Salzburg: Happy 30th Birthday

As February draws to a close, we were able to make a short trip to Salzburg, Thursday the 22nd to Sunday the 25th. We rode the train, 6 hours each way, and was an uninteresting train-ride (which is good). We stayed at the Marriott close to the train station.

We made it there Thursday afternoon, and managed to walk around town before sunset. Mirabell square was a 15 minute walk away, so that was our destination. Shortly arriving, Daniel had spotted a playground - and that was probably a good thing as they were couped up on a train for awhile. Very nice playground - they had a cool musical chime type of toy that was played by stomping on the squares (see video at bottom).



Fortress Hohensalzburg is the dominating view from all of Salzburg - here is one, crooked picture of it - day an night.



Our Friday started with a 4 hour "Sound of Music" tour. We prepped ourselves the week before by watching the DVD. We climbed aboard the "Sound of Music Bus", along with 25 other screaming "Sound of Music" faithful, singing "...The Hills are alive, with the ...." for the next 4 hours. (Joshua was able to join in now and then). Here, Ellen, Joshua and Daniel are standing in a building that was used as the back part of the house during the filming.




While, we could put up a million and one pictures of building/scenary from the tour (it was a good, entertaining tour of Salzburg by the way), we will leave it with a picture of the more recognizable gazebo from the movie.



The rest of the dazy we recovered by swimming at the pool and cruising downtown in Salzburg. While none of our pictures really came out at night, the downtown (shopping) portion of Salzburg easily ranks as our top location for shopping in all of Europe. Ellen is already looking for timeshares in the town. Imagine having 100+ authentic looking Austrian shops (50+ of the selling the Bavarian clothing that our kids had christmas pictures in).

Here is one (obligatory) picture of Mozart's Birthplace. While to American's, Salzburg is known for the Sound of Music, to Austrians it is known for the Birthplace of Mozart. To be honest, the house is nothing fantastic, also doubling as a bar/cafe downstairs. Lots of touristy chocolates/shirts bearing Mozarts face.



One of the shops along the main road was the Salzburg Easter and Christmas Shop. It had probably close to 10 Million of these painted eggs - all different types. Truly unbelieveable.



Onto saturday, we took the Salzburg Snow Shuttle to Leogang, Austria - about 90 minutes away up in the Alps. What can you say - nearly every picture we have is like a postcard. Snowy mountains all around. We took the skilift up to the top (1900 meters) and Daniel was able to sled up and down the hills.



Joshua enjoyed his first TRUE snow (Freiburg was really just ice). We all had a really good time on the mountains. They even had a really nice authentic restaurant up top where we got some decent Austrian food.



But most importantly, at the end of the sleding, we all were tired. While some were able to make it back to the hotel, others, fell a sleep on the way down from the mountain.



Another 6 hours on a train on sunday, and we were back in Hassloch. All in all, a fantastic trip that we are sure many of you will want to take!

VIDEOS

Daniel Playing Chimes

Daniel Sledding

Austria

Happy Birthday

Joshua on a Swing

Our trip to Freiburg

Freiburg - Black Forest Region
A quick weekend trip to Freiburg and back the first weekend of February - we left Friday after work and came back in late afternoon Sunday. We stayed at a hotel across from the train station, so it was very convenient to travel by train.

The first picture is the view out our window - this was a church on the other side of the tracks.














Saturday morning, we walked around town and visited the markets. As we left our hotel, we had lots of these "tornado" like things surrounding our place. Daniel wanted to help the workers erect them, so he decided to hold one up.











All around Freiburg, they have these little water reservoirs that serve as the drainage for the city. As the water was particularly clear, it actually makes the city look quite nice.













Walking closer to one of the town edges, you approach a gate. As modern times would have it, McDonald's decided to purchase this tower and deface Freiburg's charm - Daniel was pleased!












Many different tiles in the roads, this one we all liked.











As we got closer to the Bierhall that we ate dinner at, we approached an alligator in the local reservoir. While Daniel was at first scared, we finally managed to convice him to tug him in.






We spent the next day in the nearby Schwarzwald. We caught a tram and bus (30 minutes) to the foothills, where we caught a lift up to the top of Berg Shauenstein (1250 meters). It took nearly 30 minutes to convince Daniel that this would be fun! As you can see, there was nothing to be scared of...








At the top, we all had a time trying to keep our feet on the ice and snow. This was Joshua's first snow experience.












Back at the bottom, they had this really cool playground area with a big round swing and a tarzan rope where you could swing 40-50 feet in the air. Joshua absolutely loved the swing, while Daniel loved swinging through the air.









Our trip coming to a close, we caught the train back to Hassloch. Daniel had fun in our train compartment as he colored in his book, while Joshua had fun trying to stop Daniel from coloring in his book.






Next up Salzburg, Austria!