Blogs from Salzburg, Austria, Europe - page 57

With the sound of Rachel and me! Laughing, that is - we had such a great reunion. She met me at the train station and we trolled around Old Salzburg in the rain, eating and having coffee and talking a mile a minute. Zipping through the Austrian countryside via train was beautiful. There were low-hanging clouds and forests that are the stuff of fairytales. Coming into Salzburg I caught a glimspe of the mountains - Rach's "alpity alps" - real mountains, jagged and snow-capped and ancient-looking in the cloudy dusk. On Friday Rachel had class, so I explored the old city on my own, enjoying the beautiful (baroque) churches, squares and elaborate fountains. I particularly enjoyed the water spouting from the statue-horses' noses, with the clipclop of horse feet from the real horses, drawing carriages right ... read more

So, on the bus yesterday from Vienna to Salzburg my mind was pre-occupied with a radical new plan. Mel (whom I met in Morocco) said that Joelene had never cancelled her accommodation at Oktoberfest and it was up for grabs. Since I, truly, can't be bothered taking trains around Switzerland by myself, and David is quite right in saying I'm nts for being nextdoor to Oktoberfest and not going, I decided to scrap Switzerland and head to Munich instead! I hadn't had any desire to go there but now that I'm going, I'm super excited! Anyway, we're staying at YOHO Hostel in Salzburg, land of The Sound of Music, and David and I got a double room here. We set off right away on a free walking tour, which definitely beat Salzburg for the worst ... read more

Due to train scheduling issues, we had to write Prague out of our travel agenda, but on the upside we are spending an extra day in Austria so we got the chance to visit Salzburg! On the train over to Salzburg we read about "The Official Sound of Music Tour" and we happened to be arriving at about the time it started, so we decided to try it out (plus it meant we get to sit on a bus all day rather than following a map to find our way around!). The movie, "The Sound of Music", was filmed mainly in Salzburg so the tour went all around Salzburg and also visited some towns outside of Salzburg. We saw the house that was supposedly the Von Trapp family house (Leopoldskron Castle), took pictures with the pavillion ... read more

Salzburg 2004.... read more

Jenee and I are now in Salzburg. We spent about 6 days in Berlin. It was surprisingly cold and rainy. We got around town using the local train system. The highlight if you could call it that was a exceptionally done tour given by Paul's roommate, Edo to a concentration camp. We stayed in East Berlin where most studetns live and experience some of the pop culture. Edo and Paul's other roommate Stephka really personalized our experience. On Monday we traveled by train to a medievil walled city-- Rothenburg. We stayed in the home of a local just outside the wall. The town is storybook like. The highlight was a trip to the Crime and Punishment Museum! When I get it together I'll post a photo of the "Tongue Screw!" Another highlight was the "Night Watchman" ... read more