Surprise Christmas market in the train station in Zurich. We had a four-hour connection here so we welcomed the distraction of the stalls, as well as the distraction of a Nativity Play puppet show in Swiss-German.
First dinner: wedding soup, pretzels, and a side salad. (Austria does side salads right, not like France with only their lettuce and odd dressing.)
Austrian keyboards different from French and American. I think some Anthropology person (the discipline, not the store) should analyze the different keyboard strokes and relate them to their countries and citizens operate in general. There's something telling there, I'm sure of it.
Mozart's family is buried here though we didn't bother to find them. I usually like cemeteries and find them pretty and I couldn't get over the beauty and seclusion of this snow-covered one. Might have been my favorite thing we saw.
Christmas tree in our hotel. Hotel Mozart. As in the man that everything in this town is named after.
View from our room.
Picture snapped on our way to Christmas markets. Where we just happened to pass... oh, Red Bull Headquarters. Random, right? Gave us wings.
Upmountain view of Sankt Gilgen, our first Christmas Market stop. Have I mentioned the snow yet? I don't think mountains and lakes and trees and chalets could every be NOT pretty, but the fresh, powdery snow enhanced it SO much. And real snow really is powdery... and sparkly. I'm a fan.
Insert us.
Sankt Gilgen. Perfect name for an Austrian town, right? I feel like it should be the setting for one of those clay-mation Christmas movies, like Jack Frost! My favorite!
Post-earmuff aquisition drinking "gluwein." The Austrian answer to vin chaud, which is the French answer to mulled wine. Mom is not a fan. I am. I liked the mug too.
Sankt Gilgen church.
Haha, the holy water is frozen.
Sankt Wolfgang. Another good Austrian town name, but it doesn't have the softer, magic feel of Sankt Gilgen.
Can you pick the real people from the life-size nativity scene people?
Sankt Wolfgang Christmas Market, the biggest one we saw that day.
Lunch! Gluwein (this time with amarretto) and some sort of cheesy/pasta-y dish from the stalls. It has a fantastic German name that is sadly easy for an English-speaker to forget.
Auf wiedersehen, Sankt Wolfgang.
I'm on a boat = good!
I'm on a boat + earmuffs + advent candle = AWESOME.
Town number three: Strobl. Based solely on their names, I feel like the evil person who wants to do harm to the lovely, peaceful town of Sankt Gilgen lives in Strobl. But they had a nice market.
See? Strobl's market is pretty.
A tour guide explaining the story of the nativity to us. Just in case we didn't know.
Reindeer!
Strobl.
Strobl. As this point it was about 16 degrees Fahrenheit.
So, due to the cold, fires were welcome and set about every 50 feet. Isn't she cute?
Strobl's beautiful market. Unfortunately, we were SO COLD.
Wiener Schnitzel at St. Peter's. Served with parsley potatoes and cranberries. It's breaded veal and very good. Is it awful if I compare it to the chicken friend steak at Cracker Barrel? I mean it as a compliment and think it might be a good reference for people unfamiliar with the traditional German dish.
At St. Peter's. A 1200-year-old restaurant where Mozart and Beethoven both ate.
Knockrel. Whipped egg whites and sugar (aka meringue) shaped like mountains and you eat them with raspberry sauce. Traditional Austrian dessert, according to our waiter.
Church where we went to mass... in German. That makes four church languages for me: English, French, Italian and German. Bonus points.
The fortress overlooking Strasbourg taken from the Sound of Music tour bus. We toured it later that day but doesn't it look impressive in the gray, snowy weather?
So mom and I watched the Sound of Music on the train to Salzburg (could we BE more like tourists?) and I realized that I don't think I had ever seen it all the way through. This is the lake where the children capsized the boat while wearing the curtain clothes. FACT: we see the courtyard and back of this house in the movie but another house is used as the front.
Mom and the tour bus. If this was facebook I would totally have to tag Julie Andrews.
Christmas! I wanted a picture because the tree matched my coat.
The "I am sixteen going on seventeen" gazebo. FACT: They used a bigger gazebo on a sound-stage for the dancing parts and this one is locked because a lady on a tour broke her hip when she was jumping across the benches pretending to be Liesel. I can't really blame her for trying, though.
SNOW!
Bus picture I'm kind of proud of.
"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudel..."
FACT: The church shown in the movie is NOT the real church where Maria married Captain Von Trapp. They were married in the Abbey where Maria almost became a nun (nice, right?). This is the movie church in a town called Mondsee, which means "Moon Lake." Another good town name.
Church ceiling.
Outside of the church. The weather started to clear up near the end of the tour.
We were late getting back on the bus because I wanted to walk in the snow.
In the snow with the giant Advent wreath in Mondsee. The town was so picturesque and Austrian. I was distracted thinking what it would be like to grow up and live in a town like that...
Back in Salzburg in the Mirabell Gardens. FACT: The Von Trapp children sang and danced all over these gardens during the "Do, Re, Mi" song. I ate a chocolate-covered pretzel.
The Salzach River and the Old Town all covered in snow. FACT: "Salz" means salt in German and the town, the river, and the fortress all got their name from the important salt mines and industry of the area. At one time salt was known as "White Gold" for its preserving qualities.
Christmas Market stand in Old Town Salzburg.
On top of the fortress. It was windy. This one's for you Nupe: See that mountain in the backgound? If I heard the guide correctly, Hitler's Eagle's Nest is on the other side. FACT.
Panorama camera setting!
From inside the fortress. You can see the lights from the Christmas markets.
I liked the way they displayed their armor. When you walked in the room all the "knights" were charging at you... creative.
An organ in the fortress that use to wake up the whole town every morning.
Pretty, right? Still in the fortress. This was after I led Mom the wrong way (one of many times past, and many more times to come) but it provided the opportunity to take this picture.
Walking down from the fortress. I slipped a few moments after taking this picture, but better me than Mom, right? I hadn't gotten my "snow legs" yet.
A beer hall in an old monastery. You got to choose your stein size (liter or half liter) and fill up as the night went on! Food court style.
