A Week in Austria

Let's start at the very beginning ... a very good place to start.

Can you tell we're going to go heavy on The Sound of Music references in this post? Hold on to your lederhosen! 

During the first week of November, which is the kids' Fall Break, we drove 8 hours to a little village called Mondsee and stayed seven nights at an apartment on an organic dairy farm. It was idyllic. The itinerary was pretty relaxed; only every other day I had something planned. The other days we stayed in, watched movies, read books, played games, whatever. I'd say we struck the perfect balance of site-seeing and relaxing on this trip. Good job us.

Our exact location was called Mondseeblick, which translates to Moon Lake View. And what a view!

This was a next door residence of what appeared to be the grandparents of the farm. Every morning, someone would be outside and would say, "Morgen!" which is short for Guten Morgen, or good morning.

There was a reindeer farm up the street.

The fall colors were so beautiful, it felt like we were living in a painting.

The barn, where we could peek in everyday and see the cows munching away on their hay.

 The apartment.

 On dry days, the kids could play outside on the swings, trampoline and sand box.

 The views on every side!!! Incredible.

 Our apartment was on the upper left. During colder, rainy days, the kids could go to the basement play room.

 The kids loved the extra friendly cats. There was a covered "heated" pool, too, but it was pretty chilly and we only used it twice. But still. Cats!

 Chocolate ice cream before bed.

 Heeeeeyyy Sancho the mini-horse.

We arrived late Saturday night and the next day we ventured to downtown Mondsee to see what was open. Cafe Braun was a good choice.

 Apple strudel, apricot cheese danish, cheese plate, eggs on bacon.

 The Mondsee church had quite a few tourists. I couldn't figure out why ... I only found out later it's where Maria and Captain von Trapp were married in the film The Sound of Music.

Monday morning, we headed into Salzburg for the main event ... The Sound of Music Bike Tour! I was so nervous on the drive over. What if we crashed? What if we got there late and they left without us? What if we couldn't find parking? What if we got pulled over? I was on hyper-alert. Must. Get. To. Salzburg. We made it early and everything was fine. And then all my dreams came true. 

The tour guide, Sharron, gathered our group together for introductions. As we got to know some of our fellow tour peeps, we learned that three men were in seminary training in Rome . In other words, they were training to be Catholic priests. Three girls were friends from college, two of whom were living in France as English teachers. One woman was visiting for a work conference. And then us. Everyone was American except one girl from Mexico. It was really fun. So fun. Really. So. Fun. 

 





This was our pit stop for bretzels!

Sweet or savory, take your pick.

Noah got bacon and cheese, Sienna got asiago cheese, and I got apple.

This is where Julie Andrews and the kids fell in the lake in the movie.  The white building in the back was used in several scenes as the back of the house. The gazebo was on that grassy patch. Currently Harvard uses the building for something and the gazebo had to be moved because tourists were breaking into the grounds to recreate the gazebo scene.

The tour was half town, half country. We completely lucked out with a sunny day and the countryside was magnificent!

Noah was thrilled to be attached to daddy's bike and Sienna did a really great job on her own ... when she wasn't being a total kamikaze.

We biked out to see the gazebo in its new home. The doors are locked because, again, people cannot be trusted to recreate the gazebo scene. Apparently people were jumping from bench to bench and missing half the time and getting hurt.
Sharron used to be in a stilts performing group. She was a hoot.

This is the building that was used as the front of the Trapp family home. The interiors were shot mostly in Hollywood.

Eat your heart out, Julie Andrews!

A look at Old Town Salzburg.

......Laaaaa - Tiiiiiiiii - Dooooooooo!

What a riot. The tour was 3.5 hours and the kids did pretty darn well. At the end, Adam said to me, "There were at least two times I felt pure joy." I could have counted probably 10, but, yeah, pure joy. And then we feasted on cheeseburgers and fries! Being full of glee is exhausting.

We had nothing planned the rest of the day, but we had seen a cable car in the distance during our jaunt in the countryside, and it was ridiculously high in the sky coming off an enormous mountainside. So we decided to go to there. We took a bus to the outskirts of Salzburg.

The cable car took us to the top of Untersberg mountain.

 


Thank goodness the sun was on our side this day! The views were of course incredible.

Noah was tired and grumpy and generally over it. So he leaned onto this rock and cried. :(

We warmed up with some hot cocoa in the lodge. Noah would have none of it!

Back down we went! Such a rush.

The next day we stayed at the farm all day and then went to Salzburg for dinner. I had read a food blogger rave about the Salzburg Nockerl (or S'nockerl) dessert...

