Rick Does it Again (Hallstatt, Austria)

I am not sure if I have ever mentioned this before, but I love Rick Steves. When planning this trip I watched Rick Steves on Hulu, I read the Rick Steves website, and I checked out Rick Steves guidebooks from the library. Last Halloween, I was Rick Steves (Logan was Anthony Bourdain, we were travel host themed). Our itinerary includes many places that we only heard about because of Rick (yes, I refer to him by his first name). Hallstatt, Austria was one such place.

Me as Rick Steves (Logan as Anthony Bourdain)

Hallstatt is in the lake district of Austria, about two hours by bus and/or train from Salzburg. Getting to the town also requires a short ferry ride, which is the perfect introduction to this tiny, lakeside town.

Welcome to Hallstatt!

We got to town just in time for dinner, so after checking into our adorable B&B we headed to a restaurant on the lake for some much needed food (we tend to forget to eat on travel days). It was lovely sitting by the water, sipping on a wine spritzer, eating delicious honey spare ribs.  We then went to a bar in the main square and had another drink outside (in the rain) to avoid the smoky interior, while chatting with another American couple.

Town square

The next day we wanted to take it easy and soak in the atmosphere. We walked through the town (four or five times), admiring the adorable homes (mostly guest houses along the main street), visiting a waterfall, and going to a church on the hill. At the church there is an old cemetery, where there is a crypt filled with painted skulls. Because of the limited space in Hallstatt, bodies had to be dug up after ten or so years to make space for other bodies. The skulls were then painted to honor the dead.

There are salt mines in town, but we decided to skip them as we had already been to salt mines on this trip and the ones in Hallstatt were pretty pricy. You can also rent a boat and paddle around the lake, but it was raining off and on all day, so instead we took time between our walks around town to write and read. For dinner we ate fish from the lake and drank a few local beers.

Our time in Hallstatt was short and so, so sweet. The town is like something out of a movie and is the perfect place to relax and simply enjoy. So thank you Rick, we really loved Hallstatt and it was the perfect way to end our time in Austria.

The Hills are Alive! (Salzburg, Austria)

I have always wanted to go to Salzburg. I never really knew what drew me there, but it is possible that the countless times I watched The Sound of Music as a child had something to do with it. We were a big musical family, but The Sound of Music was always one of our favorites. So, after a car share ride from Vienna to Salzburg with a Greek couple and German intern we booked the famous Sound of Music tour to get to see the places where one of my childhood favorites was filmed.

Salzburg

Our tour was scheduled for the next morning, giving us a few hours to walk around Salzburg, eat some soup, and drink some beer. Back at our hostel (the first one since our first week in Italy!) we had to take care of some very important business… watching The Sound of Music!! And get this…. Logan had never seen it before!!! I was dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. Shocked. Insert other amazed emotions here. Who hasn’t seen The Sound of Music!?!? Well, no more. He now has those songs permanently running through his head, just like the rest of us.

Christmas ornament shop (real eggs!)

I wanted to buy some, but egg shells and backpacking do not mix.

Unfortunately, the tour did not live up to expectations. We did get to see various places where to movie was filmed, including the “I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen” gazebo, the lake the children fall into, and the church where Maria marries the Captain. Everything else we just drove by. “Look, there’s the abbey. See it? Way up there on the hill? Want a picture? Too bad, we are on a moving bus and you are sitting on the wrong side.” We did take a nice drive through the countryside, but we were headed there after Salzburg anyway, so it felt like a waste of our time. The guide was okay, but TripAdvisor led me to believe that we would be singing. There was no singing. On top of that, it was EXPENSIVE!! So, was it worth it? Probably not, but I guess we are glad we did it because if we hadn’t I think I would have felt like we had missed out on something.

“I am sixteen, going on seventeen.”

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Back in Salzburg we continued our own Sound of Music sightseeing by visiting Mirabelle, where the iconic “Doe-a-deer” scene with the children dancing down the ivy covered arch, running around the fountain, jumping up and down the stairs, hand patting stone statues was filmed. We had a lot of fun (well I had a lot of fun) recreating moments from the movie.

Do-a-deer, a female deer.

Ray, a drop of golden sun!

Pretty sure that is not in the movie…

Finally feeling a little Sound of Music burn out (okay, I wasn’t, but Logan was), we decided to visit the imposing fortress on the hill above the city. On our way up the mountain to the fortress we stumbled on a jazz orchestral concert where they were serving whole fish grilled over a fire and slathered in butter, which we ate greedily with our hands.

