Well, I still have a few retroactive posts to do before I'm caught up (really just two). Buuuuut, Josh is finally coming home this Sunday.
What does that mean? That means that this week (ok, these last two or three days) I've had to work on making the house look like I haven't done nothing since Josh has been gone.
I'm not saying I'm a slob. I would just make a very good bachelor.
So - not sure when you're going to get another blog post out of me. Josh gets back Sunday. Then, we're going on vacation to Berlin & Poland. Then, Christmas.
In other words, I'm busy, yo. Actually busy, not just saying I'm busy to get out of blogging.
First, I have to blog about the rest of our time with the Cousins, and our quick trip to Paris for a half marathon that Josh ran. Then, I have a Rhine river cruise to blog about. THEN, I'll be caught up...well, until the Berlin & Poland trip.
Stay tuned! Fun stuff coming up, people. Fun stuff.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Dirty Thirty
I turned 30 on Sunday.
30.
Truth be told, I did not handle it that well.
The husband is still away on business. He kept wanting me to call up our friends, and have us all go out to celebrate.
Um, no thank you. I didn't want to organize my own birthday celebration. Plus, I wasn't sure how I would react in public after a few too many drinks, and a few too many 'happy birthday's. Best case scenario - I would sit and stew. Worst case scenario would involve tears in a bar.
Nope.
So, I did what any normal, semi-depressed person would do. I bought a small bottle of scotch (accidentally - I meant to buy whiskey...I hate scotch), which I drank while I ate my frozen Weight Watchers meal & sugar free chocolate pudding cup. Quite possibly the saddest meal in the world.
You know WHY I did that? I wanted to enjoy my funk. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to? Exactly.
I was happy with my unhappiness. Then my FB feed blew up with well-wishers (as it does on one's birthday) telling me I was being ridiculous about being upset that I turned thirty. I had everything in the range of "jokes" about me being old, to "It's not that bad"s, to "get over it"s. Helpful, people.
OF COURSE IT'S RIDICULOUS! Of COURSE I know that it's not that bad. 30 isn't that old. Do you really think I am now clinically depressed because I'm 30?
Of course not. But, sometimes I like to be melodramatic. I enjoy my occasional hissy fits. I like myself that way. I have a wonderful life, and sometimes it's nice to have a chance to feel sorry for myself.
And, I'm thirty for fuck's sake. It's a hissy fit worthy occasion.
But I will say one thing...I'm too young to be 30.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Side note #1: Josh did have flowers sent to me for my birthday. Sometimes, that guy's alright.
Side note #2: I had a bikini wax appointment today. The aesthetician thought I was 25. I was happy.
30.
Truth be told, I did not handle it that well.
The husband is still away on business. He kept wanting me to call up our friends, and have us all go out to celebrate.
Um, no thank you. I didn't want to organize my own birthday celebration. Plus, I wasn't sure how I would react in public after a few too many drinks, and a few too many 'happy birthday's. Best case scenario - I would sit and stew. Worst case scenario would involve tears in a bar.
Nope.
So, I did what any normal, semi-depressed person would do. I bought a small bottle of scotch (accidentally - I meant to buy whiskey...I hate scotch), which I drank while I ate my frozen Weight Watchers meal & sugar free chocolate pudding cup. Quite possibly the saddest meal in the world.
You know WHY I did that? I wanted to enjoy my funk. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to? Exactly.
I was happy with my unhappiness. Then my FB feed blew up with well-wishers (as it does on one's birthday) telling me I was being ridiculous about being upset that I turned thirty. I had everything in the range of "jokes" about me being old, to "It's not that bad"s, to "get over it"s. Helpful, people.
OF COURSE IT'S RIDICULOUS! Of COURSE I know that it's not that bad. 30 isn't that old. Do you really think I am now clinically depressed because I'm 30?
Of course not. But, sometimes I like to be melodramatic. I enjoy my occasional hissy fits. I like myself that way. I have a wonderful life, and sometimes it's nice to have a chance to feel sorry for myself.
And, I'm thirty for fuck's sake. It's a hissy fit worthy occasion.
But I will say one thing...I'm too young to be 30.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Side note #1: Josh did have flowers sent to me for my birthday. Sometimes, that guy's alright.
Side note #2: I had a bikini wax appointment today. The aesthetician thought I was 25. I was happy.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Munich & Austria - Part 5 of 5
Today was our last full day of the trip, and we spent it exploring Salzburg. First on our agenda -
THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!!!
I was raised on old school musicals, so I was VERY excited about this tour. We all were, actually. It really helped that we watched the movie before doing the tour - I suggest everyone rewatch the movie before you do the tour. It's more fun when you know exactly what part in the movie the different city landmarks are from.
One thing that we didn't realize until we got to Salzburg - Austrians HATE the Sound of Music. They won't watch the movie. You can't even find SoM souvenirs at any of the shops. Our guide (who was actually from Denmark) said all of his Austrian friends make so much fun of him for being a SoM tour guide. Sad.
There is a bus tour you can take for the Sound of Music highlights, but we chose to do Fräulein Maria's Bicycle Tour.
I'm not gonna lie - I was more than a little nervous about going on the bike tour. I had not ridden a bike in 15 years (Josh hadn't ridden one in almost that long). But, the website, as well as all the reviews of the company assured us that we'd be fine. It's a long tour - over 5 hours. We arrived at the meeting point a little early, so we could all practice with the bikes.
It's true, you never forget how to ride a bike. But, you do forget how to make sharp turns & brake in time. At least, that was my problem at first. But, I got the hang of it after a little while (somewhat - the turns never really got easier).
But, at least the bikes were super cute!
Our guide’s name was Jonas - he was really funny, and would sing along with us and do all the corny things that all the SoM fans wanted to do. He also took a ton of photos of everybody, and put them up on their FB page afterwards.
We went from Mirabell gardens, up to Old Town, up to the fortress that looks over the city, out to Hellbrunn Palace. We went everywhere!
Our guide also went over some of the history of Salzburg. We checked our Europe’s oldest restaurant, a statue of Mozart, a horse washing station (basically a fountain with a ramp to lead your horse into the water, so you could wash it). We stopped at Hellbrunn for a 20 minute rest/bathroom break. Really - you need to bring your own water! It was a cool, cloudy day, so we didn’t really think to bring any water. After about 45 minutes, I was dying of thirst! Thankfully the city fest was still going on, and we were able to buy drinks from the vendors.
I was worried about falling (and Josh was worried about me falling) but, I was good. Actually, there was only one casualty on our trip. This dude wearing flip-flops and shorts flipped over his handle bars. He ended up pretty bloody, but I had a hard time feeling bad for him. Who wears flip-flops on a 5 hour bike ride? It did kind of spook us, though, and we all went a little bit slower after that. (to be fair, we were going down a steep hill at the time, and the guy pressed the wrong brake - which is what sent him over). There was one BIG hill we had to bike up. No no, let me rephrase. There was one BIG hill that I had to walk the bike up. To be fair, though, most people ended up walking the bike up the hill. Our guide said that he had an Olympic swimmer a few weeks ago, and even HE had to walk the bike up. However, Curtis was able to make it up, and Karen *almost* made it up. But, they're weirdos.
Yep, that's right. I'm as in shape as an Olympic swimmer. Ha!
I will say - the biking was a little rough on me. Curtis estimated that we went about 15-20km. If I hadn’t done the crazy hike to the Ice Chapel at Königssee the day before, I think I would have been in much better shape for the bike ride.
The thing I really didn’t prepare for, though? The beating my vagina ended up getting. And that is not in a good way. My bajingo was SO COMPLETELY SORE by the end of the day, I just wanted to sit on a block of ice. It. was. ridiculous. You think I’m playing, and you think I’m just saying it because it’s funny.
Nope. My vagina was killing me.