Yep, too bad we really went out of our way to try it. Now we know we can put the meringues to bed. Nobody likes them in the Warehouse.
The next day, we spent more time in Salzburg walking around Old Town and visiting Mozart's birthplace. First, lunch of weinerschnitzel, potatoes and Sacher torte. Best meal of the trip. And, oh yeah, lots of famous people have been to this cafe. #fancy

Noah couldn't get enough of all the padlocks on the fence. He made sure I looked at all the ones that tickled his fancy.

Behold: the birthplace of THE Wolfgang Amadeus.  Yes, he was born in a bedroom in an apartment upstairs from here. Really fun to catch a glimpse of the great musical heritage of Salzburg through reading of his life story.

Old Town Salzburg.

Up next: Salt Mines of Hallstatt. I was stressed out driving to this location, too, because there was an unexpected road closure. But everything was fine. Cuz Adam's a boss at driving and being calm. The funicular up the mountainside was like whaaaaa???

Then there was a short hike.

We put on our salt suits.

Into the tunnel we went!

It was dark and I didn't take a ton of pictures but the highlights were: sliding down two steep wooden slides, seeing the oldest staircase in the world, and learning about salt mining that has been done for 7,000 years in this mine. Also, the train that took us out of the mine. ALSO the tiny salt shakers handed to us by the tour guide on our way out. #bestsouvenir

Hallstatt's a babe! That's for sure.

Everybody loved this guy.

I have been known to hoard salt in the past as souvenirs (mostly from France), and this gift shop was salt heaven. I really wanted to hoard allllllll the salt. 

After the tour, we walked into the cutey cute cute part of town. 

More weinerschnitzel please!

And dessert at the bakery on the way out. American donuts? Apple strudel? Cheese strudel? Life is complete.

The last day of the trip, we broke up the drive home by visiting Neushwanstein castle in southern Germany.

The kids were SO MAD we were going to another castle. I mean. So mad. I ditched Adam and the kids because I couldn't deal with the whining and I walked the 30 minutes to the castle alone.
My powdered donuts and I? We were not in the mood.

The castle was cool, I guess. It's too bad that at this point we are all castled out and each one, magnificent as it is, is just like all the ones before.

We did catch some traditional-clothing-wearing Germans making music and enjoying themselves tremendously during the hike. That was fun.

Goodbye castle life. It was good while it lasted.

We vow to go back to Astonishing Austria! It really blew us away.

Election 2016

Ouch. That sucked.

But at least it's almost a week later, and the pit in my stomach has mostly subsided.

Except that I just listened to Bill O'Reilly and want to throw up all over again.

Here are my takeaways from Election 2016:

* Everybody I've heard from on this side of the pond is shocked that we voted Donald Trump for president. I said it on Facebook, but I'll copy and paste it right here again:
The morning after the election...

Reporting live from outside America: My Polish friend texted me early, "Hey, did you see the news?! Did Trump really win or was there some misunderstanding in the news?!" I went to French class and my Turkish friend, eyes wide, said, "I was in the library trying to study but all I could do was watch BBC! How did this happen?! Are you in shock?!" My Russian classmate said, "Oh, Donald Trump, this will be so good for my country! Clinton would be very strict with us, just like her husband was. Donald will be very good, he is a good businessman. Be happy! This will be good!" Our Bosnian classmate crossed the room to bring us that famous picture on her phone of Putin and Trump sitting bare-chested together on a horse. "Hahahahhahahhahahah." 
We are a laughing stock. But at least Russia is happy. #imstillwithher

My Polish friend and I talked again and she said she had had separate conversations with her Romanian friend and one of the French moms at the bus stop and they both said, "Did you SEE who America voted for?!" This same friend overheard two Russian women in her French class talking about it, saying, "Donald Trump will be good for Russia because he is a successful businessman." Which brings me to my next point...

