Days 9&10- Austria

Greetings from Austria!

To summarize my thoughts and felings of Austria in one sentence, it's no Switzerland. So, now I'll tell you why and how we were able to enjoy it anyway...

When we first arrived in Salzburg it was midnight. We arrived to our hostile by taxi and from what we saw out the window it was a beautiful city. When we headed out the next morning to explore, we were met with a sudden stench that did not leave us untill we left the next day. It was also hot, crowded and there was construction everywhere. :(

But now for the good stuff. Yes, believe it or not nat and I cracked jokes about the city all day and had a great time. We sat down at a beer garden just at noon to help relaxbour senses and I had a delicious Austrian "wheat" beer. Then we went off to find motzarts houses. The place he lived was on one side if the river and we went in and did the audio tour. It was kinda neat, I learned a little, but nat informed me she didnt learn anything new. We shopped a little then went up to the top of the Hidleberg castle, which was never actually a functioning castle, but there so that Salzburg would have something to surrender if attacked. It has been open to the public and the site of open air concerts, restuarants and muesems for over a hundred years. We grabed a bite to eat and visited the Marionette museum, which was a real trip!

After the castle Nat drug me to my first actual live classical performance. It was in the Mozartium theater, an international college performance and it was amazing. The first pianist brought tears to my eyes, he was that good. There was also an excellent violinist who had the whole theater cheering after a polka duet. the best part of the evening might gave been thevold man that I sat next to who didn't speak a word of English, but we exchanged smiles all night. It was a great performance and one that I will remember forever.

After the concert we were determined to locate motzarts birthplace, because we had failed to locate it during the crowds and shops during the day. It is on the overly touristed side of the river, with alley after alley of shops and impossible to find. We circled around it for about an hour finally, there it was. We never made it inside...

The next day we woke up and did the most touristy thing that I hope we do this whole trip, The Sound of Music bus tour! Our guides name was Wolfgang and fully suited in his liderhausen he showed us a great time. We thought about you Oma on the whole excision, which made it all worthwhile. The countryside and mountains were lovely, the history lesson was enriching and the singing on the bus was a memory worth holding into. You should have seen nats face! We had the bus tour drop us off at the train station and we were quickly outbid Salzburg!

Vienna is much different then Salzburg. Cleaner, bigger and has a very rich culture. Our first night here we bar hoped around the city and ended "beachside" of the Danube river enjoying drinks in lounge chairs on sand alongside the locals. It was an exhausting evening and crashed in our 100 degree room as soon as we got back.

Today we walkedbtobthe eclectic side of town and spent a few hours soaking in the culture and admiring the works of Friedensrerch Hudertwasser at the Kunst Haus Museum. His works are very nature centered and we fully enjoyed viewing them. Since then we have been shooing and dining trying to doge as much heat and crowds as we can. We've enjoyed apple wine, sachertort (chocolate cake) and struddle while here in Austria. I'm too scared to try the meat... Oma, I wish we could bring you back some strudle, you would love it!

We are about to head for a night train to Krakow that will hopefully get us to Auschwitz. Tomorrow night we will jumping back onto a night train to Berlin. Keep us in your thoughts, this should be a worthwhile sidetrack. We will touch base again once we've arrived in Germany.

Till then,
the girls :)

Oh yeah, and the best thing about yesterdays tour was that we were both sporting our All Star game tees, true tourists for a day! Too bad it didn't break the AL winning streak!