Vienna, I hope to see you again soon...

Vienna, Austria- October 1-5, 2008

“This is disaster. I never ride train again, this is all disaster.” –My music professor Georges Backes

This Week’s Travel Tip(s): Georges Backes would say never ride the train but I say limit the number of museums you vist. We visited the homes of Joseph Haydn, two of Mozart’s homes, Franz Schubert, and then Beethoven’s. By the time we got to Beethoven’s nobody could pay attention.

American Song of The Week: “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing” by the Scissor Sisters at a Souvenir Shop in Vienna. Very catchy tune, almost as good as ‘Working For the Weekend’.

This is a long one; you might want to grab a cup of coffee…
This Weekend was a little different than any before. For everyone’s Mini-Field Tour class you take a 4 day trip with the entire class and the Professor. So Wednesday evening our History of Western Music class left for Vienna. We took a sleeper car from Zurich, Switzerland to Vienna so we could arrive in Vienna at 8 AM Thursday morning. This was the first night I have spent on a sleeper car and I have to say it was not that bad. It is a very tiny room with what appears to be 3 beds hanging from the wall on either side. The room was so small I could not even get a picture of it.
We arrived in Vienna and the 30 of us immediately hopped on a bus and went to the childhood home of famous composers Joseph & Michael Haydn. As this was the first house tour it was interesting to see that this is exactly where he got his start. After that we had lunch in the small town of Morbisch where there was supposedly a beautiful lake…nobody ever found the lake. This town however was unique because every building had a nest on top of it for storks to stay in. Our next stop was the Esterhazy Castle in Eisenstadt. This is where Joseph Haydn made his living working as the musician for the princes of Esterhazy from 1761-1790. Within this beautiful building Haydn had his own music hall which was amazing.

That was the end of that day and we headed to our hostel which had a gorgeous view over the entire city of Vienna. Unfortunately my Kodak has limits and I couldn’t get a great picture of it so I guess everyone will just have to go and see for themselves.

Friday morning we headed into the city centre where there was an unbelievable gothic cathedral. St. Stephen’s Cathedral was built in 1147 and really was breathtaking.

Mozart’s Vienna home was just a few minutes walk from the center, where we went for a guided tour that was very interesting of Mozart. In this house no pictures were allowed to be taken but that’s alright because all of these houses are in much different condition than they were when these people actually lived there. An interesting Mozart fact however is that he was quite the gambler and the ladies’ man. Many times in his life he needed a forward of money from friends to pay debts.

From then on it started getting a bit hazy trying to remember what everything was in my head. Vienna is a very large city and we covered many areas in a very short amount of time. It’s the first city I felt overwhelmed in as far as I definitely needed more time than what we were given. We visited the center which had an incredible fortress, the parliamentary buildings, the highest government housing, the ruins of the Austrian Empire, The Viennan Opera House, the Belvedere Castle, and others which I can not even remember. However we did get a sample of the world renowned Hotel Sacher Chocolate Cake which lived up to its reputation.

Friday evening we attended “Fledermaus”, an operetta from famous composer Johann Strauss. I expected a symphony with all singing and it turns out operetta’s are comedic musicals. It was all done in German so we didn’t get the jokes but there was a small screen above the stage with summaries of what is happening on stage.

I was expecting to see Statler & Waldorf from the Muppets heckling in the seats to the right..

Saturday morning was a free morning to do what anyone pleased but a few of us chose to take advantage of our knowledgeable teachers and followed them to the Hundertwasserhaus. This is an apartment building designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser that anyone can live in. The architercture is brilliant. This artist had a couple of different projects the city hired him to do through town such as the outside of a downtown energy plant and a hotel just on the outskirts.

We all then went into the city center and tried to do as much sightseeing as we could in our limited time. We rushed through the city and wound up at an awesome market in the middle of town where they sold fish, fruits, vegetables, wine, kebabs, schnitzel, and everything else you could ever want. It is exactly what you imagine as an old city market. All we had time and money for was a quick schnitzel, it was excellent…

The whole group then got together and we all went to the homes of Franz Schubert and the apartment where it is believed that Ludwig Van Beethoven wrote his last will in 1802. Franz Schubert died of possible mercury poisoning which was used to treat his syphilis. Beethoven wrote incredible pieces of work but the most impressive is that as he aged he became deaf. He wrote his infamous 9th symphony without ever being able to hear it. As amazing an opportunity as all of this was, twenty-five 20 & 21 year olds were ready for something a little more active than passive.

We then rode the bus up to Kahlenberg, where in the words of Prof. Georges Backes we had “most marvelous view on City of Vienna”.

