The Alps, Salzburg, & Back to Munich
Sunday, June 7
Yesterday we left Budapest early in the morning for a long drive to Salzburg. The scenery got a lot prettier as we went--it's the Alps! We drove until lunch time and stopped for 2 hours at a town in Austria called Melk. It's a small, picturesque town with a monastery. I personally didn't go into the monastery, but others did, and the pictures looked amazing. I was on the hunt for food. It was Sunday, so not a lot was open, but I did find a pizzeria.
I ordered a cheese pizza for around $5 and was expecting a small sized pizza. Mmmno. I got a full sized pizza. Here I am sitting with a huge pizza in front of me. I felt silly. I ate three pieces (it was yummy!) and thought about what I should do with the other 5 slices. I thought about asking to take it with me... no, that would stink up the bus. I thought about just leaving it... what a waste. And then a young couple came in--clearly American and deciding what to order. I got up slowly and went over to them.
"This is random, but would you guys want the rest of this pizza? It's still warm and I haven't touched the other pieces."
They said yes and my problem was solved. They were from Texas and were riding their bikes along the Danube River for like 300 miles or something and then flying to Croatia to lay on the beach. Sounded like quite an exotic adventure.
More driving after lunch with a short stop at a hotel/restaurant along the river for some picture taking. The area was so beautiful. This is where The Sound of Music was filmed.
We finally arrived in Salzburg at about 6:00 pm and I had dinner at McDonald's. Pretty ashamed to admit that, but it is what it is haha.
Monday, June 8
Today we had free time in Salzburg. I have to say that I love Austria, in general. Salzburg is a relatively small town, actually. I walked around a ton and just took pictures of the cute city. Salzburg is where Mozart was born, so there was a huge statue and square dedicated to him. All of the tourist shops featured stuff with Mozart on it... chocolate, dolls, alcohol, tiny violins, etc, etc.
I found a beautiful cemetery and immediately smiled. It's just peaceful in cemeteries.
I have a feeling that it's expensive to be buried here. Surprisingly, a lot of the graves were new--lots of people having only died in the 80s or 90s, or even one fresh from this year. Apparently this cemetery is where some of the Von Trapps are buried, which is the real life family from The Sound of Music.
After our time in Salzburg, we drove back to Munich. It was about 2 hours, so not bad! We had an included dinner with the entire tour group at a restaurant in the Munich city center tonight. It was a bit of a mess because the G-7 Summit is in Munich right now, so police were everywhere and a lot of roads were blocked off. We had to walk maybe 8-10 blocks in the rain to get to the restaurant! Those German police are just not accommodating to a group of people who are only trying to hop off a bus in the rain! It's kind of cool to think, though, that a bunch of world leaders are in the same city as I am!
The meal was good--bread, potato soup, Bavarian sausages, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut. I tried one bite of the sauerkraut just to say I've had it (especially in Germany), but it's not for me! Everything else was good. For dessert there was a little apricot strudel and vanilla ice cream.
We bid farewell to our tour guide, Amila (from Bosnia), and our driver, Giorgio (from Italy), tonight. They did a really good job and it's always sad to say goodbye, but interesting to think of where their lives with lead them.
I wanted to mention while driving to Salzburg yesterday that I saw the name Schiffhardt on something. I'm not sure if it was a brand or a name or just a word of some kind, but when I said it to myself I thought it sounded a lot like Scheffert and I got excited. I always wonder if our last name used to be a different variation, but the person recording it wrote it differently. I feel like Schiffhardt is close enough phonetically to Scheffert for that to happen! There are a lot of words and names that start with "Sch" that I've seen here. I have also been generally surprised at how many names I see that I recognize from people that I've known in my life. It's interesting to think about deeply European a lot of us are!
Tomorrow I have to catch my transfer to the airport at 6:20 am. My flight isn't until 9:55 am. I arrive in Atlanta at about 2:00 pm local time. I have a 6.5 hour layover in Atlanta, with my flight to Peoria leaving at about 9:00 pm. I will be home at last hopefully by 11:00 pm, so it's pretty much 24 hours of traveling for me. But I am so ECSTATIC to see...
MY TWO LITTLE CUTIES! I'm coming for you! I'm going to squeeze the pudding out of you!
