Vacation Day 12
We doddled around Munich for the last time, and then hopped on a train to Salzburg in the late afternoon. The directions to our hotel were difficult to decipher, because the whole website was in German only. After an uneventful train ride, we got off the train around 7:30 pm at what we thought was our destination. The station was completely deserted, and it was snowing like crazy. We managed to hail a taxi and when he saw the address he informed us that we got off at the wrong stop. He offered to take us, but said it would cost a lot of money. He told us which stop we should have taken. Unfortunately they wasn't another train leaving for an hour in a half. There was not a soul at the station, and nothing within walking distance, so I got on a deserted to train to wait in the warmth. Jordan was waiting outside, and met some nice high school kids. They were part of a holiday festival and their faces were painted. Apparently it was St. Nicholas Day and they dress up as demonic creatures and scare children. I'm not really sure what the point is...but the high school kids spoke English and were very nice. They helped us get off on the right stop and even called us a cab. By the time we finally made it to our hotel it was 11pm. We were very lucky to get in. There was no reception and no one was there to help us. Jordan randomly found the key to our room, so we let ourselves in. We were disappointed to find the room had two twin beds on opposite sides of the room. We pushed them together, but it wasn't the same, because there was a cold gap between them!
Vacation Day 13
We woke up to someone opening our door. Apparently we left the key in it the night before, and the German lady running the place decided to let herself in. She did not speak a lick of English. About 10 minutes after she left, Jordan's bed broke. Try as we might, we could not get ahold of her to come fix it. On the hotel web page it said that they provide free transportation to Salzburg (which is why we chose that hotel in the first place), but it was pretty apparent that was a farce. Once we found the bus station we realized that we were an hour bus ride from the city. Sigh. Sometimes planning a vacation is harder than it looks!
We had some breakfast (or rather lunch by this point) at a nice cafe, and then headed into old town. Downtown Salzburg is very nice. It's right on a river, and there is a very nice shopping district. We did a lot of walking around and window shopping. We went to a tourist information center and bought a "Salzburg card" that seemed to be financially wise at the time. It allowed us "free" access to all the museums and many other tourist attractions.
We used the card first at the Natural History Museum. It was similar to the Pacific Science Center, but bigger. Unfortunately pretty much everything was in German, so we didn't learn too much. One thing that shocked us about the museum was the section on human conception. There was a lot of stuff in there that I didn't need to see...let alone small children! We were shocked!! We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
After the museum closed, we wandered along to the Christmas market. It was very big and wonderful and festive! I found a video from National Geographic video that shows exactly what it was like! We saw practically everything in this video. Check it out! http://vimeo.com/55537908
After dinner and a couple glasses of red wine, we took a train back to our cold hotel.
Vacation Day 14
We decided to mix things up and take the train into town with hopes that it would be faster. We had to switch trains, so it ended up actually taking a little bit longer.
We visited Hohensalzburg fortress today! Construction on the fortress began in 1077 and throughout the years it has been added to. It is actually one of the largest medieval castles in Europe! It sits at the top of a little "mountain". The castle was refurbished in the late 19th century and is now primarily a tourist attraction.
We took the Festungsbahn cable car from the town to the fortress. We were thankful we didn't have to hike up because it was very cold and snowy! The view of the city from above was just beautiful! We had some delicious lunch at a cafe with a wonderful view. We then toured the castle museum, and did even did an audio tour. We were able to climb up to the topmost tower for the best view of all! It was awfully cold and windy though, so we didn't stay long.
Once we had our fill of touring the castle we visited the Christmas market that was in the middle of the courtyard of the castle. It was just wonderful! We tried a new hot, delicious drink called the feuerzagenbowle and we were not disappointed!
It was sweet Sienna's birthday, and we really wanted to call her to wish her a Happy Birthday! We searched high and low for wireless internet. After asking around, we found out that McDonalds had wireless. Unfortunately the place was packed, and we had a very poor internet signal. After sitting there for about an hour trying to get the internet to work we finally gave up and had a delicious Big Mac. One of the most frustrating things about Europe was the lack of internet access!
