Okay, here we go again.
Vienna adventures, round 2.
I woke up pretty late after the insane day in Vienna, around 9:30 or so, to go to the Hapsbourg's "summer palace", Schönbrunn (check out the opening scene of "Marie Antoinette"). It was practically a mini-Versailles, at least as mini as a palace capable of holding 1,000 plus residents could be.
So we wandered through the impressive gardens and grounds of Schönbrunn, and I especially liked the multitude of Greco-Roman statues (we saw a LOT of Hercules around Vienna). We took the tour and if this was the summer palace, the full-sized residence in Vienna must've been quite impressive. This is no cabin on the lake. But since Napoleon chose to stay at Schönbrunn, perhaps it was better. It certainly looks more inviting, with every building painted in some very attractive mustard yellows that seemed to glow in the afternoon sun (which we actually did get a glimpse of).
There were also some really adorable and friendly squirrels there that actually climbed Gretchen's leg in search of food.
So after the tour, we climbed up the mountain to the Gloriette to look over the whole estate and saw all of Vienna instead. It really was lovely, even if the breeze was a bit too cold.
We went home after that, but only after doing a little bit of shopping now that we had some confidence in our public transportation skills. I am pleased to report that we hopped on and off the bus without a hitch.
So Gert and I arrived in time for a nice long fight with the boys, especially Thomas ("Let's FIGHT!!!"), and a short soccer match in the rain with Michael, because that's what the pros do.
Thursday was our last full day in Vienna, so we took a local train out to Dürnstein and climbed another mountain (this one wasn't paved in neat little pebbles like Schönbrunn) to some castle ruins where Richard Lionheart was once held prisoner. Something resembling a cell still stands there. It was actually pretty cool, and we got up really high to see the town below us and the Danube River winding out between the mountains.
Gert says that the morning in Dürnstein was her favorite segment of our time in Austria. She really loved the rural atmosphere and warmer weather. We also arrived in time for all the apricots. Apparently, apricots, or "marilles," are a Dürnstein specialty, and they make apricot-themed everything: struedel, liquer, schnapps, chocolate, soap, etc etc. We tried some apricot ice creamwhile we walked along the river (which I did touch). We both really loved the feel of the little town, which had retained its winding cobblestone streets, adorable gardens, sunburst doors, and a wooded mountaintop--all of which helped to maintain Dürnstein's medieval charm.
After Dürnstein, we took the train back to Vienna and took a U-Bahn down to Leopoldstadt--the old Jewish quarter of Vienna--where I had some fairly yummy beet soup, excepting that it was coated in cilantro. Why??? It's never good!!!
But then we walked around and saw some monstrous bomb shelters left over from WWII. Sadly, the concrete's five feet thick, so it's easier just to leave them up.
We got back to Chris and Megan's house in time to catch some sunshine. Then we went out to something called a Heuriger, a type of Austrian wine garden. We drank new wine mixed with sparkling water in big glass mugs and ate plenty of schnitzel.
I'm quite certain that my German is faulty and I'm not even certain of my English since every single word I type here is underlined in red (darn French language settings). So... Yeah. Just ignore and move on.
Okay, Friday morning, we left Vienna by train, headed for Salzburg. By this point, I was fairly proud of my ability to order a "kaffee mit zukker und sahne; und ein apfel, bitte. Danke," or even "zwei kaffees." So I got us some breakfast on the train as we chugged along for about 3-4 hours to Salzburg, which we found less than impressive.
Salzburg seems to be best known by Americans as the home of the Sound of Music, but we didn't really want to go on the musical tour. So we locked up our luggage in the train station and walked into old Salzburg--a maze of really expensive stores mixed with Schokolade shops and vendors of authentic Austrian Alps wear (dress like Maria!). With a lack of anything else to do, we decided to hike up the mountain to the castle of Festung HohenSalzburg. We climbed up some very steep slopes (think 60° angle) to the front gate and then beyond to a very sleepy and vacant castle. After meandereing through what resembled an abandoned Renaissance faire, we made it to the tour, which tok us and a very noisy group of Italian schoolchildren, their grouchy teachers, and one very depressed guide to a torture chamber (but not really), the pipe organ (called the Salzburg Bull), and the tower, where we could take another panoramic photo of Salzburg's numerous green-roofed buildings.
Apparently heights make me nervous, epsecially with a ton of jabbering kids texting and meandering along on top of a castle. But this trip has been a wild adventure in reaching "new heights" or "old heights," as it were, as you will soon see... maybe.
So we had some lunch, in which Gretchen had some delicious turkey with mushrooms and I did not like Campari Orange, I bought some chocolates, and we headed off to Munich.
After a few more hours on the train, we took a taxi to our Munich hotel, Hotel Opera, where an extremely friendly and pretty German woman gretted us at the desk. Her English was superb as she showed us where to visit on a map and also showed us around the hotel. She was very poised, calm, and definitely German. Our room was tiny, but it came with a decent-sized bed and a nice winter garden (glassed-in terrace), so it was nice.
We ventured out that evening to wander a bit and found that Munich is a pretty cool spot! The stores are high-class and snazzy, the restaurants don't just have wurst, and the soccer fans are pretty funny.
So Friday night, we found our way to a local beer and wurst type place, bretzen (pretzels) included, where the servers wear traditional Bavarian clothes/barwench costumes. Take your pick. But we ordered some Weissbeers and started to live it up in Germany. Two beers, a wurst, and a stale bretzel later, and I was having a pretty good time! So we stumbled back to our hotel, greeted by a cheery "Good evening, ladies!" from our blonde hostess, and got ready for a very deep night's sleep.
Saturday, we checked out of the room but left our bags at the hotel for safekeeping during our full day's tour of Munich before our overnight train to Paris. We eventually stumbled upon the Viktualienmarkt, "Munich's stomach," a large outdoor market with everything from wurst and beer to spargel (white asparagus) and flowers. They also offered a herring sandwich of some kind, which we both passed on.
We also saw the enormous clock tower go off, which all the clockwork dancers and jousting knights. It was pretty neat, but I really wanted a bird to pop out at the end. I mean, what's a cuckoo clock without a creepy bird? Eventually we just wandered around, listening to street musicians, drinking at a legit beer garden, and listening to a lot of soccer fans chanting very loudly back and forth, like some unintelligible "Marco Polo" game.
So after waiting for around 5 hours in a restaurant, hotel, whatever, we took our sleeper train to Paris. We met three of our four couchette companions, an older French couple and their granddaughter, who wanted me to translate all of Lady Gaga's songs into French for her... I don't want to figure out a word for "disco stick." Later, we met Chris, a rather obnoxious American with an atrocious French accent. But that filled our tiny couhcette, where we all slept on camp-sized cots and listened to Grampa Frenchman snore as the car was passed on from train to train, even after it was forgotten for an extra hour in one station or another. But, we arived...
And now for something not completely different.
A Reflection on Germany and Austria
1) I like good beer, mineral water, and spargel.
2) German and Austrian dogs are the most well-behaved things I've ever seen. They can ride on the metro, bus, etc and they even sit inside cafés under the table, calm as you please! No begging, no barking, totally silent companions.
3) Austrian metro system? Easiest yet, as long as you get the names right.
4) German and Austrian trains= you can set your watch by them.
5) "Bitte" and "danke" are extremely helpful.
6) They'd rather speak English than hear you butcher German from a phrasebook.
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