Yesterday we left Budapest early in the morning for a long drive to Salzburg. The scenery got a lot prettier as we went--it's the Alps! We drove until lunch time and stopped for 2 hours at a town in Austria called Melk. It's a small, picturesque town with a monastery. I personally didn't go into the monastery, but others did, and the pictures looked amazing. I was on the hunt for food. It was Sunday, so not a lot was open, but I did find a pizzeria.
I ordered a cheese pizza for around $5 and was expecting a small sized pizza. Mmmno. I got a full sized pizza. Here I am sitting with a huge pizza in front of me. I felt silly. I ate three pieces (it was yummy!) and thought about what I should do with the other 5 slices. I thought about asking to take it with me... no, that would stink up the bus. I thought about just leaving it... what a waste. And then a young couple came in--clearly American and deciding what to order. I got up slowly and went over to them.
"This is random, but would you guys want the rest of this pizza? It's still warm and I haven't touched the other pieces."
They said yes and my problem was solved. They were from Texas and were riding their bikes along the Danube River for like 300 miles or something and then flying to Croatia to lay on the beach. Sounded like quite an exotic adventure.
More driving after lunch with a short stop at a hotel/restaurant along the river for some picture taking. The area was so beautiful. This is where The Sound of Music was filmed.
We finally arrived in Salzburg at about 6:00 pm and I had dinner at McDonald's. Pretty ashamed to admit that, but it is what it is haha.
Monday, June 8
Today we had free time in Salzburg. I have to say that I love Austria, in general. Salzburg is a relatively small town, actually. I walked around a ton and just took pictures of the cute city. Salzburg is where Mozart was born, so there was a huge statue and square dedicated to him. All of the tourist shops featured stuff with Mozart on it... chocolate, dolls, alcohol, tiny violins, etc, etc.
I found a beautiful cemetery and immediately smiled. It's just peaceful in cemeteries.
I have a feeling that it's expensive to be buried here. Surprisingly, a lot of the graves were new--lots of people having only died in the 80s or 90s, or even one fresh from this year. Apparently this cemetery is where some of the Von Trapps are buried, which is the real life family from The Sound of Music.
After our time in Salzburg, we drove back to Munich. It was about 2 hours, so not bad! We had an included dinner with the entire tour group at a restaurant in the Munich city center tonight. It was a bit of a mess because the G-7 Summit is in Munich right now, so police were everywhere and a lot of roads were blocked off. We had to walk maybe 8-10 blocks in the rain to get to the restaurant! Those German police are just not accommodating to a group of people who are only trying to hop off a bus in the rain! It's kind of cool to think, though, that a bunch of world leaders are in the same city as I am!
The meal was good--bread, potato soup, Bavarian sausages, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut. I tried one bite of the sauerkraut just to say I've had it (especially in Germany), but it's not for me! Everything else was good. For dessert there was a little apricot strudel and vanilla ice cream.
We bid farewell to our tour guide, Amila (from Bosnia), and our driver, Giorgio (from Italy), tonight. They did a really good job and it's always sad to say goodbye, but interesting to think of where their lives with lead them.
I wanted to mention while driving to Salzburg yesterday that I saw the name Schiffhardt on something. I'm not sure if it was a brand or a name or just a word of some kind, but when I said it to myself I thought it sounded a lot like Scheffert and I got excited. I always wonder if our last name used to be a different variation, but the person recording it wrote it differently. I feel like Schiffhardt is close enough phonetically to Scheffert for that to happen! There are a lot of words and names that start with "Sch" that I've seen here. I have also been generally surprised at how many names I see that I recognize from people that I've known in my life. It's interesting to think about deeply European a lot of us are!
Tomorrow I have to catch my transfer to the airport at 6:20 am. My flight isn't until 9:55 am. I arrive in Atlanta at about 2:00 pm local time. I have a 6.5 hour layover in Atlanta, with my flight to Peoria leaving at about 9:00 pm. I will be home at last hopefully by 11:00 pm, so it's pretty much 24 hours of traveling for me. But I am so ECSTATIC to see...
MY TWO LITTLE CUTIES! I'm coming for you! I'm going to squeeze the pudding out of you!