Best week EVER!

Well heavens. I haven’t written for a while, but that’s mostly because I’ve been on a trip to Salzburg and the surrounding areas. We left Wednesday morning and just got back tonight. The trip was the most amazing experience I’ve had in my entire life. I know that’s saying a lot but I’ll explain and once you get the entire story you’ll understand.

Wednesday morning we hopped on a bus and headed out. First stop was Mauthausen. Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp in Austria during the second World War. I’m not sure what to say about it. If you’ve been to such a place you’d understand. I have no idea how people could treat others in that way. Somehow it seems that the people responsible for the atrocities committed there had completely lost sight of their (and their prisoners’) humanity. Very frightening and sickening. Literally. I got a bit physically ill just being there and had to sit for a while. Hideous. However, in a more poignant moment, Allyson and I went out into the meadow next to the camp and picked lovely little wildflowers and it provided a great contrast of beauty next to the ugliness we’d just experienced. In the camp we would walk into a room, see the walls and it would slowly dawn on us that people (hundreds if not thousands) had suffered and died looking at those walls. Very quickly sobering. Some in our group were able to stay fairly objective and treat the place like a museum but I was not. I skipped the movie at the end of the tour because I had basically seen all I ever wanted to see and already learned the important lessons that such a place is there to remind us of.

We left Mauthausen and continued on our bus down to the lake/mountain region of Austria. The town we were visiting and staying in that night is called Halstatt. It is an ancient town (now somewhat more modern) perched on the edge of a mountain, clinging to the rocks so as not to fall into the beautiful alpine lake. The single prettiest town I have ever seen in my entire life. Allyson and I managed to take over 1000 pictures on our trip so I ought to be able to find one or two good ones soon. Anyhow, we got to Halstatt and basically had the afternoon to wander around and do what we would. Allyson, Anne, Brian and I walked up a down the town for a while, taking pictures and repeating words like “Wow” and “Amazing” ad nauseum. Later that evening we ate dinner in a cool restaurant with ivy all over the exterior and growing into the interior through the windows, fish heads and game mounted on the wall and waiters in lederhosen. Allyson and I split a dish of roast venison that was spectacular. It was cooked perfectly and came with several sauces, well cooked vegetables, beet sauerkraut, baked apples stuffed with cranberries and potatoes. I really thought I’d died and gone to heaven. We wandered around for a while after dark, taking in the nighttime air and sights before heading into bed. Interesting to see the contrast of the most beautiful place experiences of my life and the ugliest place I’ve ever been to falling on the same day.

Thursday we got up early and visited the salt mines near Halstatt. These mines have been working since 5000 B.C. How about that? It was great to take the tour through them, which included fun slides and sneaking away from the tour guide to lick the salty wall (mmmm….). They had underground light shows in some of the chambers, pretty nifty. Back in town we visited a church full of skulls and saw the prettiest graveyard ever. Each grave had a carefully cultivated and unique flowerbed growing on it. Eventually we tearfully (Ok, there weren’t any tears but it was darn close) left Halstatt, visited a old church with amazing woodcarvings in some-town-with-a-German-name-that-I-can’t-remember and ended up in Salzburg at about 5ish in the afternoon. Salzburg is a wonderful town world-renowned for being the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and for being the locale of “Sound of Music”. (More people know of the latter than the former fact. Sad commentary on society.) Salzburg isn’t as pretty as Halstatt (a fate shared by most places on earth) but has a lot of history and some amazing sights, sounds and smells. The main square was full of little booths with craftsmen doing their trades. Blacksmiths, clock makers, pastry chefs (MMMM!!!! Warm fig pastries!!!!) and leatherworkers plied their art right in front of our very eyes. I loved that part of town. That night we went to dinner at a place that’s name had something to do with Monkeys and had some good food. Allyson and I split (something we do quite frequently, as it allows for more tasting) an herbal cream soup and a dish that was toasted bread with cured bacon and grated horseradish on it. Tasty tasty tasty. As you can see, seeing beautiful sights and eating good food was pretty much the name of the game. Another good (long) day; we went home, wrote in journals and staggered off to bed.

Friday: morning guided walking tour of Salzburg, saw all of the main attractions and figured out what we wanted to go back and see more in depth. We got to see cathedrals, houses of famous people, gardens and beer-soaked festivals. What could be better? After the tour we climbed up one of the local hills, Mönchsberg, looked out over the city and took more good pictures. The climb was a lot of fun. We came down off the mountain and went to Mirabel gardens (the do-re-mi song gardens). There was a nifty little playground that we played in for a bit, a labyrinth and lots of carefully manicured flowers. More exploring of the city in the afternoon. We visited the nearby fortress on top of a mountain and ate dinner there. Dinner was vegetable strudel and four types of Viennese sausages. Very local and authentic, exactly what we wanted. We ate at the castle wall on a cliff, overlooking a huge valley. Every once in a while I still have to remind myself that this is all real! We bussed our way to the hotel to get jackets and things for the evening and then went to dessert. Big story there. We went to St. Peters, established in 802 A.D. No typo there. The place is over 1200 years old. Charlemagne ate there. Possibly the oldest restaurant in the world. The restaurant was so incredible. The inside was something straight out of an expensive magazine. What did we order?

Salzburg Nockerl!

What the heck else? We’re in Salzburg, for pete’s sake! Salzburg Nockerl, for the uninitiated, is a baked meringue type dessert with cranberries baked in and raspberry sauce over the top. I’ve been hearing Mom talk about it for years. It was like a dream. Very rich, very tasty. Allyson and I were totally defeated by it and unable to eat the whole thing. I was, at that moment, quite possibly as happy as a person can even be. 1200-year-old restaurant, night air, perfect decorations and lighting, eating Salzburg Nockerl with an amazing girl. Straight out of a movie, I swear. Once in a lifetime kind of night.

Saturday: Woke up, did the breakfast thing and met a group of kids to take a picture on a big, cool tree that we had seen the day before in a park. We walked around the gardens a bit more and proceeded to Mozart’s house. The tour through Mozart’s house included seeing some of his instruments, original scores and listening to a lot of his pieces. Very cool for a rapidly blossoming classical music nut. After the tour we got another fresh fig pastry (MMMM!!!) as a sort of midday snack. After checking out the shopping area of Salzburg (finding several articles of clothing and other items that we wanted that would each cost over a thousand dollars. Each. Anyone want to buy me a handcrafted accordion?) and watching some guys in funny alpine outfits do some local dances, we went back to St. Peters. We got some appetizers and soups (won’t take the time to explain; simply know that they were the most artistic, unique and tasty foods I’ve ever eaten. If you want to know more ask me about it). We grudgingly walked back to our hotel, sensing our impending doom and hopped on the bus back to Vienna. I know, it’s stupid to be disappointed about going to Vienna, but after all this can you blame me? Honestly?

Stay tuned:

We’re off to Italy next week! Holy overwhelmingness!