After dinner we were very tired, and decided to head back to the hotel a little early to get some rest. The bus wasn't running at that hour, so we took a train. We got stuck at the disgusting little station called Freilassing and found out that our connecting train was an hour late. There were a handful of us stuck in this nasty place. The only bench left was in front of this guy that was passed out drunk. After about 20 minutes, he decided it would be a good idea to take a leak right there. We heard the liquid noise and turned around. Jordan almost created an international incident by yelling at the man about his indecent behavior. I'm pretty sure that no one in the spoke English, and the guy fell right back asleep afterwards. We were both so disgusted...but very thankful that we didn't get pee on us!
By the time our train finally came, we ended up getting back extra late. It was about a 10 minute walk back to our room and the snow was coming down. It was extra sparkly on the ground and just breathtakingly beautiful! Although the town that we stayed in was far out of town, it was nestled in a little valley surrounded by snowy hills. It was just a perfect little winter wonderland! We were thankful for God's magnificent beauty!
Vacation Day 15
On our last day in Salzburg we woke up to a crystal, clear beautiful day! We decided to take advantage of our Salzburg card, which included a free cable car ride to the top of a mountain called Untersberg. Visibility was just perfect, and we were excited. Unfortunately, in order to get there we had to take an hour train ride into the city, and then take an hour bus ride to the mountain. We thought it would well be worth the time. After our two hours of travel time, we got to the mountain to find that the cable car was closed. There was no one there, just a sign on the door stating that it was closed until December 27th (in German of course). We were not the only people that traveled so far to get there. We were both so frustrated, because this was one of the main reasons we bought the card. It was advertised on the front of the card as the main selling point, and no one informed us of the closure when we got there. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. We rode an hour back into town and went to the tourist center again and asked for our money back. They stated that they tell everyone about the closure when the sell the card and refused to refund us. Not only did we waste money on the card, but we wasted over 3 hours of our last vacation day. Sigh. Well, there was nothing we could do about it, so we decided to make the most of the day.
Both of us really love all the old churches, so we decided to go explore a bunch of them. The first church we visited, St. Peter's (I am pretty sure there is a St. Peter's church in every town), had a cemetery attached. It is the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. It's also where the Von Trap family hid out in Sound of Music, my all time favorite movie! (However, I didn't realize that when I was there.) We weren't able to look at a lot of the headstones because it was covered in snow! Right new to the graveyard were catacombs, carved into the mountain side. They date back to 700, and included two small chapels. It was so mind blowing to be in a place with so much history! The church wasn't a bad attraction either.
We visited 2 more churches. Both of them we very interesting and old but unfortunately I don't have anything noteworthy to say about either of them.
It was so stinkin' cold outside that we visited the Modern Art museum. It was not my favorite feature of Salzburg, but it was warm!
We had some delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant Jordan had his eye on, and then visited the Christmas market one last time. We wanted to pick out an ornament for our first Christmas together! We found one we both agreed on pretty quickly. We then had our last beer (sniff) and hopped on the train back to our hotel. Once again the snow was very sparkly and beautiful and we fully enjoyed the frigid 10 minute walk.
Vacation Day 16
We spent the day on the train traveling from Salzburg back to Zurich. We had some dinner, bought a few Christmas presents, and then went back to the hotel to pack everything securely in our bags! The next morning we took a train to the airport and made our way back to Turkey, home sweet home! Fantastic vacation!
We doddled around Munich for the last time, and then hopped on a train to Salzburg in the late afternoon. The directions to our hotel were difficult to decipher, because the whole website was in German only. After an uneventful train ride, we got off the train around 7:30 pm at what we thought was our destination. The station was completely deserted, and it was snowing like crazy. We managed to hail a taxi and when he saw the address he informed us that we got off at the wrong stop. He offered to take us, but said it would cost a lot of money. He told us which stop we should have taken. Unfortunately they wasn't another train leaving for an hour in a half. There was not a soul at the station, and nothing within walking distance, so I got on a deserted to train to wait in the warmth. Jordan was waiting outside, and met some nice high school kids. They were part of a holiday festival and their faces were painted. Apparently it was St. Nicholas Day and they dress up as demonic creatures and scare children. I'm not really sure what the point is...but the high school kids spoke English and were very nice. They helped us get off on the right stop and even called us a cab. By the time we finally made it to our hotel it was 11pm. We were very lucky to get in. There was no reception and no one was there to help us. Jordan randomly found the key to our room, so we let ourselves in. We were disappointed to find the room had two twin beds on opposite sides of the room. We pushed them together, but it wasn't the same, because there was a cold gap between them!