I know people get used to it - otherwise there wouldn’t be people that call themselves “bicyclists” (or, as my family likes to say, “bicycle perverts). But, how in the bloody (almost literally) hell can you get used to that? My vagina was screaming at me by the end of the 5 hours. She was so mad at me, and I felt so bad for her, but I couldn’t do anything about it, except fan myself every time I went to take a pee (which, fuck all, IT BURNED). My vagina gave me a faux UTI just for putting it thru the trauma of a bike ride.
That’ll teach me to try and be more active. :/
But, really, I’m glad I did it. It really was a lot of fun. And, totally worth it just for the photo ops. :)
We finally made it back to our starting point, and even though certain parts of my anatomy were ready to commit hara kiri, we still had a lot more exploring to do. One of the girls on our bicycling trip tagged along with us while we went hunting for a lunch stop (Really, after unsuccessfully hitting on the two single guys in our group, we were her third option. She was a nice girl from Australia, but after awhile I think we started to bore her, so we parted ways).
We stopped for lunch at Zirkelwirt, which was recommended by Rick Steves. It was really good, but that may have been because we were all starving after the bike ride.
Josh was really happy about his food.
After lunch, we did some more exploring. We walked down to where the city fest was going on. K&C wanted to go off one way, so we decided that Josh and I would just do some shopping & hanging around the city fest, will K&C went off the other way. That was only for about an hour. We met back up, but it started drizzling at that point. The guys ran back to the car to get our umbrellas, while us girls stayed at the biergarten. That's where Karen discovered grapefruit radlers! Radlers are part beer, part soda. So, we had a good time at the biergarten waiting for the guys to get back. ;)
I'm glad they went and got the umbrellas, because it then started to POUR. It was getting dark out, but we weren't done yet. We stayed for a little while & listened to some polka music. I went to a schnapps tasting to learn how it was done, and some very nice Austrians taught me the proper way to drink it.
Schnapps in Europe is NOTHING like schnapps in the States. Austrian schnapps was like drinking slightly flavored turpentine. That stuff could grow hair on anything it touched.
It was realllly starting to pour, but we still all wanted to go to the Augustiner Bräu. That's the brewery run by monks. It's on top of the hill in Salzburg, and apparently there is a funicular that takes you up there, so we went searching.
At this point, it is REALLY raining. I also discovered that my umbrella is not waterproof. We all had soaked pant legs. After about 40 minutes of walking, we were all getting cranky. We found what we thought was the funicular, but we couldn't figure out if it was the right one. So, we just kept walking. I swear it took well over an hour. Finally, Curtis ducked into a nearby pub, and asked where the brewery was. We were close! We just had half a block and a hill to go up.
Finally, we made it!! Suddenly, everyone was happy again. :) The brewery had an indoor biergarten, and it was all self serve. You grab your own mug, then stand in line to have it filled with whatever beer you want. You're also in charge of washing your own mug when.
If you want food, you have lots of options. Surrounding the biergarten was about 10-15 different food vendors - just like going to the food court in the mall. They had all kinds of meats, fried foods, sandwiches, pastries, etc etc etc.
BUT, the traditional thing to eat when you're drinking beer in Salzburg?
Spiral cut salted radishes. These were huge radishes, more the size of turnips. They were peeled and verrrrry thinly sliced, then sprinkled liberally with salt. I HAD to get a batch (only a euro or two). I went to a couple different stands and also got a pickle & a pretzel. I think Curtis bought some sausages, Josh bought some fries. We noshed & drank beer & had a great time.
After our Austrian biergarten experience, it was time to go back to our apartment. It was such a long day, and we were all tired (and still soaked from the rain). Luckily the rain had let up in time for our walk back to the car.
We all slept really well that night. But, we had to get up at a decent hour, because we had to head back to Ramstein the next day.
In the morning, we decided to run up to a nearby lookout point, to get one last look at Salzburg & the Alps before we went home. I LOVE Austria, and cannot wait to go back to this area.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!!!
I was raised on old school musicals, so I was VERY excited about this tour. We all were, actually. It really helped that we watched the movie before doing the tour - I suggest everyone rewatch the movie before you do the tour. It's more fun when you know exactly what part in the movie the different city landmarks are from.
One thing that we didn't realize until we got to Salzburg - Austrians HATE the Sound of Music. They won't watch the movie. You can't even find SoM souvenirs at any of the shops. Our guide (who was actually from Denmark) said all of his Austrian friends make so much fun of him for being a SoM tour guide. Sad.
There is a bus tour you can take for the Sound of Music highlights, but we chose to do Fräulein Maria's Bicycle Tour.
I'm not gonna lie - I was more than a little nervous about going on the bike tour. I had not ridden a bike in 15 years (Josh hadn't ridden one in almost that long). But, the website, as well as all the reviews of the company assured us that we'd be fine. It's a long tour - over 5 hours. We arrived at the meeting point a little early, so we could all practice with the bikes.
It's true, you never forget how to ride a bike. But, you do forget how to make sharp turns & brake in time. At least, that was my problem at first. But, I got the hang of it after a little while (somewhat - the turns never really got easier).
But, at least the bikes were super cute!
Our guide’s name was Jonas - he was really funny, and would sing along with us and do all the corny things that all the SoM fans wanted to do. He also took a ton of photos of everybody, and put them up on their FB page afterwards.
We went from Mirabell gardens, up to Old Town, up to the fortress that looks over the city, out to Hellbrunn Palace. We went everywhere!
Our guide also went over some of the history of Salzburg. We checked our Europe’s oldest restaurant, a statue of Mozart, a horse washing station (basically a fountain with a ramp to lead your horse into the water, so you could wash it). We stopped at Hellbrunn for a 20 minute rest/bathroom break. Really - you need to bring your own water! It was a cool, cloudy day, so we didn’t really think to bring any water. After about 45 minutes, I was dying of thirst! Thankfully the city fest was still going on, and we were able to buy drinks from the vendors.
I was worried about falling (and Josh was worried about me falling) but, I was good. Actually, there was only one casualty on our trip. This dude wearing flip-flops and shorts flipped over his handle bars. He ended up pretty bloody, but I had a hard time feeling bad for him. Who wears flip-flops on a 5 hour bike ride? It did kind of spook us, though, and we all went a little bit slower after that. (to be fair, we were going down a steep hill at the time, and the guy pressed the wrong brake - which is what sent him over). There was one BIG hill we had to bike up. No no, let me rephrase. There was one BIG hill that I had to walk the bike up. To be fair, though, most people ended up walking the bike up the hill. Our guide said that he had an Olympic swimmer a few weeks ago, and even HE had to walk the bike up. However, Curtis was able to make it up, and Karen *almost* made it up. But, they're weirdos.
Yep, that's right. I'm as in shape as an Olympic swimmer. Ha!
I will say - the biking was a little rough on me. Curtis estimated that we went about 15-20km. If I hadn’t done the crazy hike to the Ice Chapel at Königssee the day before, I think I would have been in much better shape for the bike ride.
The thing I really didn’t prepare for, though? The beating my vagina ended up getting. And that is not in a good way. My bajingo was SO COMPLETELY SORE by the end of the day, I just wanted to sit on a block of ice. It. was. ridiculous. You think I’m playing, and you think I’m just saying it because it’s funny.
Nope. My vagina was killing me.
I know people get used to it - otherwise there wouldn’t be people that call themselves “bicyclists” (or, as my family likes to say, “bicycle perverts). But, how in the bloody (almost literally) hell can you get used to that? My vagina was screaming at me by the end of the 5 hours. She was so mad at me, and I felt so bad for her, but I couldn’t do anything about it, except fan myself every time I went to take a pee (which, fuck all, IT BURNED). My vagina gave me a faux UTI just for putting it thru the trauma of a bike ride.
