Salzburg, Austria

Good thing we had fortified ourselves with wine the previous night...

After hopping on the 9AM train to Frankfurt on our wait to Salzburg, we had about two hours to kill in the Frankfurt railway station. After wandering around to find a place to sit that was both inside out of the rain but also a place to actually park all of our stuff and SIT, we waited for 11:30 to come so we could catch our train to Salzburg. After a 25 minute delay, we were off! Fifteen minutes into the trip, we looked up at a stop and what do you know...it was the little local train station that we had just been at 3 hours before! Well, crap.

We were enjoying first class, however! The seats reclined, had wings on the sides of the headrest, had footrests, and were just generally pretty awesomely comfortable. There were maybe a half dozen people in our car, and between all of those factors (plus exhaustion) I was actually able to sleep for a couple hours!

The station in Salzburg was awesome, no other word for it. Still probably one of the best stations I've been through. The lower level had excellent signage and information, there was a grocery store where you could stock up on things for your train travel cheaply, an information room with maps and an English-speaking guide there who advised us that our hotel was a short 10-minute walk that we could easily do and save a taxi fare.

We arrived at The Pitter Hotel only to be informed that sadly, they had water damage from the recent rains, and they were unable to fulfill the reservation. They were transferring us to the Mercure hotel a short distance away and would take care of the room charges. Ok. We can go with this. I guess.

A taxi took us to the Mercure and we were able to check in after a mixup in which they were determined we had separate rooms. Nope, we're getting along just fine these days, thank you though. I had to contact Lori, our travel agent, to get it taken care of, however. It took her a whopping 5 minutes and then all was well.

Except now we were hungry. The hotel had a restaurant area, so we headed in that direction, only to be told that was for breakfast only. They had another Mercure hotel a couple blocks away that had the restaurant. Now, normally this wouldn't have been a problem. However, while we had packed a few long-sleeve shirts and a light jacket, expecting some 65-70 degree weather, we weren't really prepared for a damp 55 degrees, so two blocks sounded like an awfully long ways at 9PM. But again, we can go with this. (Are you sensing a theme so far in this trip?)

Dinner was good, although to be honest, I was so tired from all the travel and again, that jet lag, that I really don't remember much of it except that the waiter was extremely nice, the soup was hot, and the food was good.

We slept for 14 hours that night.

This put us pretty behind in our sight-seeing schedule, since most of the museums and attractions close at 5 or 5:30. Here's what we managed to squeeze in:

We walked to Old Town and explored their church area with a gorgeous cemetery (there are pictures, you'll see what I mean), catacombs dating to early Christianity gouged out of the rock wall, as well as the fortress overlooking the city, which we took a funicular to get to. (SO happy that wasn't out of order and we had to climb, although that would have fit in well with our theme this time.) Because it rained steadily all day and was very misty, we couldn't get any super awesome pictures of the sights but hopefully you can get an idea. It was definitely a city we'd love to go back to! As the birthplace of Mozart, they have a strong connection with music and the arts, and there are performances scheduled all over the city pretty much at all times. It was also just a lovely place to walk around: the building architecture, the river bisecting the city, all the shops and alleyways with more shops.

We headed back in the direction of our hotel hoping to find a coffee shop to warm up in. We found one but were reminded that not all countries have blanket no-smoking-inside laws when every table had an ashtry and most had people using them. Not quite what we had in mind... We quickly found another one and I'm so glad we did!

This coffee shop had a unique set up. When you first walked in it was very narrow with 2-top tables lining the left side and the hostess stand on the right. If you kept walking it opened up into a tiny courtyard surrounded by tall buildings, so it almost felt like the bottom of a pretty tunnel. Once you kept going (nope, we weren't interested in eating in the rain in the courtyard) you entered into the actual restaurant, which again was tiny but more square and with more tables. It was packed, always a good sign, and we snagged a table that was vacated a few minutes after we arrived.

After ordering coffee and hot chocolate, we decided we might as well eat. Chris ordered spaghetti carbonara and I had a flatbread pizza with artichokes, red and yellow peppers, olives, and some kind of other deliciousness. Oh my. I could get used to eating like that! We had also been told to try the Topfenstreudel, a kind of cheesecake. What a lovely way to end a chilly day!

Well, almost. I got wine that night too. Nothing warms you up quite like a glass of red after a long day of soaking in the rain. My shoes finally dried out 2 days later.

Austria, we will be back.

Germany

Ahhh, wine.

Yeah, I know, most of my posts of this vacation will probably begin with that refrain. What do you expect, I'm on vacation!