Before

After

The fortress was interesting, and was a nice way to stay out of the torrential downpour that hit right as we entered. Luckily, the rain stopped just in time for us to grab a beer and dinner at the old Augustinian monastery, which has been brewing and serving beer for centuries.

View from the fortress

The next morning we woke up earlier than usual so we could get a few more hours of sightseeing in before catching our bus to Austrian lake country. We took the cable car up Untersberg mountain, and were treated to beautiful mountain views and morning coffee and cake.

View from the top

On the way back into the city we stopped at Hellbrunn Palace to visit the “Trick Fountains”, which are apparently world-famous (although we had never heard of them). The “trick” is that you never know where water is going to come from. Below you, next to you, above you. The owner of the palace designed the fountains as a party trick to entertain his drunken guests. 400 years ago. Logan got wet right away from sitting on a bench with water squirting up from below. I managed to stay dry until the very end of the tour, when I thought I was in the clear. Nope. Water came through the bushes and hit me in the back. Our guide had so much fun tricking the group. The adults enjoyed the tour just as much as the kids did, us included.

Water from below

We loved Salzburg. The tour was not everything we hoped it would be, but the rest of our time in the beautiful Austrian city was amazing. It is so beautiful and there is so much to do. The hills were alive with something. Magic. We didn’t even scratch the surface and I already want to go back. Until next time Salzburg.

“Is that a pickle?”

Rainproof Vienna (Austria)

Rain. Rain. Rain. Being from a state where rain is not very common, adjusting to constant rain has been difficult. It is easy to say that rain isn’t going to ruin your day; it is hard to actually keep that positivity as plan after plan has to be changed or cancelled due to crappy weather. In the month of May it rained on us 21 days (in six different countries!). It felt like Central Europe had a permanent cloud over it. It is hard to complain when you are on such an amazing adventure with your best friend and husband, but man, we got so sick of the rain. The rain could not, however, ruin Vienna. Even in the cold, rainy, windy weather, Vienna is spectacularly beautiful. We took a shuttle from Cesky Krumlov to Vienna, arriving at the train station too early to check in to our Airbnb. So, we locked our bags up and hopped on the metro into the center of the city. Climbing out of the metro, the first thing we saw was St. Stephan’s cathedral. St. Stephen’s was beautiful and interesting on the outside, although slightly boring on the inside. Then again, after dozens of churches, many begin to look the same.

St. Stephan’s

After passing by Armani, Chanel, Dolce & Gabanna, and many other stores I am sure I will never buy anything at, we took the #1 tram around the Ringstrasse, taking in all the old imperial buildings such as Parliament, the University, City Hall, Hofburg Palace, the old library, and the theater. The “Life Ball”, which is a giant concert that benefits AIDS projects, was happening that weekend, so parts of the city were in full on preparation for the event. The tram ride was the perfect way to see many buildings in the center of Vienna, while staying out of the rain.

City Hall with red flowers for Life Ball

The first full day in Vienna had a full day of rain forecasted (surprise, surprise), so we decided to do inside sightseeing and visit the two palaces owned by the Hapsburg’s, Hofburg Palace and Schonbrunn Palace. Hofburg Palace had an amazing collection of porcelain and other types of plates and cutlery, showing just how wealthy and influential the family was. The porcelain plates were only used for deserts, while the family used the “less fancy” silver plates for daily meals.

Porcelain knives

Stacks and stacks of silver plates

The second half of the tour was focused of Empress Elizabeth or “Sisi”, who was one of the most interesting imperial women. The audio guide took us through her daily routine, including her crazy dieting and obsessive exercise. We also learned about the history of the period through her point of view. We chose not to pay to go into the other parts of the Hofburg (like the treasury or the many art museums), as each part costs around 10 euro, which adds up quickly. We had also gotten a slow start that morning, so we were running a little short on time.

We wanted to get to Schonbrunn Palace in time to see everything before it closed, plus we still needed to grab lunch, so we hustled to the tram to get to the palace grounds, which are outside of the main city center. It was some holiday (there seem to be more holidays in Europe) so it was really difficult finding an open restaurant. After wandering around for what felt like forever (really only like 30 minutes, but when you are hangry time seems to slow down) we finally found a restaurant that was open and quickly chowed down.