That’ll teach me to try and be more active. :/
But, really, I’m glad I did it. It really was a lot of fun. And, totally worth it just for the photo ops. :)
We finally made it back to our starting point, and even though certain parts of my anatomy were ready to commit hara kiri, we still had a lot more exploring to do. One of the girls on our bicycling trip tagged along with us while we went hunting for a lunch stop (Really, after unsuccessfully hitting on the two single guys in our group, we were her third option. She was a nice girl from Australia, but after awhile I think we started to bore her, so we parted ways).
We stopped for lunch at Zirkelwirt, which was recommended by Rick Steves. It was really good, but that may have been because we were all starving after the bike ride.
Josh was really happy about his food.
After lunch, we did some more exploring. We walked down to where the city fest was going on. K&C wanted to go off one way, so we decided that Josh and I would just do some shopping & hanging around the city fest, will K&C went off the other way. That was only for about an hour. We met back up, but it started drizzling at that point. The guys ran back to the car to get our umbrellas, while us girls stayed at the biergarten. That's where Karen discovered grapefruit radlers! Radlers are part beer, part soda. So, we had a good time at the biergarten waiting for the guys to get back. ;)
I'm glad they went and got the umbrellas, because it then started to POUR. It was getting dark out, but we weren't done yet. We stayed for a little while & listened to some polka music. I went to a schnapps tasting to learn how it was done, and some very nice Austrians taught me the proper way to drink it.
Schnapps in Europe is NOTHING like schnapps in the States. Austrian schnapps was like drinking slightly flavored turpentine. That stuff could grow hair on anything it touched.
It was realllly starting to pour, but we still all wanted to go to the Augustiner Bräu. That's the brewery run by monks. It's on top of the hill in Salzburg, and apparently there is a funicular that takes you up there, so we went searching.
At this point, it is REALLY raining. I also discovered that my umbrella is not waterproof. We all had soaked pant legs. After about 40 minutes of walking, we were all getting cranky. We found what we thought was the funicular, but we couldn't figure out if it was the right one. So, we just kept walking. I swear it took well over an hour. Finally, Curtis ducked into a nearby pub, and asked where the brewery was. We were close! We just had half a block and a hill to go up.
Finally, we made it!! Suddenly, everyone was happy again. :) The brewery had an indoor biergarten, and it was all self serve. You grab your own mug, then stand in line to have it filled with whatever beer you want. You're also in charge of washing your own mug when.
If you want food, you have lots of options. Surrounding the biergarten was about 10-15 different food vendors - just like going to the food court in the mall. They had all kinds of meats, fried foods, sandwiches, pastries, etc etc etc.
BUT, the traditional thing to eat when you're drinking beer in Salzburg?
Spiral cut salted radishes. These were huge radishes, more the size of turnips. They were peeled and verrrrry thinly sliced, then sprinkled liberally with salt. I HAD to get a batch (only a euro or two). I went to a couple different stands and also got a pickle & a pretzel. I think Curtis bought some sausages, Josh bought some fries. We noshed & drank beer & had a great time.
After our Austrian biergarten experience, it was time to go back to our apartment. It was such a long day, and we were all tired (and still soaked from the rain). Luckily the rain had let up in time for our walk back to the car.
We all slept really well that night. But, we had to get up at a decent hour, because we had to head back to Ramstein the next day.
In the morning, we decided to run up to a nearby lookout point, to get one last look at Salzburg & the Alps before we went home. I LOVE Austria, and cannot wait to go back to this area.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Munich & Austria - Part 4 of 5
Ughghghg. On our first day in Austria, I woke up feeling like absolute crap. The cold/bronchitis that I had been trying to get over for a couple weeks felt like it was back in full force. The dust in the air from the construction set up camp in my lungs, and I had a massive headache.
Oh, and our hosts decided it would be a good idea to start up construction again at 7:00am!!! So, we all woke up to the sounds of power tools. It was NOT fun.
But, when you're on vacation, you just have to power through. Our first destination of the day was to Hohenwerfen Fortress. The fortress was nestled amongst the Alps, in a very pretty location. Although, we were in the Alps, so pretty much EVERYTHING was in a very pretty location.
The tickets to get into the fortress are actually pretty expensive. €10.50 to walk up, or €14.00 to take the funicular up. We all chose to take the funicular.
The main reason for us to visit Hohenwerfen was for us to see the falconry show. But, we had some time to kill before it started, so we explored the fortress a little bit. There were different sections set up into different museums. The weaponry museum seemed to be the biggest (and my Dad would have loved it). All in all, I have to say....Hohenwerfen was pretty disappointing. It was expensive to get into, a lot smaller than it looked, and it just wasn't that spectacular. But, I also felt like cow poop, so that may have had something to do with it.
Finally, it was time for the falconry show to start. I’ve never been to one, so I was pretty excited about it. At this point, I should mention that I’m more than a little terrified of birds flying overhead of me. It’s not that I’m scared of birds...I’m not! But, I am utterly terrified of getting shat on by a bird. It’s never happened (yet), so I don’t really know where the fear comes from. All I know is that I HATE when birds fly over me. I can totally see myself becoming one of those people that carries around a parasol on nice days. Not to protect myself from the sun, but to protect myself from bird poop.
So, even though I was excited to see the falconry show, I was more than a little nervous about all the birds that were flying over me. But, it ended up ok. No one got shat on, so I was happy.
But the falconry was pretty amazing. They had several types of birds - eagles, falcons, even vultures. It seemed like the birds were really taken care of, and you could tell the handlers really loved their birds.
After the show, the handlers let their falcons fly around, just to stretch their wings. They went FAR. But, they always came back. It was really neat to see these huge birds soaring over the castle, amongst the mountains. One thing I noticed - there were absolutely NO wild birds in the area. No little song birds in the trees, no little finches anywhere. It makes sense, but it was still kind of surreal.
After the falconry show, it was time to go to the next place - Liechtensteinklamm. Yes, that’s a mouth full. Liechtensteinklamm is the deepest ravine/gorge in the Alps. For a small fee (€4), you walk through the ravine and end up at a waterfall. The walk was pretty fun - there were several bridges, and tunnels going through the rock. We were constantly dripped on, but it wasn't bad. I'd love to go back. If you've ever been to Box Canyon in Ouray, Colorado - it is SO MUCH like that. Although, I think the Liechtensteinklamm footpath is much longer than the path in Box Canyon.
Once we were done with Liechtensteinklamm, we went on to the next destination. The Ice Caves. The ice caves we went to are the biggest ice caves in the world.
Unfortunately, yours truly did not get to partake. :/
To get to the caves, first we had to drive up a mountain. Which was fine, except our car really didn’t like it. Didn’t help that the Mr. doesn’t really know how to drive on mountainous roads (pretty sure our brakes almost caught fire on the way down - next time, I’ll do the mountain driving). Once at the visitor’s center, you have to do a 20 minute hike up to the gondola. Then, the gondola takes you up to the start of another hike. From there, you do another 20 minute hike up to the entrance of the Ice Caves. The Ice Caves themselves were full of steps - 750 up, and 750 down. My ankle was NOT about to go through that mess. Based on the hike I did the next day (I'll get to that) I totally could have done it - but, we were in a time crunch. There was only one more tour left in the day, and there is no way I would have been able to make the hike in as fast a time as the others had to.
So, I stayed behind while the rest of them did the Ice Caves. And you know what? As much as I would have liked to see them, I had a pretty nice time all to myself. I walked around the visitor center, took in the sites of the surrounding mountains, had myself a few drinks (Well, there was a bottle of bourbon in the trunk & a bottle of coke. How was I NOT going to have a few drinks?) and played on the iPod. They were gone a couple of hours, but time seemed to fly for me. :)
The other three had a great time, though. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the caves. So, I got nothin' to share here. But, check out the link I provided above, and you can see some of the stuff Josh & the cousins saw.
