Austria

Just a few photos from our trip in Austria. Spectacular countryside. I actually learned a few words in German (emphasis on "few") and fell in love with shredded fresh horseradish. The above photo is from the front of our hotel looking at the town of Schladming with the Alps in the background. All in all, not a bad view!

We did walk down the hill to the town a couple of times, and back up the hill just once. Got very friendly with the taxi drivers after that. The picture below is Ed walking down the hill. Not being very athletic, the two walks down did a number on my shins so for the next three days every time I flexed my ankle, I would get a pain in my shin. Since most of our trip involved walking, I had to develop this cute little strut that somewhat resembled Frankenstein when he didn't bend his legs and just plopped each foot down. None of that heel first, then toe for me. A few times I had to do a little hip throw, too, along with the foot plop. I don't know what German is for "crazy American" but I'm sure it was muttered a few times.

Food was interesting and so very different from Italy. I wrote while we were out there that the only restaurant we could find open our first night in Schladming was having Mexico week. Yippee. But the rest of the time we were able to have local food which, for me, consisted mostly of franks and beer. They served it with a little puddle of mustard next to a little stack of freshly grated horseradish. Dang, it was good. Ed ordered Weinerschnitzel and, of course, expected to get a hot dog of some type. Imagine his surprise when they sat a plate in front of him with two pounds of breaded veal cutlet! We topped most meals off with Apple Strudel - how can you not? And, of course, we had it with vanilla sauce. Damn good thing we were doing so much walking.

Spent two days in Salzburg and had to take the Sound of Music tour. Cheesey, but mandatory. Here we are at the 16-going-on-17 gazebo.

Salzburg was lovely. It rained most of the time we were there, but it was really a beautiful city. The first photo is from the top of Helbrun Castle. Second one is from the river with the Castle on the hill in the background. When I think of castles, I think of Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. The ones in Salzburg weren't quite so grand. More like battlements. Guess the "castles" were my "weinerschnitzel".

Part of the tour took us to a lake district which I would have loved to see on a sunny day. It was quite spectacular. But, alas, it was cloudy and a bit dark so this is the best photo we could come up with.

We also saw several places from the Sound of Music and walked through the lovely Old Town area. Definitely had our fill of franks, beer, strudel - German food is NOT for the faint of heart (or stomach).