Schonbrunn Palace was the summer residence of the Hapsburgs and is surrounded by beautiful gardens. We spent a little time in the gardens, but headed inside as the rain got heavier. The tour through Schonbrunn took us through more of the actual rooms the family lived in. We saw bedrooms and dressing rooms and ballrooms (no pictures allowed). The palace is huge and the family seemed to have a room for everything, smoking, writing, reading, playing cards. The walls are covered in beautiful art, as are the ceilings. There was some kind of event going on, a concert possibly, so we headed back to the city for dinner.

Palace gardens

We had saved all our outside activities for our second day, as sunshine and warm weather was predicted. However, the following morning we woke up to the coldest day we had experienced since our first week of the trip, all the way back in March. Although there was not any rain, it was freezing and windy. We had no intention of abandoning our plans for the day, so we bundled up and headed to the Belvedere Palace to enjoy the gardens. The inside of the palace houses an art gallery, which (not surprisingly) we decided to skip. Unfortunately, since we skip art galleries all over Europe without a second thought, I missed the fact that Belvedere houses painting by Gustav Klimt, who is one of the painters I actually really like. Maybe I should stop assuming I don’t want to go see any art and do a little more research… Oh well, next time!

Belvedere Palace

Belvedere Palace gardens, just wrestling an alligator over here

We spent a little time wandering the grounds before taking the metro to Nachmarket to get some lunch. The market was amazing, selling dried fruit, fresh fruit, fish, meat, veggies, candied nuts and everything in between. We bought some dried watermelon, dried strawberries and wasabi hummus (YUM!!!).

Beautiful building next to the market

After spending way too much time and money at the market we headed to the famous Vienna Opera House for a tour. We seriously considered going to a show, but we never got around to figuring out what it would take to actually see a performance, so we settled for a tour instead. The Opera House was beautiful, although not as beautiful as I thought it would be. What I found so fascinating was that each day there is a different performance, sometimes two a day. That means that the set from the night before needs to be taken down, rehearsal set for the performance the next day needs to be put up and taken down and then that night’s performance needs to be set. That is some crazy techie action.

Inside the Opera House

We decided to go to the Butterfly House to escape the cold, but we only lasted 15 minutes as it was sooo humid and we were extremely underwhelmed. We have a Butterfly House back in Colorado that is bigger, but the butterflies were pretty and it was nice to warm up a little.

 

Back out in the cold we decided to take the bus to the huge Vienna cemetery, which is one of the largest cemeteries in the world and is where many famous Austrians are buried, including Beethoven and Brahms. The cemetery is massive and beautiful, with gravestones ranging from tiny and inexpensive, to opulent stone mausoleums. We could have spent hours walking the various paths, but we were getting hungry to we caught the bus to Grinzing, which is a Vienna suburb famous for its wine taverns. They sell local wine by the quarter liter for just a few euros. We drank far more wine than necessary, and ate a delicious Austrian dinner of chicken, ham, potatoes and sauerkraut.

Cemetery as far as the eye can see

We loved Vienna. It was clean and beautiful and even though it was the worst weather of the trip so far, our spirits were high visiting all the imperial palaces and walking past amazing architecture. I want to return someday and see all the places we missed.

Our “In Between Cities” (Ljubljana, Maribor, Graz) (Slovenia, Austria)

In order to add a little variety to our European itinerary we decided to add a few smaller, less visited, less touristy cities. Now, there are A LOT of these cities in Europe (duh, most cities in any given country are not tourist-geared cities), so we basically looked at parts of our trip where transportation days seemed long and found cities there to break up the travel time. Somehow, almost all of our “small-city-stopovers” ended up back-to-back, sandwiched between tiny Lake Bled and huge Budapest. Since these towns are smaller and less touristy, there is not a TON to do, meaning we planned less time in them. We ended up squeezing three cities (Ljubljana, Maribor (both in Slovenia) and Graz (in Austria)) into a five-day period, effectively destroying the intention that these cities act as layover stops, and causing even more transportation headaches. Ironic.

Ljubljana

The bus ride from Bled to Ljubljana was short and we arrived in the capital city in time for lunch (which is very rare). We enjoyed a seafood lunch along the river (Logan had mackerel and I had John Dorrey, which I didn’t know existed until I ordered it) and wandered old town for a bit. I was feeling a little sick, so we went back to our room so I could rest. The next morning we checked out and locked our bags at the train station. Our transport to Maribor was leaving in the afternoon, so we decided to take a free walking tour to learn more about the city.

