The Magic Button!

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Wednesday, May 26th:
Today, we were introduced to…A Magic button!!!!!!!!!!! Three magic buttons, if you want to get technical about it. My aunt and uncle have an espresso machine that is AWESOME!!! If you want a large cup of coffee, like a mug, you push one button, if you wanted a smaller cup, you hit another button, and if you just wanted a tiny cup of pure espresso, you simply hit the third button…I now know what people on crack must feel like! Every opportunity we could get…touch the magic button, and viola! A yummy cup of coffee!!! I could definitely get used to this!!! Even Kenya got in on it, but we limited her to just one tiny cup of espresso, and even then, just in the morning . Of course, when we had the espresso, we prepared it the “Italian” way…with lots of sugar and a little bit of cream. I wonder how I am going to be able to support my habit when I get home? 
Today, we are going to Salzburg, Austria…the birthplace of Mozart! Now my mom and dad, and Kenya and I, were used to knowing where we were going to go, and when/what time. Add four more people to the mix, and you have delays, opinions, etc…we finally got on the road at 9:45ish and luckily, Salzburg was only 45 minutes away! We drove all back roads to get there, and the countryside was so beautiful!! The Bavarian Alps were surrounding us, and there were awesome castles and churches to look at…at one point, there was even a roadside rest stop, with a Burger King inside!! Maxi kept wanting to go there, but we all voted him down saying we wanted to eat in Salzburg…poor kid…
When we got to Salzburg, there was a new part and an old part…I kept looking around for the picturesque surroundings that we had seen in pictures and movies, but it was all modern looking! Then we came to this really imposing rock face that had a tunnel in it…we took a right next to the tunnel and were literally inside the rock mountain in a parking garage…I couldn’t believe it! You really felt like you were inside a rock, because the garage walls were all jagged edged rock, and the tunnels that were walkways, were the same! We exited these massive iron doors into the other side of the “mountain”, and were suddenly in old Salzburg! The whole old town area is all pedestrian only (with the few exceptions made by delivery trucks and police). Wow…it was so beautiful! The churches and their steeples, the fountains and the cool water creatures that spouted water, the outdoor cafes, and all of the amazing wrought iron signage that Bavaria and Austria are famous for! Almost every business has one…a beautiful, ornate sign that hangs in front of each business…is was fun to see them and try to determine what the store sold before we got in front of it. There was even a huge castle perched up on the hill overlooking the town.
We made an immediate beeline to the central marketplace, where there were stands selling incredible smelling foods, like giant pretzels, cheeses, wursts (sausages), bakeries selling pastries, etc. My mom, dad and uncle went straight to the stand selling Leberkäse, which I can only describe as similar to bologna. My aunt, cousins, Kenya and I, went and bought bratwurst and bread to eat. Oh wow…sooo delicious!!! It brought back a lot of memories of my youth spent in Germany! We then spent the next couple of hours exploring the city…we went to a super old cemetery right under the castle overlook, and the headstones and commemorative plaques were so ornate and beautiful…we couldn’t get over how well maintained it all was…and how old! There were plots that went all the way back to the 400’s!! There were even some catacombs to go in, and since Kenya and I did not get a chance to visit any catacombs in Rome, we jumped on the chance to view them here! We had to climb a steep staircase to go up into the catacombs…I had always thought that they were under the ground…? There was an ancient chapel up there, with a really, really, old wooden altar. There were also some old tombs and I am sure there were lots of spiders, but lucky for them, they must have all been hiding!

After climbing around in all of that, we decided we needed some espresso and cake! So we went to the oldest outdoor café in Salzburg, and had THE most delectable cakes!!! Let me see if I can remember who had what…I had some sort of raspberry cream cake with a shortbread crust, my mom had a fresh fruit panna cotta with a shortbread crust, my dad had a cake with sliced apples and caramel, so did my aunt…Maxi had a scrumptious looking iced mocha with lots of whipped scream, and Kenya had a huge ice cream sundae…again with loads of whipped cream, and my uncle had a layered chocolate cake! Our coffees came, and my mom, dad, and I had ‘coffee con panna’…which is basically a large espresso with lots of whipped cream in it…a heart attack waiting to happen I’m sure! But…we didn’t feel too bad about it because of ALL the walking we were doing! LOL

You know…I forgot to mention something, as I have been blogging all of these days now…it seems a good time as any to mention it, since it is a good segue into my next story. When we were planning our trip, I was thinking of all of the fun souvenirs that I enjoyed getting when I had visited Germany in my youth. I had been telling Kenya that I got all sorts of things including Legos. Legos originate from Germany, and since Kenya loves to put them together, and constantly asks to buy more sets, I had casually mentioned to her that it would be fun to buy some as souvenirs to bring home. Well what started as a seed at home, blossomed into a huge desire to get Legos from Germany! The minute we got to Bavaria, Kenya started in on me, “when and where can I buy my Legos?” She also mentioned this to Maxi, who then told her that there was even a Legoland near MÜnchen, of all things! I knew that we wouldn’t be able to go, and when I told Kenya, she was pretty disappointed. But then Maxi told her about this huge mall, in Salzburg, that had a store that sold Legos. So…at the end of our long day in old town Salzburg, with our feet hurting, we stopped at Salzburg’s largest mall, The Europark. With my mom and dad chilling by the indoor fountain, we had an hour and a half to go and find the Legos and get as much shopping in as possible. Kenya found her Lego mecca, and we ended up buying 5 sets…the large one being one from the “Castle” series, and a few smaller ones that complemented it. She also got one that was part of the “Indiana Jones” series that complemented ones she had back home. Needless to say, she was soooo excited! We also went to the H & M store and bought her a blouse. Then we met up with Maxi and went to McDonald’s, where Kenya and I shared some waffle fries with a yummy sour cream dip, and Maxi had a Thai wrap…yes, from McDonalds! They had several different menu items that we don’t have in the States.

When we got back to the house, Kenya immediately went to work on building her Lego sets and we never heard from her the rest of the evening! LOL!!!

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