Blogs from Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria, Europe

Today we left on the official start of our Treffen. Outside the hotel all 12 Porsches were neatly lined up. After a few photos, we headed out to Salzburg. We are driving in two 6 car convoys. I suspect we make quite a scene passing through some of the small towns. Certainly, every boy under 20 turns to watch us pass. Out on the autobahn, we pushed the cars. We were regularly driving at 200-230 km/h. On one stretch, Josh and I hit 290 km/h (about 180 mph). At those speeds, you lose peripheral vision. It was exhilarating and alarming all at once. The car performed flawlessly. This tour is very much about the driving, rather than site seeing. We did stop outside the Neuschwanstein Castle (the icon German castle that inspired Walt Disney), but did ... read more

The first time I saw the movie, “The Sound of Music,” from the Betamax tape that my father brought home, I fell in love with it. And all throughout my 6th grade, I watched it everyday as soon as I get home from school. So to say that I have watched “The Sound of Music” a thousand times in this lifetime is an understatement. I remember recording the songs of the movie from the TV’s speaker using the cassette recorder that we had so I can play the songs on and on even if I’m not watching the movie. I even had to write down the lyrics of the songs, pausing and playing and pausing the cassette tape so I can catch the correct words (Well, there was no Internet yet during that time for me ... read more

Gruneau Three dogs and a cat, a fireplace, home-cooked meals, locals that have their set seat at the bar every night and my own room. Welcome to the ‘Tree House’, a hostel with a difference! A hidden gem in the Austrian hills, Gruneau is one of the small stops that people often skip by when they are doing a whirlwind tour of Europe. For those that do take the time away from pounding the pavement of the teeming tourist towns, a treasure of crisp fresh air, crystal clear water and doing absolutely nothing awaits! I started my restoration by walking through the forest to a waterfall and dunked by drink bottle under the cool running water – fresh from the source! I wasn’t used to sitting still and simply enjoying nature, so on day 2 in ... read more

By this stage, I was already counting down to seeing Leah and getting to Oktoberfest, but I still enjoyed Vienna. The buildings were pretty amazing, especially the Schonbrunn Palace where we headed the next morning. It used to be the home of the Habsburg’s when they ruled Austria, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The interior was pretty impressive and although I usually get bored quickly with the audioguides, it was all pretty enthralling. After we wandered around there for an hour, we headed out to the garden. Wow! They would need more than a couple of gardeners to handle that! We headed up the back to a random monument and fountain thing for photos then made our Way back via a maze where Clay and I had a race against the girls. The guys won. After we ... read more

August 28th- After a good sleep, we were refreshed this morning. The cooler temps made for lovely sleeping weather in Salzburg. There was a small wait this morning for the shared bath, but not too long. My mom kept checking the bathroom, and when it was finally opened she came back in and said "Punch it Chewy".The facilities are clean, so I can't really complain. Breakfast this morning was at a small place next to our hotel, and it definitely was the worst breakfast yet. Rather than a choice of your breakfast, we were served. The food tasted good, but with no choice, it has to be ranked the worst breakfast. The next stop was Mirabelle square to catch our Sound of Music Tour. Our tour guide, Christine, was very good. We were taken to most ... read more

August 27th- today was an early wakeup call morning for us. We were up at 5:30 and onto the subway around 6:30. We headed for the main train station in Prague. We found our train and tucked ourselves into our private cabin. This train was an older Czech train, but I was happy that the window in the cabin was able to open. I did hang my head and my camera out of the window for awhile taking some high speed shots. I believe my mom fed me some quaaludes this morning, as I couldn't keep my eyes open. I did figure out how to make the seat into a bed, so I was knocked out for a few hours. When we got to Cserk Basnock, we had to move up into the front of the ... read more

The weather was mixed first thing in the morning, so not sure of which way it was going to go, we decided that we would head towards Salzburg to spend the day there. We made sure we took our new raincoats just in case. We had been advised to drive to a Park and Ride and then travel into Salzburg by bus from there. That was definitely good advice as it was easy to find, as it was marked on all the motorway signs, and it was only €12.00 for the parking and the bus ride into the city for up to five people. Since we did not know the bus routes that well, we did have a worry that we would never be able to find the car again, but we made sure we had ... read more