* We are all a product of the media we consume. It's eery those three Russian women repeated the same talking point. But their news organization in Russia had made its message clear. (Does Russia even have more than one news organization?) Western Europe is characteristically left leaning, with many countries that have adopted liberal policies long ago, like universal health coverage and vast government welfare programs. So it's not a surprise most people I know here would have voted for a democrat. I had talked to a waitress in Denmark a few months ago who said she was pro-Hillary. Denmark is utopia for liberal social policies, so this is not a surprise. The media I consume? That would be NPR and New York Times. I think these organizations do a stellar job, but they do lean liberal, sometimes blatantly so. I'd like to give some conservative media a chance. The only one I can think of is Washington Post, but I can't read anything on their website without paying. So I haven't yet. I also catch Deseret News sometimes, but it's not great at national news, just Utah Mormon news. What else is there that's not inflammatory? I've downloaded the Fox News app probably three different times, but every time I went to check their stories, it would have about five actual news stories and the rest was click bait, such as, "How did this couple mysteriously die at their dinner table?" Did I click on that story? Of course I did! (Spoiler alert: it was a cocaine overdose.) And then I deleted the app because I obviously couldn't be trusted on there. Today on my walk to the grocery store, I listened to some of what Bill O'Reilly had to say. You can only download his show in 3-5 minute snippets. He lost me when he said, "That woman is a moron," when referring to a woman who was protesting the election of Hillary Clinton. If you have recommendations of conservative media that is actually trying to report real news, let me know. I want to try.

* Fun fact: This is the first time my U.S. Pres choice lost an election. In 2000 I was 18 years old and eligible to vote but, according to my journal, I didn't vote. In 2004 I was a press intern for Senator Harry Reid in Washington, D.C., and I remember mailing in my absentee vote for George W. Bush to Utah. On election night I sat around the BYU housing basement with a room full of poli-sci interns and I remember being glad about the outcome. I also remember how intense poli-sci majors are. In 2008 and 2012 I voted for Barack Obama. I've always felt good on post-election day. This time? Uggghhhh. Not so much.

* Hillary hate runs long and deep. Several people I know who voted for Trump did so because they can't stand Hillary. There was no celebrating the candidate who won, just celebrating the candidate who lost. Only one person on my Facebook feed would admit to voting for Trump on the day after the election. She did so and explained her decision in several paragraphs. I was proud of her and thanked her for being honest. I understood her reasons. I appreciated her owning them. Another person I followed on FB spent election night trashing Hillary as the results came in. Yeah, but are you excited about your guy?! No. The answer is no.

* We love our celebrities. Remember Romney's comment about having "binders full of women" who worked with him? I remember it did him a load of harm. Remember Donald Trump's comments about women that I can't even type here for fear of burning my eyeballs? He's excused. It's The Donald. He's excused.

* The Donald was the change candidate. Every four years or every eight years, we switch parties. The staunch Republicans will always vote Republican, the staunch Democrats will always vote Democrat, and everyone in the middle who's pissed with how life has gone for the past while, will vote for the change candidate.

* 50% of the country didn't vote. Let's repeat that for emphasis. 50% of the country did. not. bother. I know you hated both candidates. This year that was easy to do. But in 2012, it was around the same. In 2008, around 40% didn't vote. In 2004, around 40% stayed home as well. If you don't vote because you feel like your voice won't be heard, and then you stay home so your voice really isn't heard .... I don't even know what to say! This kind of passivity drives me nuts. If you don't vote, you don't get to complain about the following: how crappy your public school is, how crappy your roads are, how crappy your trash pick-up is, how crappy the post office is, how big your homeless problem is, how many people are on welfare in your area, how hard it is to get a gun, how easy it is to get a gun, how crappy your taxes are, etc., etc. You don't get to complain about a whole slew of things. And complaining is the best; it's one of my favorite pastimes.

* I don't think politics deals in rights and wrongs. It deals in my way vs. your way. When people say they can't believe how divided the country is, I say the country has always been divided. That's just how we roll. And that's okay. We have opinions. We think our way is the best way. But really it's just A way. It's one way. There are many ways to arrive at United States, Country We Are Proud Of. And I think it has a lot more to do with how we each conduct ourselves than about the people we vote into office.

* I voted for Hillary. I voted for her because I thought she'd be a good advocate for women's issues of all kinds. I voted for her because I thought she'd make a good international diplomat and be a positive image worldwide. Image matters. (That's PR 101, which was my major, by the way, not poli-sci.) Females in high power matter. It's too bad she won't be able to prove that.

* I will support Donald Trump as my president. It's hard to lose but I don't want to be a sore loser. I don't think rioting and protesting is the way to move forward. I was proud to vote and I always will be. Every four years I try to figure out the electoral college, and I've been reading more than usual about it now. But I don't want to waste any time on hate and sadness. There's work to do! Let's do it.

Family Pictures in the Grund

We had family pictures taken in the prettiest part of Luxembourg City, the Grund. Ohhhhhh, I love them so much. My friend, Becky, did such a good job. It's a place we've come many times for picnics and walks. It will always hold really happy memories for our family.

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