After the Ice Caves, it was probably around 5pm so we decided to drive into Salzburg to eat dinner. We drove to Old Town, and found a garage. Unfortunately it was drizzling, but we all came prepared with umbrellas! One thing we DIDN'T realize was happening, was Salzburg's city fest. When we were in Munich, it was a few days before Oktoberfest started (we purposefully went there before Oktoberfest, so we could miss out on all that crap). But, Salzburg was a party! Old Town was filled with tents & biergartens. But, it really wasn't that bad. Old Town was a lot smaller than we were expecting, so it wasn't like there were massive amounts of tents, anyway. And, the drizzle seemed to keep the crowds away.
But, first things first - dinner! Karen & Curtis read about an Indian restaurant in Rick Steves, so that's where they wanted to go. Josh & I are NOT Indian fans, so we parted ways at dinner. We walked around until we found a Mexican steak restaurant, called Maredo. Josh is pretty sure that the restaurant we found was actually a European chain restaurant, and I'm thinking he was right. I know I've mentioned it before, but Josh and I are on a mission to find good Mexican food in Europe.
We haven't succeeded yet.
Maredo wasn't horrible. Josh had a steak, and I had the veggie fajitas. It was fine. I had a margarita - WHICH WAS NOT FINE. It was served in a martini glass, with no ice. I'm not really sure what it was, but it tasted more like a lemon drop made with tequila. Very very interesting take on the margarita. :/ But, we were really hungry, and we ate everything on our plates - so it had to be at least somewhat successful.
Apparently Karen & Curtis' Indian restaurant was really really good, so I'm glad they went there. :)
After dinner, we walked through the town again, and back to the car. We had all decided to try and break our reservation with the apartment we had. We were supposed to stay there 4 nights, but it just wasn't a good place to stay. So, when we got back to the apartment, we talked with our hostess, and found another place in Salzburg. It ended up being a big stress headache through Airbnb, though. But, it didn't turn into a headache until AFTER the trip, when Karen got home & tried to deal with weird credit card charges.
But, at the time, we were able to cancel our reservation for the Construction Zone apartment, and book another apartment on Airbnb.
However, at this point it was almost 10pm at night, so we did stay a 2nd night at the Construction Zone. At least we didn't wake up to the sounds of power tools again.
The next day, we packed all of our stuff, and headed out to Königssee, just over the border in Germany. As we were driving across the border, we noticed an Austrian checkpoint with several police pulling cars over. They were checking for vignettes.
We still hadn't bought one. Crap! But, we were in Germany again, so - haha!! Although, it spooked us, so we ended up buying one in Germany that day, before crossing back into Austria.
Anywho - Königssee is a lake nestled in the German Alps. The lake is the cleanest lake in Germany - the boats used to ferry people across are all electric.
At the head of the lake is a little craft village, full of souvenirs & shops & crap like that. Königssee seemed to be a very popular destination for Germans, but there were NOT that many English speakers around. But, the area was AWESOME!
Königssee has a bunch of hiking trails around it, and a pilgrimage church built halfway down the lake shore. To get to the trails & the church, you have to take one of the electric boats. They definitely packed us all in! It was around €11, I think, to take the boat there & back.
The trip took 35 minutes to go 5km. It was the longest, slowest boat ride EVER. It was ridiculous how irritating it was. On the way there, the boat captain gave a spiel about all the sites along the way. Of course, it was all in German, but apparently our captain was the funniest guy ever, because the other passengers were almost peeing themselves with laughter. It got to where the four of us were laughing along with them, because it was so funny how funny they thought everything was. At least we had an English brochure to point out the sites along the way. There was a spot on the rocks where something like 40 pilgrims died in a boat wreck during a thunderstorm a few hundred years ago. How 40 people died on that lake, I will NEVER know. The only thing I could think of is hypothermia, but even then - the lake is not that big, and they should have been able to swim to shore. :/ Dumb pilgrims.
We finally made it to the church, and got off the boat. There is a longer ticket you could by, and the boat would take you to the end of the lake. But, we just did the half ticket.
Here's the church.
Man, this place was GORGEOUS!
I probably could have stayed here for days. It was awesome. The church was there, as well as a restaurant and bakery. There were so many trails all around. But the one that caught our eye was the Ice Dome trail. Of course it was one of the longest, most strenuous trails. But, there was an Ice Chapel at the end! How could we pass that up?
:|
I wasn’t sure if I could finish the trail, so I just decided to walk until I didn’t want to walk anymore. Then, I’d turn around and come back. The sign on the trail head stated that it would take 1.5 hours to get up to the Ice Dome, and you needed proper footwear, because the end of the trail wasn’t kept up by the parks department - it was just a lot of rocks to clamber over.
So, Josh loves to hike. I always THINK I love to hike, until I'm actually doing it. It's the same thing every damn time. I start bitching and moaning almost immediately, then Josh starts his annoying pep talks (they're really quite helpful, but when I'm bitching about hiking, all I can think of is how annoying he's being - sorry, babe!).
What I didn't know until later is that the Ice Chapel hike was 6km up. If I had known that, I probably wouldn't have done it. But, I did. It was miserable, and after every switchback, I was cursing myself & telling anyone within earshot that I was going back down.
Then, we got to the sign that said "15 more minutes". Ok, I guess I can do this. Of course, this is where the trail ended, and the rocks began. This is the stuff that literally *hurt* my ankle, because I kept rolling it on rocks. We made it most of the way up, but then when we were maybe 10 minutes away, Karen & Curtis came back down (I had told them to go ahead & not wait for us, since I tend to be the slowest hiker ever, and wasn't even sure I was going to make it up anyway). They didn't even go completely up to the Ice Chapel. You know why? Because it was just a freakin' glacier. It was a small little snow blip at the base of a mountain. CRAP!!
So, we walked until we could see it, and then I decided I could consider the hike "completed". We still had 10-15 more minutes of hiking through the rocks, but I was done. And, everyone was proud that I made it up that far, including me. So, I was happy.
Really, though, it wasn’t THAT great of a hike. The majority of it was in the trees, so you couldn’t really see much of the scenery. The only time we got a good look at the surrounding mountains was at the top. But, if hiking is your thing, you’ll love it.
We finally made it back down the mountain, and stopped at the restaurant. We were all really hungry (and thirsty). We sat in the outdoor seating, but it took forever to find an open table. And of course we sat in the section with the world’s worst waiter (it took FOREVER to get served). And, we were ALSO lucky enough to sit next to a guy who thought it was awesome to smoke a cigar and blow the smoke directly into our faces.
Ugh.
But, the beer was cold & the french fries were hot, so we were good. It was really nice to sit outside & enjoy the lake and the mountains.
After our snack, we walked around the lake a little (well, I waddled...my legs were SORE) and decided to get back on the boat.
Unfortunately, everyone else thought it was time to get back on the boat. Germans don’t really believe in standing in line and “waiting your turn”, so there were quite a few line jumpers. We were all standing in line, when I decided to use the restroom. When I got back from the restroom, I noticed that we had moved WAAAAAY up in the line. Apparently the guys figured since other people were cutting ahead, we may as well too. Not exactly something I’m proud of, but we only had to wait in line for about 20 minutes.
Of course, we were in line next to the 2 Drunk Grannies, but they just made the wait slightly entertaining.
It was the loooooongest boat ride back. 35 minutes is not that long, really. But, when it’s taking you 35 minutes to go 5km, it seems like FOREVER.
We were finally back to the little craft village. Apparently, we had completely forgot about getting a parking pass for our car, and we didn’t realize it until we got BACK to the car. Thankfully, nobody noticed, and there was no ticket on our car. Phew! We were all still kind of hungry, so we ran to McDonald’s. I know, not the classiest place to eat, but it was there! Besides, European McDonald’s are much nicer than the US versions.
Our plan was to go to the Eagle's Nest, but we just ran out of time. The last bus up was at 4:30pm, and there was no way we were going to make it. We were able to see the Eagle's Nest from the parking lot, though, if that counts for anything. :/
So, we just called it an early night & drove to our NEW Airbnb apartment. It was only about 10 minutes from downtown Salzburg, but on the OPPOSITE side from where we were, so it took a little while to get there. But, this place was SO much nicer. Each couple had their own bedroom, and there was NO CONSTRUCTION! It was lovely.
