Vienna!

Vienna, the capitol of Austria and the former Austrian empire, is a grand city with palaces seemingly everywhere you look. Everything seems to be about Kaiser Franz Joseph I, his wife Elizabeth (Sissi), and Empress Maria Theresa. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay in a palace, and instead were relegated to a simple Bed and breakfast. The shared bathroom was a pain, and the location wasn't the best, but we made due. The first night we just walked around town. We walked through the Hofburg palace, the main residence of many of the monarchs, and saw the opera house. No opera's in August though, or performances by the boy's choir, what a bummer.

The next day it was off to Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the royal family and favorite of Franz Joesph I. It is a little outside the city, but an easy metro ride away from our place. It was truly and incredible place, with massive gardens surrounding the enormous palace. We got the ticket that got us into everything, including the apple strudel show. Some of the highlights were the rooms where Franz Joseph worked, slept, and ate, the room where Napoleon stayed when he was in town, and the room where Mozart played for the royal family at age 6. The gardens surrounding the palace may have been even more impressive. Some of the most detailed areas have been replanted recently to match the original design, and there was a hedge maze and great overlook.

That afternoon is was on to the Hundertwasser Haus, an apartment building build by the eccentric architect Hundertwasser. It is definitely one of the strangest buildings I have seen, especially because it is sitting right in the middle of a huge, mostly old city. From there we took an old streetcar to the other side of the old town, where we saw the Votiv church and the Rathaus (city hall). The church was really run down in the front, but very impressive inside. There was a film festival in front of the Rathaus, but more on that in a bit.

The next day we explored the center of the city, starting with the ancient St. Stephen's cathedral. It is made from sandstone, which means they have to constantly work on the outside. We also saw another smaller church called St. Peter's and walked around the main streets in the center. Then we went to the natural history museum, which had one of the largest collections of rocks, minerals, and meteorites in the world. There was also an impressive taxidermy collection, but the dinosaur room was being renovated, so we were bummed about missing that. It was in a really cool old building though. That night we returned to the Rathaus for dinner and the film festival. They had stands with food from all over the world. The film was an Italian opera, so we could understand very little, but at least we can say we saw some opera in Vienna.

The next morning we went to the sketchy bus station to catch our bus to Prague!

The beautiful... rainy Salzkammergut

After our stay in Moosburg, it was on to The beautiful country of Austria. Our first stop was a region called the Salzkammergut, an area near Salzburg with lots of lakes and mountains. We stayed in Bad Ischl, a centrally located town which is famous for being a vacation spot of Austrian emperors. Our place, called Landhaus Fay, was a little far out of town, so we had to get a taxi to get there and walk 45 minutes back the next day. Luckily the owners (Mark and Renee) were able to pick us up on the last day and they also drove us back to the train station. Renee was Swedish and Mark English, and they were very very nice. Plus is was great to have some more people to talk to in English. Like my umbrella?

Unfortunately is rained on us nearly nonstop. The first day we went to a city called Obertraun, which is a small lakeside village. Soaking wet, we found the cable car that took us up part of the mountain to a spectacular ice cave. We entered the cave at a temperature of about 3 degrees Celsius, and it only got colder from there. We entered the next room and suddenly it was covered with ice. It was really neat and something I have never seen before. It was also quite cold, as we were already wet and we did not pack for freezing temperatures. Outside the cave it looked like there were some amazing views, but with all the clouds and fog you could only catch glimpses.

We were planning on going to the city of Hallstatt after that, but it was just too wet, rainy, and cold, so we headed back to Bad Ischl instead. We found a nice little cafe, which happened to have really good hot chocolate, and then had to walk back to our place because the bus doesn't run in the afternoon in the summer. It was actually nice to spend a night in. We had internet, and we watched a DVD that we borrowed from the owners Mark and Renee.

The next day the weather forecast was better, so we set out on a hike. We were headed for a peak called the Predictstuhl, which was about a 3 hour hike from our place close to the nearby town of Bad Goisern. It was very wet on the train, but the rain held off for the most part. We wanted to walk along the ewige Wand (eternal wall) first, which is a huge vertical cliff face where they cut a path into the rock, but unfortunately that threw us off course. The signs were difficult to follow, so we didn't quite make it up to the top like we had hoped, but was still a fun hike and we saw some great views. We got down to Bad Goisern after hiking around 20 km, and it started to rain just before we got to the train station to catch the train back.

