Saturday, May 21st
Well, it is once again time for vacation! This year it was a toss-up between Europe ( I love Europe) or out West. Since we spent 6 weeks in Europe last year, and Lonnie and Peyton have been wanting to go out West, that is where, Lord willing, we plan to go. There are so many places to see and things to do. Now we just have to figure out how to fit it all in!!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Things I Like Abut Europe
Some of the things that I like about Europe -
Magnificent Mountains! The Alps are absolutely beautiful, and they
rise straight up in front of you. I am so thankful to God for the eyes
that He has given me to see them!!
Cuckoo Birds - They remind me of fun times in my life. And, I am so
thankful to God for the ears He has given me to be able to hear them!
The Diversity - you can be in Tuscany in the morning and on the sea or
in the Alps in the afternoon. Each region has their own special
culture, language, etc. History is a part of life here, and is seen in
their celebrations much more than it is in ours.
Painted Ceilings - I love all of the painted ceilings (murals, not flat
paint - I knew what was coming!) You can find murals on the ceilings in
castles, churches, and just regular buildings. I love it!
Murals on Houses - Many of the houses have murals painted on them (much
like the paintings on ceilings). I love them!
Flowers - There seem to be flowers everywhere! And the wildflowers in
the fields are beautiful!
Castles - Some grand, some in ruins - but all wonderful to see -
especially when perched on the high mountaintops (how do they do that
anyway???)
Ruins - I love old ruins - Roman ruins, Greek ruins, other ruins - they
leave much to the imagination!
Some things I like about the way Europeans do things (in no particular
order)
Paying for a meal or purchase - When you get ready to pay for your meal
or purchase, they do not take your credit card out of your sight. They
bring a hand-held credit card reader/printer to you and have you swipe
your card yourself, or they will swipe the card while you are watching.
Paying for a Parking Ticket - The ease of paying parking tickets in
Innsbruck - If you get a ticket, you can just take it to any bank to pay
it. Much easier than having to go to a city office.
Rest Areas on the Highway - The rest areas in Europe have a gas station
and a restaurant, or a snack bar with a mini grocery store. Everything
that you might need when you stop for a few minutes, all in one
convenient location. You do not have to leave the highway and go into
a town - it is all right there in the rest area.
Rotating Toilet Seats - These are funny, but practical - After you use
the restroom, when you flush the toilet, the seat rotates and is sprayed
with a disinfectant so it will be ready for the next person. Ingenious.
European Breakfasts - I overheard an American talking about how the
Europeans serve such strange food for breakfast. Many times it
consists of meats (similar to our lunch meats, but without all of the
additives), cheeses, and "brick rolls" - they are not really called
"brick rolls" but that is how I thought of them when I came over at age
18, because they are hard as rocks on the outsides - but soft inside.
They also serve Hot Chocolate, which I absolutely love! (I'm thankful
to God for my tastebuds, also, but they have gotten me into trouble
since I've gotten older - I wasn't always this size you know!) Anyway,
I love the breakfast. Sometimes they serve tomatoes and cucumbers.
Some of the buffets also have fried eggs, scrambled eggs or soft-boiled
eggs. They usually have cereal and pourable yogurt. But, my favorites
are the traditional meat, cheese and hot chocolate.
Oberammergau, Germany to Kloten, Switzerland
Oberammergau, Germany to Kloten, Switzerland
Today was another fun day! We are still wearing winter clothes (which
means they are relatively clean since it was hot and shorts weather
everywhere else!) When we got up this morning, it was rainy and cold.
I am still so thankful that we bought those rainsuits before we left!!
After a lovely breakfast at the hotel we stayed in, we drove to downtown
Oberammergau where I visited the shops (I love looking!) and took some
pictures. They have beautiful woodcarvings, and beautiful painted
buildings! Saw some great Christmas items and some beautiful dolls, but
all were way over-priced since this is the year of the Passion Play. We
considered going to the Passion Play, until we saw the price of the
tickets. If our German was better, we might have done it. Maybe in 10
years.
After touring Oberammergau, Lonnie once again took a one-lane road to
seemingly nowhere. I asked if he was sure the road went somewhere, and
he answered, "Absolutely, look what is following us." I looked behind
us to see a huge tour bus following. We drove a little farther around a
bend and didn't see the Tour Bus come behind us. I told Lonnie that the
tour bus must have taken a side road, and perhaps we should go back.
Then I looked on the GPS map and saw that the road we were driving down
was a dead-end. We turned around and went back, only to find the large
tour bus just sitting on the side of the road. The side road was shown
as a dead-end on the GPS map, also. There was really no place to turn
around, so I am not sure what the Tour Bus did with all of it's
people. It was really quite funny to think that they were in the same
pickle we had been in numerous times on this trip!
