Mozart and Wine Tasting

Saturday the 11th September

Today we got an early start and a lovely breakfast and headed off into the city of Vienna, where we met up with my friend Johannes. Luckily there was a lot going on in Vienna today, such as a traditional farmers market food and music festival with big tents full of schnitzel and beer and luckily some vegetarian dishes.
There was dancing and music and it was a really awesome experience to see it!
We saw a lot of the sights of Vienna and it was so great to have a tour guide! :-)

We had a nice drink in an old tea house in the centre of the city and then Johannes gave us a lift to a little village outside of the city where they were having a wine tasting festival. For 9 Euros we got a glass, and there was unlimited samples!! It was a blast!! It was great to meet some of Johannes family and friends and experience an Austrian non-touristic town!
Then we went and had dinner at an old castle. There was a nice pub inside and the food was yumm!!

Highlights of Today:

• Catching up with Johannes and meeting his family and friends
• The guided tour of Vienna
• Yummy food in the farmers market tent
• The music and dancers!
• The wine tasting!!!
• Tasting Strum... Its not quite juice, but its not quite wine, but its quite alcoholic!!
• The whole day was an absolute blast!!!

Highs and Lows

Friday the 10th September




Today we left Salzburg after wandering around the shopping part for a little while. Considering we have been in Europe for a few weeks now, we haven't bought much! Hopefully that will change in Vienna and Prague!!
On the way to Vienna we decided to stop off at Mauthausen, which was home to one of the major Nazi run concentration camps in World War 2. (More info see www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen-Gusen_concentration_camp ) As soon as we got there the mood was very grim and low and the dark, cloudy, rainy weather did not lighten the mood. It was extremely depressing to see where so many people were killed, and to see the places where so many terrible things happened. The guided audio tour was eye opening and the tour through the gas chambers and the cremetoriams made you feel almost physically sick. But i am glad that we went.
The museum part of the camp is closed for renovations, and i am partly glad that we didn't get to go in, i have heard its quite distressing.

Near the town there was a strip of little cafes so we decided to stop in for lunch. I realised that i have a bit of a fear of bees when two decided to swarm around me and get my orange juice as i was drinking it. Brendon found this quite amusing.
Got into Vienna quite late. We got into our hotel and found a nice chinese restaurant - Beautiful food and quite inexpensive!! Went back to the hotel to crash.

Highlights of Today:

• Visiting the concentration camp even though it was depressing!
• Cheese sandwiches
• Dinner at the nice chinese restaurant
• The beautiful hotel in Vienna

Lowlights of Today:

• Bees
• Bees
• More Bees

The Hills Are Alive

Thursday the 9th September

Today we got a slight sleep in and went into Salzburg to check out some of the sights. We ended up at a nice panoramic area up on the top of a hill. You could see the whole city. It was lovely. Salzburg is a beautiful city, but smaller than we were expecting for one of the bigger Austrian cities.







We got a lift up to the lookout and took a few happy snaps.



















Then on to dinner at a yummy cafe we found. It turned out to be a world famous nightclub - But we were just there for the food! It was called The Republic... A lot of big bands go and play there.




Then off on the Sound of Music tour. The tour was pretty good. The tour guide was such a performer. Very flamboyant... We were surprised when he told us he had a wife!




The tour was a lot of fun though, took us to places where different scenes of the sound of music were filmed. Spoiled the whole thing a bit for me when he described the major differences with the movie and real life. Like how the family actually caught a train instead of hiking over the mountains, and the Nazi's were not actually chasing them like that.




The sound of music is not popular here in Austria at all! Most Austrians know about the Von Trapp family and know what actually happened, and don't like all the extras put into the hollywood version. But I am quite happy not to know, i love that movie!!




After the tour was over we went walking looking for a restaurant that the tour guide had recommended, only to realise we didn't have the name of the place, or the address - Just had some basic general direction that it was in. So it turned out to be a wild goose chase and we ended up right near where we ate the night before. So we gave up and had pub food, but it was nice.

Highlights of Today:

• Watching Brendon sing along to the sound of music
• Nice views over the city
• Nice lunch
• Fun tour
• Nice walk around city looking for dinner

Lowlights of Today:

• Walking around the city getting lost while hungry
• Markets closing before Brendon had a chance to go to them

To Salzburg via Germany

Wednesday the 8th September

We left Innsbruck by way of Germany... Although we didn't actually realise we were in Germany until we stopped at a service station and saw Germany souviners. Didn't even realise we crossed the border. Its like that a lot here, havent been stopped or checked once and only the trusty GPS tells us we are in another country!

Although we were in Germany!! (all be it briefly). - So Brendon bought a stein...

We moved on, via the Eagles Nest. It was bought for Hitler on his 50th birthday, up high in the south of Germany, near the border of Austria - About 30 minutes drive from Salzburg. The only way up there was to catch a bus, and then a tunnel to an elevator. We spent some time up there taking in the scenery and the whole experience of being somewhere that Hitler had been was a bit surreal.

There wasn't really much up there now except for a nice cafe and the rooms which are now a restaurant. Not too much about history or anything, and they were doing major renovations so other stuff was closed. We left feeling a little dissapointed.

We finally made it to Salzburg and the hotel in the evening and we had a rest then went out to find a place to eat. It was POURING rain. But it was a nice evening, ran into some more Aussies and had a good meal of Indian food... Funny that

Highlights of Today:

• View from the eagles nest


• Walking around rainy Salzburg


• Chatting to Aussies


• Laughing at the annoying American man trying to chat up a bunch of Aussie women on the bus back from the eagles nest, to have them later describe him as "A WANKER"

Lowlights of Today:

• Eagles nest was a bit boring
  
• Hotel room was a bit shabby in comparison to previous rooms


• Tiny bathroom
  
• Europe seems to have a chronic lack of toilet paper even though you have to pay to use the bathrooms, for future travellers: TAKE TISSUES!

