Salzburg

Salzburg is a town I wouldn’t have spared a second thought for, were it not for The Sound of Music.  The luck of the last-minute was with us as we booked a SOM tour with an American who has lived in Berchtestgaden for the last 20 years.  It tickled me to know that our vacation lodge is quite near to the spot where the movie filmed the Von Trapps climbing over the alps.  And, in some way it made up for the fact that we weren’t able to see much of those mountains due to the rain fog and thick cloud cover.  The movie had many problems with weather as well, with crew and cast waiting for a break in the clouds in order to rush up the mountain to shoot until the clouds closed in again.  By all accounts, they spent a great deal of time and money waiting for the weather to cooperate.  It is easy to see why so many people come to vacation in the alps, they are simply beautiful.  The greenery is lush, the mountains steep and the valleys full of charming little town and alpine lodges.  Of course, the charming towns are overrun with tourists, but the still retain a uniqueness due to the architecture and traditions kept. 

Salzburg is built up against a cliff which gave it great protection from invaders in times past. Between the cliff and river the old town grew up, and these natural features gave it a natural defense against intruders.  So the old town retains its older buildings and some of the character from old times.  Because the old town is closed to pedestrians it is a wonderful place to wander and explore, and while it is crowded it is full of suprises and beauty. 

Our tour took us through the Mirabel gardens, the old cemetery, squares and churches.  After our tour we took ourselves up to Nonnberg abbey, where Maria was a postulant.  We ventured beyond the front gate (seen in the movie) to sit in the chapel, where we delighted to hear the singing of the nuns.  Another serendipitous moment was as we descended from the abbey to hear church bells in the city below—wedding bells to serenade us on our walk down. 

Heidelberg

Ben gave us a Saturday sans kids.  We toured the castle (and climed 300+ steps) and the old town.  If it wasn't so danged hot we would have wandered around more.

Neunkirchen Zoo

We visited on a hot, muggy Wednesday with a large group from our ward.  The kids' favorite thing was the basket located near the bear enclosure.  It was suspended from a chain, allowing the kids to crawl up inside of it and spin in circles.


One of the orangutans was named Noah.  No failed to appreciate this.

11 jahre alt

Those relighting candles will get you every time!

While the girls are away, the boys will

Geocache

The Hinterbrand

Alive

 Sound of Music Tour through Salzburg's old town.  It is easily in the top 3 of my favorite European cities.  Plus!  Movie geekery!

We may or may not have annoyed Salzburgers by singing our way through the park and surrounding areas.

















Paige is 16 going on 17

Even the horses wear raincoats.  Should have brought mine!




Confidence.

Chiemsee

Herrenisle is one of 'Mad' King Ludwig's castles.  Like Neuschwanstein, it was never finished and he only lived there for days. Intended to be a replica of Versailles, Ludwig went bankrupt before the castle was completed, but only finished the exterior for one central part and only finished the interiors of 20 of the rooms.  It is known for the large (largest in the world, maybe?) and valuable porcelain chandelier, a table set with pulleys so he didn't have to see the servants who would set the table one floor below and raise it up to his dining room, and a bathtub the size of a large doughboy pool.  Set on an island in the middle of Chiemsee, the castle is surrounded by parkland and what was intended to be a game reserve.  There is still a deer enclosure, where a deer sneezed on Zak.  I think the kids' favorite part may have been the ferry ride!  

Salzbergwerks Berchtesgaden

In the town of Berchtesgaden one of the major attractions is the salt mine.  I'm imagining that it is so popular because in omnipresent rain and fog a trip down to the mine isn't affected by the weather.   The day we went was incredibly crowded, but the lovely manager of the lodge got us reservations so we didn't have to wait forever with the teeming masses.  We donned our overalls, learned that the pockets were only holes in the jumpsuits, and prepared to descend.  The tour begins with everyone getting onto the train.  Essentially you are straddling a bench with a railing on one side and open air on the other.  This is a rather interesting way to travel down a narrow tunnel, seeing as how the walls of the tunnel are only a few feet away and if you stuck a knee or hand out you could really do some damage to yourself.  The consensus of the group was that this sort of thing would never fly in the States without serious waiver-signing, seat belts and some sort of safety cage.   We slid down old wooden slides (like sliding down a long banister with a level spot at the end to allow slowing down), watched how salt is mined, and rode across a large saline lake on a silent cable-driven barge.  The barge was open at one end, which made me nervous until Isaac cheerfully pronounced that in a 70% saline lake whoever fell overboard would simply float like a cork.

This was one of those tours which I thought would be uninteresting, but it turned out to be quite fun and informative!

Outside, the river was really just this aqua.  More than one of our traveling companions commented that it reminded them of the tropics.  I'll have to take their word for it.

The Hills

You know that last scene in the Sound of Music where the family Von Trapp is  hiking over the Alps to make their escape from Salzburg?  We spent a week in those very mountains.  Of course, the real Von Trapps never did any such thing to escape the Nazis, but caught a train out of Austria, and the mountains the movie shows were actually IN Germany (and if you go over the mountains from Salzburg you end up in Bertchestgaden, which was one of Hitler's favorite places. . . )  ANYwho, we had an absolutely wonderful week living in the fog and rain,  I think we saw the sun for a grand total of two hours the entire week.  Staying at the (historic) Hinterbrand lodge was both fun and a little eerie.  After all, who doesn't want to stay in a place once visited by Hitler?

And one more makes nine

My neice, Paige is visiting us for the summer.  This means we do not all fit into the minivan and when we take trips we need two cars now.  It's worth it just to have a babysitter who Noah adores.  

The picture was taken in downtown Kaiserslautern, a block from our church.  It's the ruins of the old castle/city wall.                                                                                           

Early June

We've been a whirlwind of activity as of late, which means I have a ton of pictures not edited nor captioned nor sorted.  Today, however, is a sick day so I have time to sit in front of the computer.

Here we have pictures of Zak's class musical performance of 'Tears of the Dragon", Em's 6th birthday, Talia figuring out how many hippopotamuses can fit in her school quad, and Zak. . .  being Zak.