We were actually in the town of Hof Bei Salzburg, which is close to Lake Fuschl, so we decided to drive down to the lake & hang out there for awhile.
Once it got too dark, we ran and got some takeout pizza and headed back to the apartment. We had to watch the last half of the Sound of Music, because the NEXT day was when we did our Sound of Music tour! (I was more than a little excited about that).
I could live in Austria and be really happy. Although, I live in Germany and I’m really happy, so I guess life is good. :)
Oh, and our hosts decided it would be a good idea to start up construction again at 7:00am!!! So, we all woke up to the sounds of power tools. It was NOT fun.
But, when you're on vacation, you just have to power through. Our first destination of the day was to Hohenwerfen Fortress. The fortress was nestled amongst the Alps, in a very pretty location. Although, we were in the Alps, so pretty much EVERYTHING was in a very pretty location.
The tickets to get into the fortress are actually pretty expensive. €10.50 to walk up, or €14.00 to take the funicular up. We all chose to take the funicular.
The main reason for us to visit Hohenwerfen was for us to see the falconry show. But, we had some time to kill before it started, so we explored the fortress a little bit. There were different sections set up into different museums. The weaponry museum seemed to be the biggest (and my Dad would have loved it). All in all, I have to say....Hohenwerfen was pretty disappointing. It was expensive to get into, a lot smaller than it looked, and it just wasn't that spectacular. But, I also felt like cow poop, so that may have had something to do with it.
Finally, it was time for the falconry show to start. I’ve never been to one, so I was pretty excited about it. At this point, I should mention that I’m more than a little terrified of birds flying overhead of me. It’s not that I’m scared of birds...I’m not! But, I am utterly terrified of getting shat on by a bird. It’s never happened (yet), so I don’t really know where the fear comes from. All I know is that I HATE when birds fly over me. I can totally see myself becoming one of those people that carries around a parasol on nice days. Not to protect myself from the sun, but to protect myself from bird poop.
So, even though I was excited to see the falconry show, I was more than a little nervous about all the birds that were flying over me. But, it ended up ok. No one got shat on, so I was happy.
But the falconry was pretty amazing. They had several types of birds - eagles, falcons, even vultures. It seemed like the birds were really taken care of, and you could tell the handlers really loved their birds.
After the show, the handlers let their falcons fly around, just to stretch their wings. They went FAR. But, they always came back. It was really neat to see these huge birds soaring over the castle, amongst the mountains. One thing I noticed - there were absolutely NO wild birds in the area. No little song birds in the trees, no little finches anywhere. It makes sense, but it was still kind of surreal.
After the falconry show, it was time to go to the next place - Liechtensteinklamm. Yes, that’s a mouth full. Liechtensteinklamm is the deepest ravine/gorge in the Alps. For a small fee (€4), you walk through the ravine and end up at a waterfall. The walk was pretty fun - there were several bridges, and tunnels going through the rock. We were constantly dripped on, but it wasn't bad. I'd love to go back. If you've ever been to Box Canyon in Ouray, Colorado - it is SO MUCH like that. Although, I think the Liechtensteinklamm footpath is much longer than the path in Box Canyon.
Once we were done with Liechtensteinklamm, we went on to the next destination. The Ice Caves. The ice caves we went to are the biggest ice caves in the world.
Unfortunately, yours truly did not get to partake. :/
To get to the caves, first we had to drive up a mountain. Which was fine, except our car really didn’t like it. Didn’t help that the Mr. doesn’t really know how to drive on mountainous roads (pretty sure our brakes almost caught fire on the way down - next time, I’ll do the mountain driving). Once at the visitor’s center, you have to do a 20 minute hike up to the gondola. Then, the gondola takes you up to the start of another hike. From there, you do another 20 minute hike up to the entrance of the Ice Caves. The Ice Caves themselves were full of steps - 750 up, and 750 down. My ankle was NOT about to go through that mess. Based on the hike I did the next day (I'll get to that) I totally could have done it - but, we were in a time crunch. There was only one more tour left in the day, and there is no way I would have been able to make the hike in as fast a time as the others had to.
So, I stayed behind while the rest of them did the Ice Caves. And you know what? As much as I would have liked to see them, I had a pretty nice time all to myself. I walked around the visitor center, took in the sites of the surrounding mountains, had myself a few drinks (Well, there was a bottle of bourbon in the trunk & a bottle of coke. How was I NOT going to have a few drinks?) and played on the iPod. They were gone a couple of hours, but time seemed to fly for me. :)
The other three had a great time, though. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the caves. So, I got nothin' to share here. But, check out the link I provided above, and you can see some of the stuff Josh & the cousins saw.
After the Ice Caves, it was probably around 5pm so we decided to drive into Salzburg to eat dinner. We drove to Old Town, and found a garage. Unfortunately it was drizzling, but we all came prepared with umbrellas! One thing we DIDN'T realize was happening, was Salzburg's city fest. When we were in Munich, it was a few days before Oktoberfest started (we purposefully went there before Oktoberfest, so we could miss out on all that crap). But, Salzburg was a party! Old Town was filled with tents & biergartens. But, it really wasn't that bad. Old Town was a lot smaller than we were expecting, so it wasn't like there were massive amounts of tents, anyway. And, the drizzle seemed to keep the crowds away.
But, first things first - dinner! Karen & Curtis read about an Indian restaurant in Rick Steves, so that's where they wanted to go. Josh & I are NOT Indian fans, so we parted ways at dinner. We walked around until we found a Mexican steak restaurant, called Maredo. Josh is pretty sure that the restaurant we found was actually a European chain restaurant, and I'm thinking he was right. I know I've mentioned it before, but Josh and I are on a mission to find good Mexican food in Europe.
We haven't succeeded yet.
Maredo wasn't horrible. Josh had a steak, and I had the veggie fajitas. It was fine. I had a margarita - WHICH WAS NOT FINE. It was served in a martini glass, with no ice. I'm not really sure what it was, but it tasted more like a lemon drop made with tequila. Very very interesting take on the margarita. :/ But, we were really hungry, and we ate everything on our plates - so it had to be at least somewhat successful.
Apparently Karen & Curtis' Indian restaurant was really really good, so I'm glad they went there. :)
After dinner, we walked through the town again, and back to the car. We had all decided to try and break our reservation with the apartment we had. We were supposed to stay there 4 nights, but it just wasn't a good place to stay. So, when we got back to the apartment, we talked with our hostess, and found another place in Salzburg. It ended up being a big stress headache through Airbnb, though. But, it didn't turn into a headache until AFTER the trip, when Karen got home & tried to deal with weird credit card charges.
But, at the time, we were able to cancel our reservation for the Construction Zone apartment, and book another apartment on Airbnb.
However, at this point it was almost 10pm at night, so we did stay a 2nd night at the Construction Zone. At least we didn't wake up to the sounds of power tools again.
The next day, we packed all of our stuff, and headed out to Königssee, just over the border in Germany. As we were driving across the border, we noticed an Austrian checkpoint with several police pulling cars over. They were checking for vignettes.
We still hadn't bought one. Crap! But, we were in Germany again, so - haha!! Although, it spooked us, so we ended up buying one in Germany that day, before crossing back into Austria.
Anywho - Königssee is a lake nestled in the German Alps. The lake is the cleanest lake in Germany - the boats used to ferry people across are all electric.
At the head of the lake is a little craft village, full of souvenirs & shops & crap like that. Königssee seemed to be a very popular destination for Germans, but there were NOT that many English speakers around. But, the area was AWESOME!
Königssee has a bunch of hiking trails around it, and a pilgrimage church built halfway down the lake shore. To get to the trails & the church, you have to take one of the electric boats. They definitely packed us all in! It was around €11, I think, to take the boat there & back.