After landing in Frankfurt on try #2 (see previous post for details on that fun little detour), we met up with our friend who drove us to his house a short distance away. At this point we both were beginning to resemble zombies in desperate need of a shower and sleep, so that was first on our agenda. We had good motivation to not sleep too long, however; the local wine festival was in full swing and if we wanted to try the best wines the Rhine Valley had to offer, this was our chance! (LOL I totally just typed "the Whine Valley" - thank goodness I can correct the errors of the brain on here.)

Many of the whites and even some of the reds tasted pretty similar to what we grow in Michigan. Because of the climate, the reds aren't as lush and velvety as those grown in hotter, drier regions, while the whites stand out because of their range of dryness and depths of flavor. We also tried the local apple wine, which was similar to a hard apple cider. We took the suggestion of adding a splash of Coke to it and it was actually surprisingly delicious! (We were warned, however, that this is a very localized tradition; most other regions of Germany would be appalled to witness such a thing being done to the wine.)

Dinner was at a Spanish tapas restaurant the next town over. I swear we ate, and ate, and ate some more! There was Manchego cheese with olives, potato wedges with aioli, chorizo slices, meatballs, sardines, shrimp in a buttery garlic sauce, calamari, and something else that I can't remember on that table of deliciousness.

We also had the opportunity to visit the local castle. It seems that almost every town has their own (no, I'm not exaggerating) in varying stages of preservation. The one we visited didn't have much roof left but it was still pretty intact and had an operating restaurant within its walls. Although the view was pretty spectacular, because of the rain moving through, we weren't able to see as far as one normally can. It was still a pretty freaking awesome experience, especially since we essentially had the place to ourselves.

After a short night of sleep, made shorter by jet lag (which I hadn't remembered as being this miserable until I lived through it again- yes, I'm a big wuss when it comes to my sleep schecdule!), we were dropped off at the little local train station to catch the train to Frankfurt, and from there on to Salzburg, Austria. Little did we know it wasn't the last time we were going to see that little platform...

Europe, finally!

Ahhh, that long-awaited trip that we have been talking about since before we married and have been saving for since 2012 finally arrived: Europe!

While originally we had only been dreaming of Italy, when a friend moved to Germany last year, we felt that the opportunity was too good to be missed and added that to our list. Then, I decided I really wanted to take the train and take our time getting to Italy so that we could maybe, just maybe, see another country or two on the way. After all, once you pay the astronomical airfare (and pay physically with jet lag) to get to Europe, you might as well see as much as possible. Of course, we wanted to balance that need with it being a vacation, not a trip that we would need a vacation to recover from. (That being said, I wouldn't mind having to "recover" from a European whirlwind tour...There are worse things to have to recover from.)

As a(nother) side note, I can't believe I haven't used a travel agent before! Lori Visser, an agent in Rockford, sat down with me one day for a couple of hours, found out what we were looking for in terms of entertainment, tours, accommodation styles, etc. and set up a complete itinerary for way cheaper (and much more quickly!) that I could have on my own. What a way to make life easier for me, and support a local business while I'm at it!

Anyways, the plan was to fly to Frankfurt, Germany, via Washington DC, spend a few days there and then take the train to Salzburg, Austria. After a couple days there we would hop on the train again and head to Bologna, after which we would stay in a villa in the Tuscan countryside for a few days and catch our breath. (Ok, and maybe drink a LOT of wine.) Florence was next on the list, then a quick flight back to Frankfurt before catching our flight home the next day. Two very full weeks and we couldn't wait!

Well, wait we did. In Washington DC. On a plane for many hours, although after a bit we got sick of waiting and decided to spend our time in the wine bar adjacent to our gate. Six hours after we boarded the plane, the flight was finally cancelled due to a lack of available crew members when the mechanical issues took too long to repair. (It all began with a toilet...)

The bartender at the wine shop had advised us earlier to split up, one person at the customer service desk at the end of the terminal, the other at the gate to find out if the flight was a go or not. After the announcement, Chris got a text from me advising, "RUN! The flight is cancelled!" He managed to be the first in line, which allowed us to get a hotel voucher, booked on the next flight the following day, and generally made pretty comfortable. By the time I met him down at the desk, the line stretched 4 gates back. Thank you, bartender!!!!

We found out just how much we owed her when speaking to some other passengers the next day on the hotel shuttle. Apparently those further back in line had hotel reservations booked for them by the airline but when they reached the hotel, found out that there were no rooms available, so they ended up spending the night in the airport. Others who had been booked on a later flight to Frankfurt had their new flight delayed because there was no actual plane to take them. What a mess, and we were so grateful we weren't part of it! (Hey, we paid our dues in January in Chicago. Don't ask.)

Finally, FINALLY, we landed in Frankfurt and were able to enjoy starting our vacation!

Hopefully Chris will post pictures of our time in Germany.