Summer Vacation - Day 6 (Salzburg)

Yesterday we toured Salzburg including the fortress and cathedral and also the catacombs. The catacombs were fascinating to me as they date back to 600 A.D. where the hermits would repel down the mountain to get to the opening. We went out to Hellbrunn palace where there were trick fountains a bishop had put in to trick his guests and also a beautiful palace there we toured. But the real reason for the visit was the gazebo from the movie "The Sound of Music". By the way, the people of Salzburg do not understand the American passion for the movie memoriabilia. The gazebo door was locked so Jamie couldn't dance and sing around like in the movie, but she loved it none the less. When we walked back to the bus it started to pour down rain, so we grabbed a quick dinner and passed on a concert due to weather. However, we did go to the local laundromat where we washed 2 loads and met several people from all over the world there...tourists doing their laundry too. We played Farkle and had a great time visiting while the wash was being done.
Today we began our drive to Venice fairly early so we could be at the Venice airport by 1pm to meet up with Graig and Nicole. The drive through the Alps was beautiful and fast (love the Autobahn!). Their flight was on time and all went well catching the vaparetto to our hotel. We checked into our bed and breakfast and then walked to a restaurant for dinner. Just as we sat down the winds started to blow, thunder clapped, lightning flashed and heavy rains came down. The rains continued to pour while we ate and by the time we were done it was just raining lightly. Walked to San Marcos square, but Graig and Nicole were so tired from their 26 plus hours of travel that we returned to the hotel. It was just in time as the skies opened up again upon our arrival. Mick, Jamie and I sat out on the hotel's veranda overlooking the Grand Canal and Rialto Bridge, watching the crowds below, the boats on the canal and checked e-mails. The skies cleared to a beautiful night with gondolas back on the canal so the 3 of us took a long walk around the town and enjoyed a gelato. It was our second of the day, having had one after dinner also. Graig did not appear to be all that impressed with his first gelato. However, he sought out many other opportunities to sample the dessert, so I think his reaction might have been a feint.

Graig and Nicole's first impression of Venice was not a great one due to the weather. I don't remember Venice being so run down and the graffiti everywhere on our last visit just 3 years ago.
We missed Janelle on this trip. She brings something special when she travels overseas with us.

Summer Vacation - Day 3, 4, 5 (Bavaria)

This is the view from our hotel in Austria. The lights on the mountain tops are two of castles in the Ehrenberg Castle Ensemble outside of Reutte. These are ruins of four castles that once made up the largest fort in Tirol. This part of Bavaria was beautiful with its mountains, lakes, ancient castles and palaces.

This is one of the many gardens of the Linderhof Palace that King Ludwig lived in during the winter months. Notice the gazebo in the center of the picture. Had to hike there for Jamie. The palace was very ornate, to the point I found them gaudy. Ludwig even had an underground cave built where private operas were given, complete with lake and balcony seats.

Beautiful view of the Hohenschwangau Castle from Neuschwanstein Castle.

This is the Hohenschwangau Castle where King Ludwig II spent his summers while growing up. There is a beautiful lake view and the surronding scenery is maginificient. From this castle you can see the Neuschwanstein Castle that Ludwig had built for himself.

A view of Neuschwanstein Castle from Mary's Bridge. It was a 45 minute hike from the castle, but truly worth it. The views were amazing. This is the castle that was the inspiration for Disney's Magic Kingdom Castle. King Ludwig II had this castle built for him but he died before it was completed. He even had a cave like room built beside his bedroom.
Would you believe the castle here and the one below are the same one. Just from different angles. It was amazing inside.

Neuschwanstein Castle

This is the restaurant where we ate in Innsbruck. The seating was on the bank of the Inn River with the beautiful Alps behind. I had my favorite dinner of the entire trip here. - the roasted vegetables and meats were delicious and eating on the riverside created a wonderful ambiance. We hope to return to Innsbruck someday to spend more time.

I love the little fountains they have around the towns where you can wash up and fill up your water bottles.

Below is a photo op that is set up in town.......

Here is the e-mail :

As we were wrapping up Day 3 - "Bavarian Castles 301", I decided to check our hotel reservations in Salzburg, Austria for Tuesday and Wednesday. We had booked a good deal at the Renaissance Salzburg to enjoy the comfort and earn some additional Marriott points. When I pulled up the reservation on the Marriott website, it showed a status of "CANCELLED". After a moment of orderly panic, I concluded something must have went terribly wrong for Marriott to cancel the reservation without notifying us and we would surely be able to find alternative sleeping arrangements.

I had left some unscheduled time in our Tuesday itinerary to allow us to exercise some options. We talked about what to do and concluded that either seeing the Oberammagau Passion Play (we had dinner in Oberammagau Monday night) which is playing now or visiting a concentration camp would be our top two choices. The weather threatened to be rainy on Tuesday and Joni has often said that she wanted to visit a Nazi concentration camp memorial (the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. really moved her). And since it would only add about 45 minutes to our drive to Salzburg to swing through Dachau, Germany, we decided to make Dachau our Tuesday morning destination. I gave both the girls a melatonin so they might sleep through my snoring with their promise to get up early!?!

We hit breakfast at the crack of 8:00am and I asked the hotel clerk to find us some options for accommodations in Salzburg. We were able to find a room for three at a pension near the train station (and the former Renaissance - it is now a Radisson and apparently the change was not an amiable one!). Not quite like the Renaissance (the desk clerk pointed out to me on our check in that "the Renaissance is a four star hotel and they are only a two"), but well located, tolerably comfortable, and costs less than the Renaissance. We were on the road to Dachau by 9:00am - so much for an early start.

