Danube

Left Salzburg for Vienna today by a rather circuitous route via the Danube. Took the train the Melk and bought tickets for the Blue Danube Cruise before visiting the magnificent Melk Abbey. This Benedictine Abbey is HUGE and looks very noble overlooking the little village. Nearly fell in love with the library, filled to the ceiling with tomes of hand-copied scriptures by the monks. The interior of the abbey was beautiful as well, shell-like spiral staircases, marble halls and baroque chapels and wide courtyards…

The Danube isn’t blue… more like a muddy green. P was certainly not impressed ;p but still, the views along the way of austrian villages, castles and ruins has a charm of its own.

We stopped over at the fairytale village of Durnstein, a dainty little place with only one main street with interesting little shops, but its so perfect! When the boat was approaching the village, I prayed so hard that this would be our stop… its so pretty with a tall blue and white church tower right at the docks! It still have its medieval wall surrounding the village, to get up to it, we had to climb up a covered stairway, making us feel like we are entering another time. I want to go back there one day and stay in its schloss hotel…

We left Durnstein for Vienna, a long boat ride complete with two locks (this thing that changes the water level of the boat, quite fascinating. P went “we’re sinking??” at the first one when we didn’t know what’s going on). Also caught a beautiful sunset on the Danube, skies and water turning a delicate shade of pink, accentuated by the lights of the boat..

But this had us arriving at Vienna at 9pm… causing a adventure in finding our hostel accommodations… but it was all worth it when we saw our hostel room, a cozy little room complete with a mini-table, closet, tv (which we never used) and comfy bunkbeds, our first private room in our travels…

Bad Durrnberg

Spent half the day in Bad Durrnberg Salt Mine in an attempt to learn more about Salzburg’s history…Salt was known as “white gold” in the times of the archbishops and brought Salzburg its legendary wealth. But in truth, we came away with the memory of the mad scientist white coats we had to wear and the steep slides used by the miners to get to the bottom of the mine which was really fun. Wheee! and you are at the bottom of the mine in seconds. Ingenious. There was also an underground salt lake we had to cross with a boat, its pretty amazing to cross a lake when you are god-knows-how-many-feet underground…

After we got out of the dark and gloomy mine, we took some time to climb up the steep steps of Durrnberg to the St. Maria Church for pretty views of flower-strewn hilly lawns..

The second half of the day was spent at Hallein, a picturesque village which happened to have a market-fair on with stalls selling all kind of items from dolls to cheese and milk! There were people buying cheese by the bucket or is it milk? ;p

Went back to Salzburg with enough daylight for a last stroll down Getridgasse. P also helped me find an elusive garden full of gnomes in the Mirabell Gardens, kitschy I know, but so cute! Especially when he imitated one for me to take a photo 🙂

Hohensalzburg & Hellbrunn

We started the day with Hohensalzburg Fortress, the landmark of Salzburg. The aerial view of Salzburg from the fortress was impressive, while the white turnip coat of arms was somewhat amusing. The tour did give us a basic understanding of the history of Salzburg and its archbishops.

After the stern history lecture, we went to the playful Hellbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the archbishops. And it was fun! Loved all the trick fountains, from the dining table to the wasserspieles that shoot up as you pass by. P complained about getting wet but we were laughing the whole time 🙂 the mechanical theatre was fascinating as well as the minature grottos with figures powered by water.

we went back to Salzburg for dinner, starting with a slice of esterhazytorte, a heavenly concoction with feathered icing. I had a certain salmon dish that literally melts in the mouth and P bought a burrito of sorts from a stall in one of the many passageways.

We walked through Linzergasse on the neustadt and visited an Italian style cemetery on the way back…

Salzburg

we arrived in Salzburg, Austria on a rainy afternoon… P therefore decided that he didn’t like this place ;p

However, he did like the hot dog with added cucumbers snitched from the morning’s free breakfast at Fussen we shared under the somewhat inadequate umbrella shelter 🙂 There’s nothing quite like biting into a hot and sweet sausage on a cold, rainy day… it’s even worth the rain for the experience…

we visited Mirabell Gardens before crossing the river to the altstadt and spent the day wandering around Salzburg’s old town, visiting the many kirches and platzs and attempting to get lost amidst the maze of alleys and passages..

of all the many churches we saw this day, my favourite is the baroque kollegienkirche, with the white cloud and cupid carvings. the gothic franziskanerkiche comes a close second simply because of how different it stands out with its vast and un-adorned vaulted ceiling and regal air.