Following that was an excellent dinner with a true Austrian cuisine. It was all twenty-five students, four guides/professors, and some excellent red & white wine. An accordion man sat down and played a few songs for us and everyone tried to dance, he left not soon after he saw our pathetic dancing skills. This dinner lasted about three hours until Prof. Backes had to finally pull us all out of the restaurant. Somehow on the subway ride home The Star Spangled Banner began to be sung and naturally everyone kicked in and sang the most joyful but probably most hideous version in history. There was no better way to cap off the night.

Sunday was travel day but oh there was excitement. The total travel time Sunday was supposed to be 12 hours, which it was for the group. I made mine 14 hours. While in Germany we quickly went through a stop (Koblenz) where we were supposed to have 12 minutes in between trains. I decided to go get some French Fries that a friend said she had last weekend that were amazing. Well I got my fries, got to the train….and it as long as everybody else was gone. We actually had about 5 minutes between trains. This was towards the end of the trip so I found my way home easily but I turned a 1.5 hour remaining trip home into a 3.5 hour trip. On one of these last trains home by myself I met an interesting German: A one armed girl that ran the 100 & 200 at the Para-Olympics in NYC as fast as I did in high school. How is that for a humbling effect. From what I could tell by her limited English and my lack of German she was very nice. I later found out our Professor didn’t realize I was missing until the end so he couldn’t worry too much. Now the fries, they were very good. Don’t know if they were worth all of that, but they were still very good.

Paul Davis: If I remember correctly Vienna was the city you told me to visit. After being there I understand why you loved it so much! Hope all is well!
KK: You’re right, it’s my fault this time. Hope all is well!

Ohh Switzerland where have you been all my life...

Zermatt, Switzerland- October 10-12, 2008

From Dumb and Dumber:
Lloyd: What the hell are we doing here, Harry? We gotta get out of this town!
Harry: Oh yeah, and go where? Where are we gonna go?
Lloyd: I'll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen.
Harry: Oh, I don't know, Lloyd. The French are assholes.

American Song of the Week: Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World by Neil Young at The Papperla Pub in Zermatt. Sorry no great story, just a great song.

This Week’s Travel Tip(s): In the words of my cousin Kirk, “Be careful, Europe is addicting.” I would guess the majority of people that travel to Europe make multiple trips back. If you come once, it’s hard not to start planning your return trip because there is so much to do.

Friday afternoon we took the train into the mountains of Switzerland and the beautiful ski village of Zermatt.

Going back to a previous travel tip of expect the unexpected, we had an unexpected fee of 25 Swiss Francs, very close to U.S. dollars, to make the one hour last leg of our journey up the mountain. Then 25 back down. As you can imagine, skiing in Switzerland is not cheap so this was a bit of a shock as we already were scared of the amount of money that was going to be spent. But again this time in the paraphrased words of one Jim Slater, “don’t worry too much about the money, you can work when you get home.”

We got into our hostel Friday night around 11:30 and four of the six of us found our beds. Two of the guys’ reservations did not go through so they had the fun task of searching the hostel for free beds. Luckily they both found one and did not bother too many people. Sometimes that is the life of a hostel.

Saturday morning we got up early and this was the view right outside our hostel.

We then rented our equipment (expensive), got our day passes (expensive) in which we only had about 5 hours to ski because the hours are limited during the “offseason”. We then followed the 200 Asian tourists who of course were taking pictures of anything and everything, and got on our first lift up the mountain which took about 5 minutes. We got off of that, got on a gondola which held about 120 people we’re guessing and wrote that up about 15 minutes to where you would normally get off for the winter skiing.

Waiting for the Second Gondola

This area is not snow covered until the end of November and is good through about June. We hopped on our next gondola and went another 10-15 minutes to the very peak, got off, put on our ski’s, and started an amazing day of skiing in the Swiss Alps. Nobody got hurt, we saw a guy skiing in a chicken suit, and we had the most amazing view I’ve ever seen (which seems to be a common occurrence on this trip).

Keith, Wyatt, Me, Sarah, and Robert

That was a straight drop right behind me...

We wrapped up skiing, made the hour commute back down the mountain, got something to eat, and took a well needed nap. We got up Saturday night, had a couple of drinks, felt the tiredness from skiing and went home and went to bed. When a pitcher of beer costs 15 dollars for 1.5 Liters that will make anyone call it an early night.

Sunday morning we did a little hiking in the woods which unfortunately we did not set enough time aside for. A cool little thing in this ski town, there were no cars. Only these funny looking adult sized electrical cars.

We went to some ski shops, laughed at the prices, got on our train and had a smooth ride home! Very relaxing, very fun weekend….I skied the Swiss Alps.

Dad: Thanks for those days at Spicy Run ski resort in Latham, OH…they paid off.
Kim T.: Thanks for the Torrence updates and I hope you are enjoying the pictures from your old home.

Hallstatt....WOW!