Vacation Day 13
We woke up to someone opening our door. Apparently we left the key in it the night before, and the German lady running the place decided to let herself in. She did not speak a lick of English. About 10 minutes after she left, Jordan's bed broke. Try as we might, we could not get ahold of her to come fix it. On the hotel web page it said that they provide free transportation to Salzburg (which is why we chose that hotel in the first place), but it was pretty apparent that was a farce. Once we found the bus station we realized that we were an hour bus ride from the city. Sigh. Sometimes planning a vacation is harder than it looks!
We had some breakfast (or rather lunch by this point) at a nice cafe, and then headed into old town. Downtown Salzburg is very nice. It's right on a river, and there is a very nice shopping district. We did a lot of walking around and window shopping. We went to a tourist information center and bought a "Salzburg card" that seemed to be financially wise at the time. It allowed us "free" access to all the museums and many other tourist attractions.
We used the card first at the Natural History Museum. It was similar to the Pacific Science Center, but bigger. Unfortunately pretty much everything was in German, so we didn't learn too much. One thing that shocked us about the museum was the section on human conception. There was a lot of stuff in there that I didn't need to see...let alone small children! We were shocked!! We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
After the museum closed, we wandered along to the Christmas market. It was very big and wonderful and festive! I found a video from National Geographic video that shows exactly what it was like! We saw practically everything in this video. Check it out! http://vimeo.com/55537908
After dinner and a couple glasses of red wine, we took a train back to our cold hotel.
Vacation Day 14
We decided to mix things up and take the train into town with hopes that it would be faster. We had to switch trains, so it ended up actually taking a little bit longer.
We visited Hohensalzburg fortress today! Construction on the fortress began in 1077 and throughout the years it has been added to. It is actually one of the largest medieval castles in Europe! It sits at the top of a little "mountain". The castle was refurbished in the late 19th century and is now primarily a tourist attraction.
We took the Festungsbahn cable car from the town to the fortress. We were thankful we didn't have to hike up because it was very cold and snowy! The view of the city from above was just beautiful! We had some delicious lunch at a cafe with a wonderful view. We then toured the castle museum, and did even did an audio tour. We were able to climb up to the topmost tower for the best view of all! It was awfully cold and windy though, so we didn't stay long.
Once we had our fill of touring the castle we visited the Christmas market that was in the middle of the courtyard of the castle. It was just wonderful! We tried a new hot, delicious drink called the feuerzagenbowle and we were not disappointed!
It was sweet Sienna's birthday, and we really wanted to call her to wish her a Happy Birthday! We searched high and low for wireless internet. After asking around, we found out that McDonalds had wireless. Unfortunately the place was packed, and we had a very poor internet signal. After sitting there for about an hour trying to get the internet to work we finally gave up and had a delicious Big Mac. One of the most frustrating things about Europe was the lack of internet access!
After dinner we were very tired, and decided to head back to the hotel a little early to get some rest. The bus wasn't running at that hour, so we took a train. We got stuck at the disgusting little station called Freilassing and found out that our connecting train was an hour late. There were a handful of us stuck in this nasty place. The only bench left was in front of this guy that was passed out drunk. After about 20 minutes, he decided it would be a good idea to take a leak right there. We heard the liquid noise and turned around. Jordan almost created an international incident by yelling at the man about his indecent behavior. I'm pretty sure that no one in the spoke English, and the guy fell right back asleep afterwards. We were both so disgusted...but very thankful that we didn't get pee on us!
