The Escapades of Jam and Lam

Monday, September 24, 2012

Austria (Salzburg, Hallstatt and Vienna)

We left Munich and headed to Austria where we spent a week visiting Salzburg, Hallstatt and Vienna.

We were only in Salzburg for one night, but got to see quite a bit of it. We did a lot of walking all around the old town seeing lots of neat squares, the river, some really cool gardens including a dwarf garden and the house where Mozart lived. We also tried some Mozartkugels which are a chocolate candy balls inspired by Mozart. We happened to find a really cool monastic brewery called Augustiner that had an awesome beer garden. There you picked your own cup, small or large, rinsed it out in a neat fountain, and then passed it to a guy who filled it up from the keg.

We left Salzburg for Hallstatt, which is a very small village nestled on the side of a mountain beside a lake. It was historically very important as it is where the first salt mine was started over 3000 years ago, and therefore allowed the preserving of food. We rented an electric motor boat one day to go all around the lake, and a paddle boat the next day so that Jerome could go swim in the middle of the lake. It was really beautiful. We went to a concert in the square of the local marching band. If you gave them a donation, you got a shot of schnapps from a tiny little keg! We also went down in the old salt mine, which was neat and fun, as they had several large wooden slides to help you get around the mine faster.

After Salzburg we headed to Vienna, where we stayed with a very nice couple in their apartment. The very first night we stumbled upon a big harvest festival in a big square. It had little stalls for all the local area farms who were selling food and drinks and things. There was a big band, and floats with wheat crowns and lots of people dressed in traditional clothes. It was a lot of fun! We did a lot of just walking around the city as it is very pretty, and the old buildings are beautiful. One of the days we rented segways for a few hours and rode them out to the island on the Danube, which was pretty much deserted of people as I guess the swimming season was over. We also attended a concert in the famous Musikverein music hall where we heard classical music and even the Danube Waltz.

Salzburg

The square in Salzburg with a great view of the castle.

View of the castle from the Salzach river

Part of the Zwergerlgarten (dwarf garden)

Mirabell gardens

Outdoor section of the Augustiner beer hall (note the traditional chestnut trees)

Our beer being filled up by the kegmaster

Hallstat

Hallstatt

The cemetary in Hallstatt is tiny, so after 10 years they
remove the bones, paint them and put them
in the Beinhaus (bone house)

Boating on the lake

Hallstatt from the lake

The Hallstatt Band

Getting our schnapps from the tiny keg

Sharing a Nockerl for dessert

In the worlds oldest mine

Looking down on Hallstat from the mountain

Jerome swimming and splashing in the lake

Jerome destroying me at giant chess

The Gasthoff Simony where we stayed in Hallstatt

Vienna

Vienna's Parliament buildings

The Harvest Festival

The band at the harvest festival

Potato and meat dish

The statue of the Archduke Charles of Austria in the Heldenplatz

The Rathaus (Townhall)

Cake for breakfast on my birthday =)

Hummingbird Moth

From the top of St Stephen's Cathedral

St Stephen's has a really cool roof

A modern art sculpture

St Charles church

Mozart is kind of a big deal in Vienna

A really cute elephant statue that you can't climb

The concert at the Musikverein

Segway-ing around the city

Traditional Sacher cake

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Munich and Surroundings

Sorry for the delay in posts, but we hit a snag trying to post pictures from our phone as our camera won't let you transfer pictures if you have over 1000 pictures on it, which is very annoying. Thanks to our good friend Ela who we're staying with in Warsaw though, we have got a bunch uploaded and will be able to post a bunch of updates again!

We had a lot of fun in Munich. We had a nice little apartment about a 10 minute walk from the old city. We arrived on a Saturday, and spent 4 full days there exploring the old town and taking a few day trips. The old town is really neat, mostly pedestrian, lots of people. There were lots of traditional stores with big window displays of leiderhosen and dirndls in preparation for October fest in a few weeks. We spent a few days just walking around and looking at the shops, churches and tasting the beers and sausages.

One highlight was from the Hoffbrauhaus which is a very large and very busy and famous beer hall. They sell 1L steins of beer, and have a sweet band! We met some very interesting people there, and had a lot of fun our first evening in Munich!

We took one day trip to Wurzburg and Bamberg which are two lovely little small towns near Munich. In Wurzburg we tried some of the famous local (Franconian) wine, and checked out the churches and riverside and residence. We then took the train to Bamberg which was interesting. Whereas 80% of Wurzburg was destroyed in 20 minutes during the war, and Bamberg was left totally undamaged. So we noticed a big difference in the age and types of buildings between the two cities. Bamburg is very famous for its special Smoked beer, and so we found a very neat old brewery that makes it, and had a fun evening there. It was very tasty!

We spent one of our days in Munich walking around the market and seeing all the neat produce, trying various foods and drinks. It was really fun. We also found a really awesome board game store!

Another day we took a day trip to Augsburg which is another nearby cool city. It used to have a castle and has a moat around the old city. We rented a row boat and went boating in the moat!