The trip took 35 minutes to go 5km. It was the longest, slowest boat ride EVER. It was ridiculous how irritating it was. On the way there, the boat captain gave a spiel about all the sites along the way. Of course, it was all in German, but apparently our captain was the funniest guy ever, because the other passengers were almost peeing themselves with laughter. It got to where the four of us were laughing along with them, because it was so funny how funny they thought everything was. At least we had an English brochure to point out the sites along the way. There was a spot on the rocks where something like 40 pilgrims died in a boat wreck during a thunderstorm a few hundred years ago. How 40 people died on that lake, I will NEVER know. The only thing I could think of is hypothermia, but even then - the lake is not that big, and they should have been able to swim to shore. :/ Dumb pilgrims.
We finally made it to the church, and got off the boat. There is a longer ticket you could by, and the boat would take you to the end of the lake. But, we just did the half ticket.
Here's the church.
Man, this place was GORGEOUS!
I probably could have stayed here for days. It was awesome. The church was there, as well as a restaurant and bakery. There were so many trails all around. But the one that caught our eye was the Ice Dome trail. Of course it was one of the longest, most strenuous trails. But, there was an Ice Chapel at the end! How could we pass that up?
:|
I wasn’t sure if I could finish the trail, so I just decided to walk until I didn’t want to walk anymore. Then, I’d turn around and come back. The sign on the trail head stated that it would take 1.5 hours to get up to the Ice Dome, and you needed proper footwear, because the end of the trail wasn’t kept up by the parks department - it was just a lot of rocks to clamber over.
So, Josh loves to hike. I always THINK I love to hike, until I'm actually doing it. It's the same thing every damn time. I start bitching and moaning almost immediately, then Josh starts his annoying pep talks (they're really quite helpful, but when I'm bitching about hiking, all I can think of is how annoying he's being - sorry, babe!).
What I didn't know until later is that the Ice Chapel hike was 6km up. If I had known that, I probably wouldn't have done it. But, I did. It was miserable, and after every switchback, I was cursing myself & telling anyone within earshot that I was going back down.
Then, we got to the sign that said "15 more minutes". Ok, I guess I can do this. Of course, this is where the trail ended, and the rocks began. This is the stuff that literally *hurt* my ankle, because I kept rolling it on rocks. We made it most of the way up, but then when we were maybe 10 minutes away, Karen & Curtis came back down (I had told them to go ahead & not wait for us, since I tend to be the slowest hiker ever, and wasn't even sure I was going to make it up anyway). They didn't even go completely up to the Ice Chapel. You know why? Because it was just a freakin' glacier. It was a small little snow blip at the base of a mountain. CRAP!!
So, we walked until we could see it, and then I decided I could consider the hike "completed". We still had 10-15 more minutes of hiking through the rocks, but I was done. And, everyone was proud that I made it up that far, including me. So, I was happy.
Really, though, it wasn’t THAT great of a hike. The majority of it was in the trees, so you couldn’t really see much of the scenery. The only time we got a good look at the surrounding mountains was at the top. But, if hiking is your thing, you’ll love it.
We finally made it back down the mountain, and stopped at the restaurant. We were all really hungry (and thirsty). We sat in the outdoor seating, but it took forever to find an open table. And of course we sat in the section with the world’s worst waiter (it took FOREVER to get served). And, we were ALSO lucky enough to sit next to a guy who thought it was awesome to smoke a cigar and blow the smoke directly into our faces.
Ugh.
But, the beer was cold & the french fries were hot, so we were good. It was really nice to sit outside & enjoy the lake and the mountains.
After our snack, we walked around the lake a little (well, I waddled...my legs were SORE) and decided to get back on the boat.
Unfortunately, everyone else thought it was time to get back on the boat. Germans don’t really believe in standing in line and “waiting your turn”, so there were quite a few line jumpers. We were all standing in line, when I decided to use the restroom. When I got back from the restroom, I noticed that we had moved WAAAAAY up in the line. Apparently the guys figured since other people were cutting ahead, we may as well too. Not exactly something I’m proud of, but we only had to wait in line for about 20 minutes.
Of course, we were in line next to the 2 Drunk Grannies, but they just made the wait slightly entertaining.
It was the loooooongest boat ride back. 35 minutes is not that long, really. But, when it’s taking you 35 minutes to go 5km, it seems like FOREVER.
We were finally back to the little craft village. Apparently, we had completely forgot about getting a parking pass for our car, and we didn’t realize it until we got BACK to the car. Thankfully, nobody noticed, and there was no ticket on our car. Phew! We were all still kind of hungry, so we ran to McDonald’s. I know, not the classiest place to eat, but it was there! Besides, European McDonald’s are much nicer than the US versions.
Our plan was to go to the Eagle's Nest, but we just ran out of time. The last bus up was at 4:30pm, and there was no way we were going to make it. We were able to see the Eagle's Nest from the parking lot, though, if that counts for anything. :/
So, we just called it an early night & drove to our NEW Airbnb apartment. It was only about 10 minutes from downtown Salzburg, but on the OPPOSITE side from where we were, so it took a little while to get there. But, this place was SO much nicer. Each couple had their own bedroom, and there was NO CONSTRUCTION! It was lovely.
We were actually in the town of Hof Bei Salzburg, which is close to Lake Fuschl, so we decided to drive down to the lake & hang out there for awhile.
Once it got too dark, we ran and got some takeout pizza and headed back to the apartment. We had to watch the last half of the Sound of Music, because the NEXT day was when we did our Sound of Music tour! (I was more than a little excited about that).
I could live in Austria and be really happy. Although, I live in Germany and I’m really happy, so I guess life is good. :)
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Munich & Austria - Part 3 of 5
Today was our last day in Munich. We packed our stuff, loaded up the car, and headed out for a full day of sightseeing in the city.
Our first stop was the Munich Residenz. This is the former royal palace, and the largest city palace in Germany. I had mapped out some parking lots, and we decided to park in the garage underneath the National Theater, which is RIGHT next to the Residenz.
Big mistake. It was well over €20 just for the day. Once again, Courtney made a small oops. Eh, at least I can warn y'all to do a little better job with parking plans.
Anyway, the Residenz was included on our discount card. Good thing this was the last place we visited that was included on the discount card, because SOMEBODY decided to lose the card shortly after. I won't name any names, but it rhymes with Posh Laycock (haha, "Laycock").
Also included with our ticket was one of those handheld audio devices that tells you about whatever exhibit you happen to be looking at. Normally, Josh is in charge of the camera, and I'm in charge of the handheld audio thingy. He counts on me to listen to the recordings, and just relay the most interesting tidbits of info to him. I know it sounds odd, but it works for us.
Quick note - I LOVE LOVE LOVE when tourist sites have a coat check (which the Residenz did). After walking around a city all day, it's so nice to be able to check your purse/backpack/coat so you don't have to lug it around a museum for a few hours. Even if the coat check charges, it's still well worth the money.
Now, the Residenz is an utterly massive complex. With 10 courtyards & 130 rooms, we knew we weren't going to be able to see everything. But, we gave it a shot.
Our first stop in the complex was the Treasury. This was an absolutely huge collection of all kinds of important pieces, spanning 1000 years.
There is no way we would have been able to listen to all of the information on the handheld audio things. There was just so much, it was overwhelming & it would have taken hours to listen to all of the info. And, we had so much more to see!
After the treasury, we went to the main part of the Residenz. Through the courtyard with the seashell grotto, to the Hall of Antiquities, through soooo many rooms throughout the palace, and even the Reliquary Room (which held body parts of Saints).
Seashell Grotto
Hall of Antiquities
In the Reliquary Room. Yes, that is a skull.