I love getreidegasse with its intricate wrought iron signs… a medieval shopping area! and all the passageways and courtyards and portals… it’s one of the most charming street we saw…
for once, when P lit up at a MacDonald’s sign, it was understandable 😛

Linderhof

Linderhof… the only one of King Ludwig’s castles that’s finished. P liked it because its the smallest :p until he realised how vast the gardens are…

Linderhof is more a minature palace than castle, very intimate and very gold, very decadent… the grounds are impressive, perfect setting for the fountains and statues. The Venus Grotto was hauntingly pretty and very cold…

We did the long walk to the hunting lodge, covering almost the entire place and came back at the top of the terrace, giving us views of both the front and back of the terrace gardens…

We visited Oberammergau on the way back, a village famed for its navity woodcarving and house-wall murals, called Luftlmalereien, literally “paintings in the air”… I love the Bavarian wall paintings…it adds so much color to both the houses and the streetlife… and its so authentically Bavarian…

Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein… the fairytale castle of dreams… an exquisite mirage in the Bavarian Alps…

we were one of the first in the castle in order to escape the crowds… it was worth it to have the castle to ourselves on Marie’s Bridge…

we walked around the Alpsee after visiting both castles, P had the wonderful idea of taking a rowboat out on the lake. It was one of the loveliest things we did, floating on the lake with views of both castles and the alps. The sun shining gently down and the tourist crowds far away…

we took the cablecar up the alps in the afternoon and hiked up near the top…our first hike up the snowy and craggy mountains…breathtaking views… P was very impressed by the hang-gliders :p

one of our best days… the castles… the lake… the Bavarian Alps…

Fussen

Fussen, a small Bavarian village on the Romantic Strasse…

We spent the day wandering around this bright and cheerful village, with its small shops and cobbled streets. Its baroque church is the first of its kind that we saw… amazing us with the richness of its ornaments.

I like Fussen because of its small town feel, very Bavarian with their colorful houses and shops, embracing one with a relaxed, holiday feeling…

Zurich

Zurich… our very first stop… which makes it special…

we arrived on a sunday… thus the famous Banhofstrasse was an abandoned elegant boulevard. However, this allows us to see the quiet beauty of Zurich.

We took a 4h cruise on Zurichsee, and P promptly took the chance to snooze under the sunny skies ;p

explored the two churches of Zurich upon return… climbed up to the top of Grossmunster for an ariel view of Zurich…walked through the old town and discovered the peaceful spot of Lindenhof…an old park overlooking the river, complete of giant chess sets and swings…

went back to the bustling street of our hostel to eat dinner at Macdonald’s before going back to the hostel. Came out at night after showering for a look at Zurich’s nightsky…

woke up at 5am the next day to catch the 730 train to Munich… and had the river to ourselves as we crossed the bridge at dawn… quiet and calm and pink-tinged… and that remains my memory of Zurich… elegant and calm.. and lightly rosy-tinged…

Salem

we drove to salem, witch village the day before we left for europe…

always wanted to visit salem… having read so many books, facts and fiction equal, intepreting the events that happened there so long ago…

slightly disappointed at how commercialized the whole place is now…the many sights and interests so vainly exploiting the true and fictional events that happened there…

still…learned facts that I never knew before… Salem’s old fame as a seaport (apparantly, China once believed Salem was a country by itself, based on the vast number of ships that came from Salem!), the history of pirates of Salems… all outweighed by the witches… poor things :p

I only wish… the town can lose that faint veneer of artificial polish…

dazzling day

was scanning through the photos stored in the ipod… and realised I forgot about this beautiful day…

I can’t even remember the date… or why we went out… to return library books? to borrow books? or simply to visit Trinity? only that it was a beautiful day and we did go out..

we went to Trinity…and to the library…truly explored the library for the historical monument it is, wandering through the frescoed walls and halls, instead of just getting my books and out.

we walked down the green commonwealth ave, amidst strolling dogs and snowing blossoms…past Public Garden and Boston Common to the Macdonald’s there for chips and ice-cream…

we walked back through the common to Charles Street… and did a repeat of last year to get the meringue cookies we missed… through charles street and across longfellow bridge over the river and home…

such a long, long walk and we weren’t tired at all at the end… I remember the blue skies and the green trees, I remember the salty and hot fries against the cold and sweet ice-cream… I remember the laughter reflecting off the mirror-like lake and river…

it was a beautiful day… dreamy and bright… did I really forget? or was it simply resting in a corner of my mind? a dazzling memory…