for the Salt mines.  The mine in Berchtesgaden is still active, but it holds tours on the highest tunnels, which are still 150 meters below ground.  Haaken was all excited because before you start the tour you put on miners coveralls.  The guide only spoke German, but they provided audio guides that worked most of the time.  It was a really cool tour and the kids loved it.  We slid down a couple miners slides, learned how salt is mined, took a boat ride across and underground lake (complete with a light show) and rode on a little train in and out of the mine.  I tried to take some pictures, but none of them turned out since it was so dark.

Following the mines we went home to the Farberhaus and then walked into town for dinner.  We ate in a little Italian place right in the middle of town and then hustled home to beat the oncoming rain.  While we were getting the kids to bed the owners stopped by and asked if we were interested in coming down to their patio for a drink.  It was late so we got the kids to bed and then I went down as the family representative.  The owners' closest friends from England were visiting and we has a great time drinking Stiegl (local Austrian beer) and complaining about how Germans/Austrians never work and that their stores are always closed.  I found it interesting that they kept asking me questions about the US economy and how the recession all went down, and found that pretty much exactly the same thing took place in Britain shortly after us (pardon my ignorance from you Wall Street Journal readers out there).

We decided that Monday we would do the Sound of Music tour, but when we woke up it was pouring rain so we just packed up instead.  Once we got in our car though, the rain stopped and the sun came out so we decided to head back into Salzburg to see one of the main sights that we had missed on Saturday - Hohensalzburg Castle.  Really more of a fortress than a castle, it sits on a bluff towering over the old town.  We hike up the bluff and got inside, walked the grounds and snapped some pictures.  It was a pretty cool building, but the lines were really long to get on the inside so we hiked back down.  Once down we found a market and got some food, had a picnic lunch and then headed home.

Hohensalzburg Castle

Salzburg from above

Nothing really to report on the past week, it was cold and rainy everyday.  This morning I dropped off Carissa at the airport.  She's going home for 48 hours for a walk in memory of her sister Colleen.  She gets in Saturday at noon and flies back to Germany at 7:30pm on Monday.  The kids and I are planning to watch some movies, go bowling, eat junk food and hopefully hit the swimming pool.