You could either do the “long visit” or “short visit” through the palace. That just means you pick which path you want to follow - the short visit just cuts off a few wings from your trip. We chose the long visit, and I doubt it was *that* much longer than the short visit. But, it did take us a few hours. Towards the end, we ended up rushing through a little bit. We were all hungry, and a little palace’d out by that point. Even so - do the long visit, if you can. You’re there, you might as well make the most of it. Although, there were a few spots we didn’t get to visit that I really wanted to (the Theater and the Court Garden in particular). Also, a few of the Palace wings were heavily damaged during World War II, so some of the rooms were just reconstructions. The furniture was real (well, real from that time period), just not necessarily accurate to the reconstructed rooms.
Since we were all palace’d out, we walked down to Marienplatz. The Marienplatz is the main square in Munich. It’s always pretty crowded, but it’s fun to people watch. Most of the time you’re trying to dodge other people’s cameras, though. I always wonder - how many photos do I end up in when I’m at a touristy place like that? I’ve started to do a little bit of photobombing here and there. If I KNOW I’m going to be in the background of a stranger’s photo, I can’t help myself. I have to make a funny face. Mature, right?
Anyway, Marienplatz is filled with tourists, and also with a few buskers. I love watching local bands/artists play on the streets for the crowds.
But, we were still all so hungry! And, where do you go when you’re hungry & in the center of Munich? The Hofbräuhaus!!!
Ok, really, I don’t know how good the food is. But, I don’t care. Because - beer!! Really, the Hofbräuhaus is just one of those places you *have* to go check out. It’s not the best beer, it’s not the most spectacular biergarten. But, it’s an institution, and not to be missed. It’s full of both locals (dressed to the nines in lederhosen & dirndls) and tourists. There are eleventy million waiters & waitresses running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The laughter is booming, and echos through the building, as does the polka music coming from one of the live bands that play off & on throughout the day. Despite being touristy & really kind of cheesy, it’s a lot of fun. We went last year, and I’m sure we’ll go next time we’re in Munich.
You just have to wander around until you find open seats. At first, we ended up in a back corner. We all ordered beer, and a few snacks to eat. NOT a whole lot of choices for vegetarians. I think even the sauerkraut had bacon in it. Learned that one the hard way. But, doesn't matter - they had beer & pretzels, so I was good. :)
After round one, we decided to move closer to the band (and closer to the action). Poor Curtis just wanted everyone to start singing songs, so we could all join in. That never quite happened, but it didn’t stop him from trying. ;)
And, we were all very proud of Karen - she doesn’t like beer, but she managed to finish a whole liter (while the rest of us had two).
Once we were full of beer, we walked on towards the Viktualienmarkt. This place was awesome, and I’m sorry we didn’t explore the area the last time Josh and I were in Munich. Now, the Viktualienmarkt is a huge open-air market, filled with biergartens, vendors, food stands, etc. But, before we all went exploring, Josh, Karen, & Curtis decided to climb up a lookout tower. Not this girl. I *think* they did St. Peter's Church (but don't hold me to that). For €1.50, you get to climb several hundred steps to look out over the city.
My ankle is not so good with steps, and I didn’t want to shred my ankle this early in the trip. So, I stayed down & people watched in the biergarten. I have absolutely NOTHING to complain about there. Once the rest of the gang got back, we all stayed at the biergarten for a little while to do some more people watching (and drink more beer). Another fun thing about biergartens (and even the Hofbräuhaus) is that you always end up striking up conversations with locals & other tourists. It’s so much fun - and the beer helps people loosen up a bit. I’m not saying you have to be drunk, by any means. But, we all know that a glass or two of alcohol can loosen tongues. They don’t call it ‘liquid courage’ for nothin'.
Just look at this photo & tell me you can’t find somebody in that crowd that you’d like to talk to. And, somebody in that crowd would want to talk to you as well.
Then, it was time to walk amongst the vendors. There was a little bit of everything at the market. Hell, there were fruits, vegetables, and flowers that I’d never even seen before. We all ended up buying something. I bought a giant hedgehog made out of wood shavings, Karen bought some ornaments. I even bought a mangosteen for everyone to share. Mangosteens used to be illegal in the US until the last few years or so, but even now they're really hard to come by (and expensive!). I spent €2.50 on one mangosteen, which is ridiculous, but I thought it was worth it (especially after all the beer I had).
The guys even bought Karen & I a rose from one of the florists. Of course, that's because Karen & I both stated *loudly*, "Oh, wouldn't it be NICE if the guys bought us a flower??" At least they can take a hint.
We had a great last day in Munich, but it was getting late, and we still had to make it to Austria. We found another apartment on Airbnb, in the town of Wals, Austria (right on the outskirts of Salzburg). The drive from Munich to Wals was only an hour and a half.
One thing to note about Austria - you have to have a vignette for your car. A 10 day vignette was only €8, though. Of course, we didn't actually BUY one when we arrived in Austria. We're badasses. We live on the edge.
We arrived at our apartment kind of late (it was after dark, maybe 8pm? 8:30pm?). The bad thing about Airbnb is that you don't *really* know what you're walking into. The apartment we reserved was very highly rated, but once we showed up, we realized the description of the place wasn't completely accurate.
Yes, we knew we had a shared bathroom. What the description LEFT OUT is that our apartment was in the attic - on the third floor. The shared bathroom was on the FIRST FLOOR. Of course, I'm the type that has to get up in the middle of the night to pee. I wasn't looking forward to having to fumble in the dark of an attic to try and go down three stories to get to the bathroom.
Also, the attic was just an open space. There were two big beds, but not even a curtain or room divider to change behind. There was a lot of, "Ok, everyone turn around while I change." But, we knew it was a studio when we reserved the room.
What we didn't expect was the construction. In the pictures on Airbnb, there was a hammock hanging in the attic. Josh was alllllll excited about that, and wanted to actually sleep in the hammock. Well, they had JUST finished putting in a balcony in the room THAT DAY, and they took out the hammock. Poor Josh. But, the bad part was that there was saw dust everywhere, and the smell of wood and paint was pretty bad. One thing I should mention is that I had been sick with a really bad cold for two weeks before this trip. I was still coughing, so I was a little worried about all the crap in the air.
But, whatevs. It was night, we were there, we were going to make the most of it. The couple was very nice about everything, and we were just going to deal with it.
First things first - dinner! The lady who owned our rental directed us to the Hotel Grünauerhof in Wals. We made it just in time for dinner (I think they stopped seating for dinner at 9pm or 930pm). We were starving, since we didn't really have much of a meal all day.
I have to say - I had the BEST vegetarian meal at this restaurant. Probably the best meal I've gotten since in Europe. I had a vegetable strüdel, and it was soooooo gooooood. Karen had the other vegetarian dish (I think it was some kind of faux meat patty) and she didn't really like hers that much. I felt bad, because my dish was AWESOME.
After dinner, we went back to the apartment & all started watching the Sound of Music in preparation for our SoM tour in Salzburg. Our tour wasn't until two days later, but man...Sound of Music is a loooooooooong movie.
Our first stop was the Munich Residenz. This is the former royal palace, and the largest city palace in Germany. I had mapped out some parking lots, and we decided to park in the garage underneath the National Theater, which is RIGHT next to the Residenz.
Big mistake. It was well over €20 just for the day. Once again, Courtney made a small oops. Eh, at least I can warn y'all to do a little better job with parking plans.
Anyway, the Residenz was included on our discount card. Good thing this was the last place we visited that was included on the discount card, because SOMEBODY decided to lose the card shortly after. I won't name any names, but it rhymes with Posh Laycock (haha, "Laycock").
Also included with our ticket was one of those handheld audio devices that tells you about whatever exhibit you happen to be looking at. Normally, Josh is in charge of the camera, and I'm in charge of the handheld audio thingy. He counts on me to listen to the recordings, and just relay the most interesting tidbits of info to him. I know it sounds odd, but it works for us.
Quick note - I LOVE LOVE LOVE when tourist sites have a coat check (which the Residenz did). After walking around a city all day, it's so nice to be able to check your purse/backpack/coat so you don't have to lug it around a museum for a few hours. Even if the coat check charges, it's still well worth the money.