Next we drove to Schloss Linderhof, one of King Ludwig's many castles.
Apparently this was his favorite, and the only one that he truly lived
in. We did not tour it, since we had been there before. When we were
there with Peyton several years ago, they had been working on the front
of it, so there was scaffolding across the front, so that you really
couldn't see it. This time we were able to get some great pictures of
it! Lonnie wanted to drive that road because we had also stopped that
year by the side of a lake for a picnic, and beside a stream for he and
Peyton to throw rocks into. We found both of those places, then
continued on down the road. We also drove by some castle ruins that we
had visited in the past (on top of a mountain, of course),
Then, we ended up going a new way that we had never been before. It
was over a high mountain pass. At one point, we had to wait for some
cows to pass us on the road. They were going to high pasture. As we
were going across the pass, the clouds settled in making it almost
impossible to see. When we started down from the Pass, but still in the
mountains, we were stopped by the Police, who explained something to us
in German (which of course we did not understand). We thought that
perhaps they had closed the road due to low visibility. It turned out
that there was a car race up and down the mountain road - on the hairpin
curves with straight down sides, in the thick, dense fog!! When the
race was over, the police let everyone go on down the mountain! Amazing!!
After going down the mountain, we hit the Autobahn and made good time to
Kloten where we are staying tonight. We plan to travel to Grindelwald
tomorrow where we will just chill for a couple of days until time to fly
home. (We may literally chill if the weather stays as cold as it is).
As we got closer to Kloten the sun was shining, but the temps are still
low. I am really not looking forward to hot, Memphis weather! (but I am
looking forward to seeing family!!)
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Salzburg, Austria to Oberammergau, Germany
Salzburg, Austria to Oberammergau, Germany
Guess What! My sweet husband took me into Salzburg today before we left
so that we could take a Carriage Ride in Old Town. It was lovely! The
weather was nice, our horses were good, and the ride through Old Town
was terrific! After we finished, as we were going to the Parking
Garage, I stopped to get some Mozart Chocolates (the first chocolates I
have bought since arriving in Europe). Once again, I was starving, so I
also ordered some ham and eggs. As I was eating, it began to rain. By
the time we were ready to go to the Garage, it was raining pretty hard.
But we were very close, and had our trusty raincoats (thanks, Bass Pro),
so everything was good! I have to say that I am so glad we purchased
raincoats and rainpants before leaving Memphis. When it came a downpour
in Rome, we pulled them out of the backpack, put them on and kept
going. Everyone else was running for cover. It was like having Rome
all to ourselves! We just wore them again when we went out to eat. It
is still raining - the temperature was shorts weather in Salzburg this
morning, and is now winter coat weather in Oberammergau. When we got to
our hotel room tonight Lonnie turned the heat on! (Side note: I have
to tell you a funny story - We had several nights when it was really hot
and the hotels did not have air conditioning. We could not open the
windows as we normally would because there is a terrible mosquito
problem in Europe this year. The windows do not have screens, and
always in the past, we have just left the windows open all of the time
with no problem. Anyway, Lonnie got so tired of being hot that we went
to a mall and bought two fans. It has been cool ever since! I told him
that he should have bought those fans on the first day!! Now someone
will get some nice, new fans when we come home next week - they won't
work in the States. Whatever it takes to stay cool!!)
We drove through the rain all day. The mountains are beautiful - we're
in the Bavarian Alps now. I love the ruins in Rome, and I love Tuscany,
and I love the old windmills and flowers in the Netherlands - but I
absolutely love the Alps in Austria, Germany and Switzerland!! We had
to pull over and sleep at one point. I was tired and had just dozed off
(which I almost never do in the car while Lonnie is driving), when I
realized that Lonnie had pulled into a rest area. Next thing I knew, we
were both out. We slept for a little while then kept going. I wasn't
sure if we should go through Oberammergau or not. This is the year of
the Passion Play. It is only performed every ten years, and is a major
production. Most of the town is involved in one way or another. Men
grow their beards for months in advance, and the townspeople practice
for a long time. We found a hotel on the outskirts of town, and plan to
do a walk-through the town before leaving tomorrow. The hotel does not
have a restaurant, so the owner recommended a Pizzeria at the top of the
hill. We went there, and it was very good. I didn't want to have to
drive downtown right now. We did find out, tho, that the Passion Play
is not over until 10:30PM tonight, so it probably would have been okay.