By the time our train finally came, we ended up getting back extra late. It was about a 10 minute walk back to our room and the snow was coming down. It was extra sparkly on the ground and just breathtakingly beautiful! Although the town that we stayed in was far out of town, it was nestled in a little valley surrounded by snowy hills. It was just a perfect little winter wonderland! We were thankful for God's magnificent beauty!
Vacation Day 15
On our last day in Salzburg we woke up to a crystal, clear beautiful day! We decided to take advantage of our Salzburg card, which included a free cable car ride to the top of a mountain called Untersberg. Visibility was just perfect, and we were excited. Unfortunately, in order to get there we had to take an hour train ride into the city, and then take an hour bus ride to the mountain. We thought it would well be worth the time. After our two hours of travel time, we got to the mountain to find that the cable car was closed. There was no one there, just a sign on the door stating that it was closed until December 27th (in German of course). We were not the only people that traveled so far to get there. We were both so frustrated, because this was one of the main reasons we bought the card. It was advertised on the front of the card as the main selling point, and no one informed us of the closure when we got there. To say we were disappointed was an understatement. We rode an hour back into town and went to the tourist center again and asked for our money back. They stated that they tell everyone about the closure when the sell the card and refused to refund us. Not only did we waste money on the card, but we wasted over 3 hours of our last vacation day. Sigh. Well, there was nothing we could do about it, so we decided to make the most of the day.
Both of us really love all the old churches, so we decided to go explore a bunch of them. The first church we visited, St. Peter's (I am pretty sure there is a St. Peter's church in every town), had a cemetery attached. It is the oldest Christian graveyard in Salzburg, dating back to 1627. It's also where the Von Trap family hid out in Sound of Music, my all time favorite movie! (However, I didn't realize that when I was there.) We weren't able to look at a lot of the headstones because it was covered in snow! Right new to the graveyard were catacombs, carved into the mountain side. They date back to 700, and included two small chapels. It was so mind blowing to be in a place with so much history! The church wasn't a bad attraction either.
We visited 2 more churches. Both of them we very interesting and old but unfortunately I don't have anything noteworthy to say about either of them.
It was so stinkin' cold outside that we visited the Modern Art museum. It was not my favorite feature of Salzburg, but it was warm!
We had some delicious dinner at an Indian restaurant Jordan had his eye on, and then visited the Christmas market one last time. We wanted to pick out an ornament for our first Christmas together! We found one we both agreed on pretty quickly. We then had our last beer (sniff) and hopped on the train back to our hotel. Once again the snow was very sparkly and beautiful and we fully enjoyed the frigid 10 minute walk.
Vacation Day 16
We spent the day on the train traveling from Salzburg back to Zurich. We had some dinner, bought a few Christmas presents, and then went back to the hotel to pack everything securely in our bags! The next morning we took a train to the airport and made our way back to Turkey, home sweet home! Fantastic vacation!
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| Beautiful sunrise! What a glorious morning! |
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| Mmmm mmmm McDonalds! McDonalds is really fancy here. They have a dessert case and everything! |
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| At the top of Hohensalzburg fortress! Brrrr |
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| Jordan being silly at the Natural History Museum. |
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| The pretty shopping street! |
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| This is the fortress looming in the background! |
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| Yaaaay art! |
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| The cables of the cable car that was closed. |
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| This is in the town that our hotel was in. Idyllic! |
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| Man man, just being handsome. |
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| Winter wonderland! |
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| This was taken from a window in the catacombs. You can see three different churches, and the cemetery below us. This is where Sound of Music was filmed when they were hiding from the German soldiers. Recognize it?? |
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| Candles in one of the churches. |
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| Another beautiful view of Salzburg. |
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| Jordan was very lucky to capture this adorable moment! How cute are they?? |
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| Eating dinner on the flight home. Turkish airlines has the best airplane food I've ever had and they even feed you a whole meal on 45 minute flights! |
LOVE the pictures and the stories of our trip! You write with such great description I almost feel like I'm there! Even with a few disappointments it sounds like you both had an amazing trip and made some wonderful memories! Thanks for the blog!!! Love to you both, Rhea
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