Now, the Residenz is an utterly massive complex. With 10 courtyards & 130 rooms, we knew we weren't going to be able to see everything. But, we gave it a shot.
Our first stop in the complex was the Treasury. This was an absolutely huge collection of all kinds of important pieces, spanning 1000 years.
There is no way we would have been able to listen to all of the information on the handheld audio things. There was just so much, it was overwhelming & it would have taken hours to listen to all of the info. And, we had so much more to see!
After the treasury, we went to the main part of the Residenz. Through the courtyard with the seashell grotto, to the Hall of Antiquities, through soooo many rooms throughout the palace, and even the Reliquary Room (which held body parts of Saints).
Seashell Grotto
Hall of Antiquities
In the Reliquary Room. Yes, that is a skull.
You could either do the “long visit” or “short visit” through the palace. That just means you pick which path you want to follow - the short visit just cuts off a few wings from your trip. We chose the long visit, and I doubt it was *that* much longer than the short visit. But, it did take us a few hours. Towards the end, we ended up rushing through a little bit. We were all hungry, and a little palace’d out by that point. Even so - do the long visit, if you can. You’re there, you might as well make the most of it. Although, there were a few spots we didn’t get to visit that I really wanted to (the Theater and the Court Garden in particular). Also, a few of the Palace wings were heavily damaged during World War II, so some of the rooms were just reconstructions. The furniture was real (well, real from that time period), just not necessarily accurate to the reconstructed rooms.
Since we were all palace’d out, we walked down to Marienplatz. The Marienplatz is the main square in Munich. It’s always pretty crowded, but it’s fun to people watch. Most of the time you’re trying to dodge other people’s cameras, though. I always wonder - how many photos do I end up in when I’m at a touristy place like that? I’ve started to do a little bit of photobombing here and there. If I KNOW I’m going to be in the background of a stranger’s photo, I can’t help myself. I have to make a funny face. Mature, right?
Anyway, Marienplatz is filled with tourists, and also with a few buskers. I love watching local bands/artists play on the streets for the crowds.
But, we were still all so hungry! And, where do you go when you’re hungry & in the center of Munich? The Hofbräuhaus!!!
Ok, really, I don’t know how good the food is. But, I don’t care. Because - beer!! Really, the Hofbräuhaus is just one of those places you *have* to go check out. It’s not the best beer, it’s not the most spectacular biergarten. But, it’s an institution, and not to be missed. It’s full of both locals (dressed to the nines in lederhosen & dirndls) and tourists. There are eleventy million waiters & waitresses running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The laughter is booming, and echos through the building, as does the polka music coming from one of the live bands that play off & on throughout the day. Despite being touristy & really kind of cheesy, it’s a lot of fun. We went last year, and I’m sure we’ll go next time we’re in Munich.
You just have to wander around until you find open seats. At first, we ended up in a back corner. We all ordered beer, and a few snacks to eat. NOT a whole lot of choices for vegetarians. I think even the sauerkraut had bacon in it. Learned that one the hard way. But, doesn't matter - they had beer & pretzels, so I was good. :)
After round one, we decided to move closer to the band (and closer to the action). Poor Curtis just wanted everyone to start singing songs, so we could all join in. That never quite happened, but it didn’t stop him from trying. ;)
And, we were all very proud of Karen - she doesn’t like beer, but she managed to finish a whole liter (while the rest of us had two).
Once we were full of beer, we walked on towards the Viktualienmarkt. This place was awesome, and I’m sorry we didn’t explore the area the last time Josh and I were in Munich. Now, the Viktualienmarkt is a huge open-air market, filled with biergartens, vendors, food stands, etc. But, before we all went exploring, Josh, Karen, & Curtis decided to climb up a lookout tower. Not this girl. I *think* they did St. Peter's Church (but don't hold me to that). For €1.50, you get to climb several hundred steps to look out over the city.
My ankle is not so good with steps, and I didn’t want to shred my ankle this early in the trip. So, I stayed down & people watched in the biergarten. I have absolutely NOTHING to complain about there. Once the rest of the gang got back, we all stayed at the biergarten for a little while to do some more people watching (and drink more beer). Another fun thing about biergartens (and even the Hofbräuhaus) is that you always end up striking up conversations with locals & other tourists. It’s so much fun - and the beer helps people loosen up a bit. I’m not saying you have to be drunk, by any means. But, we all know that a glass or two of alcohol can loosen tongues. They don’t call it ‘liquid courage’ for nothin'.
Just look at this photo & tell me you can’t find somebody in that crowd that you’d like to talk to. And, somebody in that crowd would want to talk to you as well.
Then, it was time to walk amongst the vendors. There was a little bit of everything at the market. Hell, there were fruits, vegetables, and flowers that I’d never even seen before. We all ended up buying something. I bought a giant hedgehog made out of wood shavings, Karen bought some ornaments. I even bought a mangosteen for everyone to share. Mangosteens used to be illegal in the US until the last few years or so, but even now they're really hard to come by (and expensive!). I spent €2.50 on one mangosteen, which is ridiculous, but I thought it was worth it (especially after all the beer I had).
The guys even bought Karen & I a rose from one of the florists. Of course, that's because Karen & I both stated *loudly*, "Oh, wouldn't it be NICE if the guys bought us a flower??" At least they can take a hint.
We had a great last day in Munich, but it was getting late, and we still had to make it to Austria. We found another apartment on Airbnb, in the town of Wals, Austria (right on the outskirts of Salzburg). The drive from Munich to Wals was only an hour and a half.
One thing to note about Austria - you have to have a vignette for your car. A 10 day vignette was only €8, though. Of course, we didn't actually BUY one when we arrived in Austria. We're badasses. We live on the edge.
We arrived at our apartment kind of late (it was after dark, maybe 8pm? 8:30pm?). The bad thing about Airbnb is that you don't *really* know what you're walking into. The apartment we reserved was very highly rated, but once we showed up, we realized the description of the place wasn't completely accurate.
Yes, we knew we had a shared bathroom. What the description LEFT OUT is that our apartment was in the attic - on the third floor. The shared bathroom was on the FIRST FLOOR. Of course, I'm the type that has to get up in the middle of the night to pee. I wasn't looking forward to having to fumble in the dark of an attic to try and go down three stories to get to the bathroom.
Also, the attic was just an open space. There were two big beds, but not even a curtain or room divider to change behind. There was a lot of, "Ok, everyone turn around while I change." But, we knew it was a studio when we reserved the room.
What we didn't expect was the construction. In the pictures on Airbnb, there was a hammock hanging in the attic. Josh was alllllll excited about that, and wanted to actually sleep in the hammock. Well, they had JUST finished putting in a balcony in the room THAT DAY, and they took out the hammock. Poor Josh. But, the bad part was that there was saw dust everywhere, and the smell of wood and paint was pretty bad. One thing I should mention is that I had been sick with a really bad cold for two weeks before this trip. I was still coughing, so I was a little worried about all the crap in the air.
But, whatevs. It was night, we were there, we were going to make the most of it. The couple was very nice about everything, and we were just going to deal with it.
First things first - dinner! The lady who owned our rental directed us to the Hotel Grünauerhof in Wals. We made it just in time for dinner (I think they stopped seating for dinner at 9pm or 930pm). We were starving, since we didn't really have much of a meal all day.
I have to say - I had the BEST vegetarian meal at this restaurant. Probably the best meal I've gotten since in Europe. I had a vegetable strüdel, and it was soooooo gooooood. Karen had the other vegetarian dish (I think it was some kind of faux meat patty) and she didn't really like hers that much. I felt bad, because my dish was AWESOME.
After dinner, we went back to the apartment & all started watching the Sound of Music in preparation for our SoM tour in Salzburg. Our tour wasn't until two days later, but man...Sound of Music is a loooooooooong movie.
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