Not sure where we will go next. I thought that a town near here had a
Toy Museum and a Woodturning Museum, but as I was looking for the
addresses this morning, I realized that the town I needed (and thought I
was putting on the route) is actually on the Czech Republic border. So
. . .it will have to wait for another trip. We are winding down now and
headed in the direction of Zurich. We are supposed to be at the airport
at 3AM on Thursday. We are stopping by the airport tomorrow or the next
day to see what our luggage limit is, and to see if we can change that
leg of the flight. It's not that I bought too many souvenirs - it's
just that I like big things! Also, I bought DVDs at several places, and
they take up a lot of room (along with the books that I always buy).
Anyway, we will see where we end up! Tschuss for now!
Friday, June 18, 2010
June 17th - Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
Happy! Happy! Got to spend the day in one of my favorite places! Had
hoped to see and do a lot more, but got started late, then didn't have
time for everything. Lonnie thought that 4 hours would be too long.
How can you see Salzburg in under 4 hours? We arrived at the Toy Museum
around 11AM. (It opened at 9) We spent about an hour touring the
museum, then had planned to ride the Festung Bahn up to the
Castle/Fortress on top of the hill, eat lunch, tour the castle, then go
back down for the Festival Hall Tour. By the time we finished at the
Toy Museum, it was 12:15 and there was no way to go up the mountain and
be back to the Festival Hall by 2PM. We had a quick lunch in one of the
gift shop/cafes, then went to the Festival Hall for the Tour. The
Festival Hall Tour was great! The sets were amazing to me! One set had
tall pine trees and large rocks. It looked like a real forest.
Nonetheless, they were made of paper. There were at least three
separate stages. One was the large hall that the Sound of Music was
shot in. It is the one cut into the rocks. Amazingly enough, this
stage is only used for about 7 weeks a year. They have a retractable
cover that they cover the stage with in the summer months for acoustical
purposes. The cover is not strong enough for the winter snows, so after
the summer season, the cover is retracted so that the snow can just fall
on the stage. The front set of auditorium seats raise (somewhat like a
drawbridge) thereby creating a wall to keep the snow off of all of the
rest of the seats and auditorium part. It was truly fascinating! The
other stages are used a few more times, but apparently the season is
sold out well in advance, with some tickets going for as much as 500
Euros each (around $ 650 US) for one performance. Unbelievable! And,
some of the seats in the auditorium had names on them. Someone asked
the guide if those were sponsors or people's seats. He said that some
had names of sponsors, but some were reserved seats. The tour really
was very interesting!
After touring the Festival Hall, we walked part of the main shopping
street. We had walked all of it last night (when everything was
closed). Then is was off in search of the Von Trapp's real home in
Salzburg. Not sure we ever found it, but we found many one-lane roads
again, and wondered if we were on bike trails part of the time! It is
unbelievable how the GPS lady can send us on such wild goose chases!! I
was actually watching the map once when it was obvious that Lonnie
should turn right, but the GPS lady told him to turn left! He got lost
and became very frustrated. Of course, he didn't always follow the
instructions either, so we can't blame the GPS lady for all of it. We
drove all over the outskirts of Salzburg. Then we finally went to
Hellbrun Palace to just walk around. It is a very nice place. They
have the Gazebo there that was in the Sound of Music, and an amazing
park. There are great things for the kids to play on, beautiful gardens
to walk through with ponds and fountains, and the Schloss Hellbrun if
you want to take a tour. There is another smaller castle on top of the
mountain, but we didn't climb up there today. There is also a small Zoo.
After walking around the Park, Lonnie decided that we could take the
horse and carriage ride around Salzburg after all, so we went back
downtown. Unfortunately, they don't do horse and carriage rides at
night - only during the day.
For our evening meal, Lonnie wanted to eat near our hotel in Wals,
Austria. We have eaten there before and he wanted to order the dinner
for two. Our entire family could have eaten it!! The dinner for two
consisted of 8 pieces of meat (2 each of steak, Weiner Schnitzel, Pork
Chop, and Sausage or hot dog). Each piece of meat was at least 4-6oz.
Then there was the equivalent of 8 large McDonald's or Wendy's fries, as
well as a huge portion of broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, etc.
Lonnie ordered Kraut on the side. We also had fried mushrooms, and two
3/4 liter bottles of water. I may not sleep tonight! Obviously we did
not eat it all! Some of it was absolutely delicious. Too bad we
couldn't take the leftovers! Now we are back at the hotel, it is
nearing midnight, and I am getting ready to crash. Not sure where we
will go tomorrow. We may have to change plans again since we spent two
nights in Salzburg instead of one.
Auf Wiedersehen!
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