Laundry and catching up!

Tuesday the 7th September

Today we had a very exciting morning. We carted our dirty laundry over to a laundry shop and did a morning full of washing! Totally exciting, and oddly domesticated and scary actually...

Very nice to have clean clothes!!

Then on to Achnsee, Austria to catch up with Brendon's friend Kathi. Had a scrumptious lunch at her restaurant overlooking a lake and mountains.

After that yummy lunch, Kathi took us on a boat ride of the lake and we stopped at the other side for a drink and chat and then Kathi and her father drove us around to look at the town along the river. It was all so picturesque!!

Was so great to catch up with Kathi again and see her in her home town!

We got back to Innsbruck early that evening and were still full so we didn't even bother with dinner!

Highlights of Today:

• Beautiful Lunch and catching up with Kathi
• Boat around lake
• Clean clothes finally
• Did I mention lunch???

Drive to Innsbruck

Monday the 6th September

Today we had the nicest breakfast on the trip so far! Hot food, cold food, yogurt and berries as far as the eye could see! It was FANTASTIC!!! Must remember to do a good review for that hotel!

Not the most eventful of days, spent the majority of it travelling and resting. Set off in the morning out of expensive Switzerland and went on our way to Innsbruck, Austria.

On the way we decided to take the scenic route down to a place called Silvaplana near St Moritz. It had a beautiful lake and there were people everywhere doing windsurfing and kite surfing. Lovely! We had a nice lunch at a pub, Deep fried Vegetables!! Im in vegetarian HEAVEN!!!

The scenery on the drive was really baron today, lots of rocky hills and the roads were really windy and there was roadwork everywhere so it took forever!

Got into Innsbruck in the evening, by that stage i was not feeling the best from the windy roads being a passenger, and we were both tired, so by the time we went out of the hotel to get a bite to eat, everything was closed. So we ended up with McDonalds and eating it in the hotel room... Bonus though, Maccas has Vege Burgers over here! I was not stuck with just french fries for dinner!!

Highlights of Today:

• Nice lunch at the pub
  
• Beautiful lake
  
• Hanging out with the cheap dinner in the hotel room chatting
  

Lowlights of Today:

• Baron unexciting countryside at times
  
• WINDY ROADS


• Continuous road work


• Stupid Lamborghini Drivers...

And down the mountain...

Sunday the 5th September

Today we made our way from Interlaken (Lauterbrunnen) up to St Gallen. During the day we stopped in a town called Appenzel to catch up with one of Brendon's friends Eve.

We had a lovely day, Eve and her friends took us on a cable car up a big hill named Ebenalp and it was a lovely view. We then had a bite to eat and took our time and hiked down. It had been a while since we had done much exercise, and it was quite steep so my legs were jelly pretty quickly, but managed to get down the trail in an hour and a half which was about the average! It was a nice walk, the scenery of the surrounding hills was beautiful and it was nice hearing all the cow bells along the way!

Was really nice to meet Eve and her friends and see a bit of Appenzel.

When we moved on to Sankt Gallen it was nearly dinner time and after checking in to our nice hotel, we found an Italian restaurant and had a nice Italian meal and went back and crashed.

Highlights of Today:

• Catching up with Eve and her friends



• Cable car
  


• Getting to see the beautiful countryside and getting exercise for a change
  


• The hotel room in Sankt Gallen with its nice shower
  

Lowlights of Today:

• Sore jelly legs!

Piccies

It is stupidly difficult to load all these photos onto the actual blog as it keeps stuffing up the text... And rather than spend precious time trying to figure it/fix it, here are some piccies on their own!
Mel xo

PS - Most pics are taken by Brendon on his snazzy camera, apart (obviously) from the ones with him in it, and the ones that I took whilst stealing his camera... So really we have no idea of who took a lot of the photos, so I am going to claim recognition of at least one of the good ones... Personally I like the 4th one...

Up on the railway...

Saturday the 4th September

Today we escaped the traffic of Geneva after a lovely big breakfast at the nice hotel, and drove along Lake geneva towards Interlaken. We finally made it to Lauterbrunnen just before lunch and had a bite to eat at our hotel, which happened to have another mountain view!! YAY!! We thought we would try our luck and see if we could get on the Jungfrau railway that afternoon, rather than having to wait til the morning. Luckily we were able to grab a ticket for the late afternoon train.

Jungfrau station is the highest railway station in Europe. The train trip itself took about 2 hours from Lauerbrunnen. It's a cog railway and goes up and through the swiss alps up to Jungfrau mountain. At the top there is a beautiful ice castle and an outdoor viewing area where you can look out over Switzerland and the alps. Up even further is an indoor viewing station with a viewing platform outside with a metal grate that you walk over, so you can see straight down as you are walking, not so good if you have vertigo I imagine!

The outside area is quite large and was covered with snow so I got to give Brendon his first snowball in the head! Although I think it was more his shoulder! He got to pick up snow for the first time. It was very exciting. It was FREEZING cold out there! Unlike yesterday at Chamonix, even though it was higher, it was quite warm up there, but Jungfrau was so cold.

Unfortunately on the way up to the mountain we were delayed a little while on the train, so we only had just over an hour to see everything, which wasn't enough. And the day was quite cloudy. But overall it was a wonderful experience.

After we got back it was about 7.30pm. We decided to go into Interlaken for dinner and found a beautiful place to grab some food. We were sitting there and someone in the bar next door started playing the accordion and they were all singing, it was quite a nice atmosphere and the food was wonderful. Probably the best meal to date!

More Piccies to Enjoy!!

Mel and Brendon xoxo