The first hour of the drive was through the Bavarian countryside which runs through beautiful green valleys and alpine lakes surrounded by first forested, then craggy mountain peaks. It is truly gorgeous - probably the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen! The second hour of the drive was on the Autobahn where there is no speed limit, when there is no construction. If only Joni could have slept in the car so I did not have to hear the constant "you better slow down!" from the back seat! Exceeding 100 mph was not unusual, and yet I was never the fastest vehicle on the road. Driving can be fun!

Our experience at Dachau was very interesting and impressive. Joni teared up as soon as we started the audio tour by entering the gates of the former concentration camp. Much of the prisoner compound and supporting buildings (offices, crematory, guard towers, etc.) remain but none of the original barracks are still standing. A couple of barracks were recreated to show the conditions prisoners lived in throughout the operation of the camp. Over 200,000 prisoners experienced Dachau and very few lived to tell about it. The audio tour was comprehensive and well done, mixing facts with perspectives from surviving prisoners and liberators. It is hard to imagine human life being valued so little by anybody - it is truly a tragic period of human history that while not since matched in scope, unfortunately continues to emerge periodically throughout the world. We left Dachau feeling more somber than we began the day.

We stopped in a grocery store to peruse the local offerings. We purchased some great breads, fruit and some Bounty Dark Chocolate for our lunch then started our journey to Salzburg. The Autobahn delivered us to Salzburg in about 1.25 hours (averaged over 80 mph). The Salzburg Music Festival is in progress now so Mozart and Haydn are everywhere. There are concert venues set up in several of the large platz (city squares) and tourists abound in the old town. Salzburg is watched over by a fortress (Hohensalzburg Castle) built on tall hill in the middle of town as a defense for the city. It is very impressive and gives a "Lord of the Rings" feeling to the city. We had time to visit the birthplace of Mozart and the home where his family lived in his teen years. Very interesting to see how the middle class lived in mid-18th century Europe. It helps you understand why the mortality rate for children was 50% and the life expectancy for adults was about 50 years. What a blessing to live in the 21st century where medical science and hygiene gives us so many more years to overcome our mistakes and weaknesses!

Tomorrow we will explore the Hohensalzburg Castle, enjoy a concert in one of the cathedrals or baroque halls, and take in some of the "Sound of Music" sights - Jamie can only think about seeing the gazebo where "I am 16, Going on 17" was sung.

Summer Vacation - Day 1 (Milan, IT)

I am going to try to get our summer trip posted on the blog. I keep putting it off because with over 900 pictures to choose from and also just starting to describe all the places we went to and sights we saw is so overwhelming to me. So I've decided to start with the short e-mails we sent family during our trip that briefly told about out adventures for a few days and then post a few pictures. Here goes.

We arrived in Milan ontime after a short night on the plane. We waited a couple of hours for Jamie and met her coming out of the baggage claim area. Her flights also went well but she wasn't impressed with Ambien. She said she only slept a couple of hours.

We found the train, bought our tickets and rode into the city. Upon arrival at the Cardona station we set up TomTom and had it guide us the 0.75 mile to the Park Hyatt hotel. A sister to the Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel that Joni, Graig and I stayed at after his mission, it is nice but does not challenge for the top spot on our list, in spite of the $500 rate (we used points). Long story short, they messed up our reservation and put us in a room they claimed was too small for a rollaway so I slept on the floor while the girls slept in the queen size bed.
Walking from the Milan train station to our hotel. Typical cobblestone Italian streets which are narrow. I miss all the window boxes that are common in southern Italy. You just don't see them in northern Italy.
Anyway, we quickly changed clothes and walked to our tour meeting spot. Mick was reminded why he doesn't like group tours as we moved at the group's pace and loitered too long in some sites. However, the tour was the only way we could get in to see DaVinci's Last Supper, so we tolerated it. It is a great work of art in a humble little refectory and definitely worth the visit. It was protected from damage in World War II bombing of the refectory but the images are fading because of the technique DaVinci used. Definitely a divinely inspired work of art.

It just wouldn't be a vacation in Italy without gelato and Mick with the video camera.

The Duomo in Milan Italy. It is huge and took over 300 years to complete. I enjoyed our climb to the roof and the view from up there also.

Scene from the rooftop of the Duomo. The Duomo (cathedral) is a spectacular sight (should be after over 300 years in construction) and we were able to walk the roof which offered grand vistas all the way out to the Alps. We spent quite a bit of time trying to find a Tiffany"s for "you know who" but only found a Captain Jack Sparrow street performer. Too bad Janelle was not with us!
We held out for gelato until about 8pm but had to muster up considerable willpower to resist having another.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele is a spectacular, late 19th century glass-topped, barrel-vaulted tunnel which houses the most select stores for shopping. The mosaic floors represent Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States. Those at the entrance are dedicated to science, industry, art, and agriculture. It is very beautiful.

Castello Sforzesco was built in 1450 by the Francesco Sforza family, who was the fourth duke of Milan. It even has a staircase from within the courtyard where the horses can climb so they didn't have to get off their horses until they got to their living quarters.

Milan Opera House, La Scala, which reopened in 1946 after being closed in 1943 due to allied bombing. The stage is as large as the auditoriums floor.

Pom-pom yo-yo necklace

As most of you know I am big into blogland. I found this idea for a yo-yo pom-pom necklace so had to make one for Gina Halladay to wear in her quilt shop. Gina is big into pom poms and is always trying to "make it work" in anything she can.

This is Janelle modeling it for me before we sent it off to California to Gina.