Ljubljana Riverfront

As far as capital cities go, Ljubljana is TINY. Since Slovenia only became a free and independent country 20 years ago, Ljubljana’s status as a capital of Europe is relatively new. Before 1991, Slovenia had always been part of some other nation or empire (Romans, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslavia).We learned a lot about Slovenia on our tour and were treated to another side of the former-Yugoslav story. In the Slovene version, the war was short(only 10 days) and almost bloodless. The transition into the western world from the former Soviet one was easier for Slovenia is many ways due to its historical ties to Austria and relative freedom during the Soviet era. However, our tour guide explained how joining the European Union and adopting the euro has been difficult, as things in Slovenia have become more expensive, but salaries and wages have not gone up accordingly. The bright side? College is free. That’s right, FREE!! One top of that, there are discounts for students in restaurants, clothing stores and even apartments. We were told that that average Slovene goes to college for seven years.

Yum!

 Maribor

After a two-hour ride to Maribor (in a HOT and stuffy van) we were picked up by the parents of our next Airbnb host and driven up and up and up to a cabin overlooking the city and the vine covered hills surrounding it. Maribor is famous for being home to the world’s oldest wine-producing grape vine. The vine is at least 400 years old and still produces a few bottles of wine a year, which are given to important people all over the world (presidents, CEO’s, people like that). But no one ever drinks it due to the symbolism of the wine as a gift (and it’s rumored to be terrible because the vine is so old). Wine is very important in this region of Slovenia and every year they have a festival and crown a queen. Yes, a wine queen. Where do I sign up? The wine queen must be knowledgeable about wine-making and represents the importance of wine in Maribor. One our only full day in Maribor we made the long trek down to town to see the vine and go wine tasting. Unfortunately, the wine from the oldest vine is saved for gifting, so we tasted this year’s vintage. Yum. We had hoped there would be more tasting rooms in town, but it would seem you need to drive to the vineyards for the tastings. No car=no wine. Bummer. So, we bought some wine and journeyed back to our room for our own tasting (I say journeyed because the walk back up the hill took 2 hours).

View from our B&B

Oldest vine in the world

Graz

We got a ride back to Maribor the following morning to catch our ride share to Graz. This was our first ride share, and it ended up being great. We saved a ton of money (28 euro train ticket vs. 5 euro ride share) and made it to Graz in under two hours. The day we arrived in Graz was our five year anniversary (of when we started dating) so we decided to splurge a little for dinner. For an appetizer we got white asparagus with hollandaise sauce and prosciutto, which was heaven on a plate. For our main courses we got beef tips with asparagus and cream sauce, which was delicious, and beef fillet (rare, of course) in a red wine and shallot sauce, which was phenomenal. On the way home it rained. Well, not really rained. Poured. Buckets. I have never ever been so soaking wet from being caught in the rain.

SOOOO delicious

Yum yum yum

 

The next morning we got up early(ish), hoping to get moving and beat the forecasted rain. We made it to Castle Hill, but only a few minutes before the rain did. We waited it out in a little café filled with families attending a children’s festival happening on the hill. Watching the little kids splash around in the puddles helped pass the time. When the torrential downpour finally let up, we decided to make a break for it and head to Eggenberg Palace. The rain stopped just long enough for us to walk around the castle grounds, snapping photos of peacocks and beautiful flowers. After wandering a bit, we met our guide for a tour of the palace itself. The Palace has no electricity and because of the rain the shutters needed to be closed, meaning the whole palace was dark when we toured it. Our guide had a flashlight and was leading us through the dark rooms, aiming the beam of light around each room, explaining the paintings. It was the strangest tour we had ever taken. When we got out skies had once again opened up, so we called it a day and heading back to our Airbnb for some tea and movie watching.

Eggenberg Palace

Beautiful (and well lit) room in Eggenberg Palace

Palace grounds

So, the question is, was it worth it? Well…. Probably not. We saw some cool places, ate some delicious food and had some good times. However, constantly moving like that is stressful and tiring, and the benefits of how much fun you are having has to outweigh the costs of travel time and energy. In hindsight I think it would be more worth our time to use a place like Ljubljana as a base from which to make day trips. But, our intentions were good and the results okay, so we feel no regrets.