September 26th-28th: Salzburg, Hallstatt, and Berchtesgaden
the best way to describe this weekend is just to look at the beautiful scenery, but I'll try anyway.
http://www.joeylux.shutterfly.com/

**The correct quote, sorry for last week's mess up:
Lloyd: That's a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?
Lady at bus stop: Austria.
Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
Lady at bus stop: Let's not.

American Song of The Week: Soulja boy at O’Malley’s Pub in Salzburg. They really do love American Rap over here.

This Week’s Travel Tip(s): Get A Rick Steves Travel Book. I was fortunate enough to have Mr. Jim Slater lend me a copy of Rick Steves: Europe Through The Back Door. Without that I would not have known about most places I am about to write about, especially Hallstatt. Thank You Jim!

It was an action packed weekend to say the least. Approximately 12 hours sleep combined Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Thursday night was the premiere of The Office on NBC. It’s not aired over here and can only be watched on sites like NBC.com or Megavideo.com if you are in the U.S. Because of this the guys in Oxford skyped (videochat) me The Office at 9 PM their time and 3 AM my time. Guys thanks again! It was completely worth the lack of sleep.

This weekend’s destinations were the mountains of Austria in the towns of Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Hallstatt.

Friday we left Lux City and again found our train going through Munich for the second straight week on the way to Salzburg. This however was very entertaining because we caught the Oktoberfest crowd coming out of Munich and over to Salzburg. Luckily this guy got on and entertained us for about an hour.

We got to our hostel in Salzburg at about 10:30 PM, put our stuff down and when to try and find some fun. O’Malley’s Irish Pub was the choice and it did us well.

Saturday morning was an early one. We had a group of ten. Three girls went on The Sound of Music Tour. The other seven of us checked out the castle in the middle of Salzburg, the square, and just a little Salzburg sightseeing. The castle in the middle of town towered over everything and gave a great view of the foggy city.

The town square had a unique touch to it as well. It had a life size chess board, however not as large as the one in Harry Potter.

The seven of us then went to Berchtesgaden and Hitler’s ‘Eagle’s Nest’. This was Hitler’s vacation home where he lived with his widowed sister-in-law and his niece whom he fell in love with. As much as I hate to say it Hitler had good taste in Scenery. It was a 40 minute bus ride from Salzburg and then another 40 minute bus ride up the side of the mountain and boy was this a stomach twister in itself with the bus flying and the only thing separating this bus from a plunge to the bottom was a one foot high guard rail. When on this mountain top at an altitude of 6,017 feet you literally are on top of the world. We were in and above the clouds; it was surreal. It was hard to catch your breath, possibly because of the altitude but probably because of the scenery.

This guys living life on the edge

We left Berchtesgarden and after a VERY close call with making the bus back to Salzburg we all headed back. Four of us then took the 2.5 hour train ride to Hallstatt and arrived at about 8:30 PM. I have a new favorite place on earth after being to Hallstatt. The pictures will do a better job of telling the story than my words will. The town is only accessible from the train stop by ferry.

The Hallstatt train stop...it's as small as it appears.

ferry from the train to the city

The hotel we stayed at was actually in Obertraun, a 5 minute cab ride from Hallstatt on the other side of the lake. We got there and were in shock as this was the nicest place we had stayed yet and will be the nicest place we will stay for this entire trip, for the cheapest rate I have had yet. The owner was in the lobby and luckily for us was British. This was a great relief to have someone understand your English. We ended up sitting and chatting with him in the lobby for about a half hour about Hallstatt, Austria, Canterbury where he was from, London, and many other things. Katy, Emily, Tom, and I then caught the cab to Hallstatt and just hung out by the water and and looked at a beautiful Austrian Starry Sky.

Sunday morning we woke up and went out on our balcony to watch the sun come up over the mountains; yes we had a balcony. After soaking this up we did the 20 minute walk to the Hallstatt train stop so we could catch the ferry in to town. This is just one picture I got on that walk.

I hope my wife understands when I want to name my first daughter Stephanie after the Ferry that took us into town. This was some of the most gorgeous scenery I have ever seen.

Stephanie in the distance coming to get us.

We got in and explored town. There was not even a place to buy coffee, everything was closed at 8 AM on Sunday. We walked up to the Catholic Church where the town cemetery is located.

Because of the limited land in this town on the mountain side bodies are only buried in the cemetery for a few years before they are dug up and their skulls are decorated and put on display.

I then saw myself 50 years in the future...

From Hallstatt through Salzburg to Lux City it was a total of 12 hours on the train Sunday. It was all completely worth it.

Hola to:
Nicole: Thanks for the e-mail with the updates and all the great Ireland tips! I’ll make sure to have some great ‘craic’.
Jim: Thanks for The Office and the book, they were both lifesavers. Sounds like A.D. had a great weekend in Oxford.
Donald: Happy 21st, glad you made it through it!