osterreich

salzburg 1….
salzburg greeted us in a calm and drizzly haze...quite the opposite of the beautiful weather and bustling urban feel of our last city. this is the type of picturesque town you imagine when you think of europe. gorgeous antique buildings connected end upon end with narrow pedestrian alleyways fit snuggly in front and behind. a winding river painted right down the middle. clock towers chiming every quarter hour. tiny bakeries and candy shops sprinkled throughout. being a sunday almost all of the shops and cafes were closed, leaving the streets sparse and sleepy. it was like we had the place to ourselves. we wandered up and down the streets, stopping to gaze in windows and for a bite to eat, and then headed back to the hotel. we had rented a car in large part so that we could visit berchtesgaden, a german town 30 minutes away and home to adolf hitler’s eagle’s nest. we knew that it was closed until may, but we still wanted to go. perhaps we would catch a glimpse of it tucked away in the mountain. but all we really found there was a cozy mountain village and some ice cream. marc was disappointed, but what could we expect. we DID happen to find a place in their tourist center that allowed you to stamp your passport!!! but the stamp was missing. so….besides the ice cream and some lovely views, we didn’t really get much out of this little jaunt. back in salzburg that night, we set out wandering again until we came across mozart’s birth house and then the renowned hotel sacher. it was here that i tried my very first actual german. marcus and i have been determined not to demand that people speak english just because we don’t understand german. seems pretty pretentious, and we don’t want to be "those" kind of tourists. anyways, the sacher is know for its chocolate torte and i had been told not to pass it up. we wanted to have something to eat before dessert, so i decided to ask the café how late they would be open so we could come back. i looked up the question in our little phrase book (who’s pages are now well-worn from incessant flipping), practiced the pronunciation several times, mustered up some courage, and marched into the café and right up to a server. i must have asked it relatively well because he then busted out in an entire paragraph of response. i could feel my face getting more and more panicked as he poured out the german. shouldn’t a "what time does this close" question get a one word response???? he paused to look at me and i choked out an embarrassed, "sprechen sie englisch?" he graciously smiled and then answered me in perfect english. as much as i should have felt defeated, i actually had a little confidence boost. at least i had tried. it gave me enough hope to try again at the wurst stand where we grabbed a little bite to eat a while later. i won’t say that it went much better, but i’m getting there. we did end up going back to the sacher for a late night dessert. my review of their famous nachtisch? dry, lackluster cake enrobed in the most fabulous dark chocolate i’ve ever eaten. put it together in one bite and you get a pretty decent treat. marc’s apfelstrudel was by far the better "whole" dessert. those austrians do know how to make pastry!

salzburg 2…
the sound of music is probably one of my all time favorite movies. i grew up watching it and still love it. since it was filmed in salzburg, i wanted to hit all of the spots that are in the movie. i was super excited about this day. we had opted out of the expensive and lengthy tour bus for a self-guided, internet-suggested route. i had dutifully printed directions to each of the locations and was eager to get going. the first stop was the mirabell gardens. it was quite lovely. it is filled with flower paths that wind intricate patterns through the green grass. as we strolled, we happened to find the (broken) fountain and the ivy tunnel from the movie. you kind of have to use your imagination to picture the scenes, but in all honesty, the soundtrack began running in my head the second i saw it and lasted the rest of the morning. each time we came to a new location from the film, it was sort of a let down. places were either closed or inaccessible. most of the fountains weren’t flowing, still dormant from the winter. but my songs played on. and the stops in between the film locations were incredibly beautiful and worthwhile. so overall, it was not a waste. we saw tons of salzburg, gorgeous city that it is. our last two stops before leaving town were the confiserie furst and mozart’s birth house. furst’s makes the original "mozart balls" which are these fabulous soft, dark chocolate candies with marzipan in the middle. we had grabbed the knock-off version the day before, but i wanted to try the real thing. i have been dreaming about those things ever since. too bad i only bought one.  mozart’s house, on the other hand, was kind of a disappointment. there was basically just a bunch of portraits and plaques on the wall for us to read. i wanted to see some pianos or wigs or SOMETHING. at least they were playing mozart music the entire time. it got the sound of music songs out of my head for a little bit  and on that note, we headed out of salzburg and on towards innsbruck.

the drive out of town took us onto the terrifying autobahn. marcus would probably not use that word to describe it, but that’s because he was the one in control. the basic rule of thumb is...if you see a number sign, the speed limit is "on." if you see a number sign that has a slash through it, the speed limit is "off"....meaning you can go any speed imaginable. at first i tried not to overreact because 100 kilometers per hour is not even close to 100 miles per hour. but after marc reached 155 kph and i was holding on for my life, i definitely asked him to slow down. he later converted it to roughly 95 mph. it’s crazy, but people were actually passing us, even at that speed. tiny hatchbacks whizzing down the highway, in and out of lanes is a memory i am sure to take with me.