Back in Bad Ischl we ate at a great pizza place that Renee had recommended. It was very good and the pizzas were huge. They also had excellent Tiramisu. That night we got back early enough to watch another movie in English. It was a good time in the rainy Salzkammergut, but it would have better if we had had a car. There seem to be a lit of little towns to explore like in Tuscany, but without a car it is difficult to do that. The rain also obviously hurt a lot. Luckily for us we had Vienna to look forward to as our next stop.

Germany: so much to cover, so little time to write

So it has been a while since I have written anything, mostly because there hasn't been much time. Upon leaving Madrid, we took an overnight train to Bern, Switzerland. The train was really cool, and it included dinner and breakfast. In Bern we only had a few hours because everything there is insanely expensive. We paid the equivalent of $7 to store our bags, and a big mac meal was $20. Luckily we were prepared and brought our own food. It was a really neat city, and the coolest part was the bear pit, Just across the river from the old town there is an large enclosed area with 4 bears. It was very weird but also awesome.

From there it was off to lake Constance, or the Bodensee in German. It is one of the biggest lakes in Europe, and it lies on the border of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. There were lots of German tourists, and it was difficult because nothing was in English, but we got by. We stayed in a town called Uhldingen, but visited Konstanz and Meersburg on our only full day. It was kind of cloudy and cold, but we managed. The best part was the last night when we played a game called pit-pat. It is putt-putt played like pool on tables. It was really different and fun. In the middle of our round there was a beautiful sunset over the lake.

Then it was off to Oberstdorf, a small village in the Allgau alps, a region on the northern edge of the alps. The scenery there is amazing, and town is really nice too. They had three scoops of ice cream for 2 euros, and I think we got it about 4 times in tow days. We were lucky and got some really good weather for our only full day. We took the cable car to the top of the nebelhorn mountain, the tallest in the area with an elevation of 2224 m. There were spectacular views, and the cable car was cool too. When we came down we hiked up the valley to a little town called Gerstuben, or at least I think that's what is was called. It was a nice stroll through the countryside until we took the turn for the village. Suddenly the path had a steep incline, which seemed to go on forever. The elevation change for the hike was over 1000 ft, and on the downhill part we went through the woods and saw some waterfalls coming right out of the mountainside.

Then it was on to Moosburg, Germany to stay with the Waldherrs, the German family that I had stayed with when I was there 6 years ago. We were there five nights and it was an amazing stay. They are such good cooks, and we played lots of fun games and saw some cool stuff too. On the first day Sebastian, the oldest brother, drove us to the Neuschwanstein castle, the castle that the Cinderella castle was modeled after. It was actually build by Ludwig II, a former king of Bavaria who was crazy and obsessed with building castles. Unfortunately it rained and we didn't get to go inside because the next tour was 4 hours later. We did get to go 250 km/hr on the autobahn though.

We went into Munich the next two days during the day, and then we played games at night. We played a lot of Settlers of Catan, or die Siedler von Catan, but sadly Trillion was the big winner. Dinner every night was amazing. The best was probably when we grilled out. We had pork steaks in a pepper sauce, turkey breast in some kind of homemade herb marinade, hot dogs filled with good cheese wrapped in Bacon, and little bratwursts. Not quite the meats we would do in America, but I kind of think we should. Another great meal was Weisswurst Früstuck. It was a brunch with many different types of sausages, soft pretzels, and mustard. We also sampled some good schnapps once night which was really cool. Oh and how could I forget the homemade tiramisu. Trillion kind of likes Tiramisu.

Munich is a great city, but we encountered quite a lot of rain. We saw the famous glockenspiel on the neues Rathaus in Marienplatz, the main town square, and ate at the Hofbrau haus. Then we toured the Residenz, the old royal palace where the rulers of Bavaria lived. Now it is more like a museum with a lot of rooms and furnatire since it was mostly destroyed in WW2. The next day we spent the day at the Deutsches Museum, a science museum in the center of Munich. It is one of the coolest museums I have been to and there was so much to see.

We spent another day relaxing and seeing a bit of Moosburg and the nearby city of Landshut. That night we went out to Hirschen, a local bar that was super crowded and fun. It was such a great time in Moosburg, and I once again want to thank the Waldherr family for being such generous hosts. Here I am in Landshut with Philipp and Sebastian. The church is the world's tallest brick tower.