Austria

AUSTRIA

The final country we visited was Austria.  While our stay was brief in Austria, it was still memorable.  From Luzern, Switzerland we took a train to Zurich and then a 6 hour train to Salzburg.  The train wound us through mountain passes in the Alps, past the tiny nation of Lichtenstein into Salzburg, Austria.

Salzburg is a modest sized city, but it is filled with a lot of history.  It's the home of Mozart and the famous Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music.  Our hotel sat right on the river Salzach which flows through the center of Salzburg, and was a short walk across the bridge from the Old Town.  

On our first day in Salzburg we made the journey up to Hohensalzburg Castle, meaning "High Salzburg Fortress," which overlooks the city and is surrounded by the Alps.  Salzburg was ruled by archbishops appointed by the Holy Roman Empire, and construction began on the castle in 1077.  The castle is one of the few in Europe to not have suffered any major attack during its history.  

Later in the day we booked a trip on The Sound of Music Tour...my wife really wanted to go, but to be fair it was actually a pretty good tour.  The tour took us around Salzburg to filming locations like the house and the lake in the movie as seen above.  

Also, on the tour, we traveled up through the hill country and small towns surrounding Salzburg to the area commonly known as the Salzburg Lake District.  Much like Switzerland, the lakes in Austria were gorgeous and the 70 degree weather made the journey even better.

                                                      Courtesy of tripadvisor.com

We stopped in the town of Mondsee, where the Von Trapps get marred, to get a pint and some apple strudel with vanilla sauce.  Other than maybe Paris, the food in Austria was the best on our trip.  We didn't have a bad meal in either place.  

                                                                Courtesy of www.chato.cl.

We finished the tour walking back to the hotel through the Mirabell Gardens, with everything in full bloom.  It was impressive to say the least.  

 

Courtersy of www.inmozartsfootstepsphotography.com

The following day we walked through the Old Town past Mozart's house and then walked to the Augustiner Brau, a beer hall in Salzburg.  We stood outside waiting for it to open, and when it did, we were stunned.  This building opened up and had no less than 4 gigantic beer hall rooms, with multiple restaurants serving a variety of food nearby.  

                                                                    Courtesy of tripadvisor.com

We grabbed ourselves a mug, rinsed it clean, then got a pint and sat out under the trees and enjoyed the Spring Salzburg weather.  The weather, the beer, and the overall atmosphere made for a really nice ending to our honeymoon.  

Austria is a lot like Switzerland, which is to say, it's an amazing place to visit.  The people were extremely friendly, the weather was very nice, and the food was outstanding.  We flew out the following morning from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Airport and back home.  I will say this, if you're going to fly to or from Europe, you can't go wrong with Austrian Airlines.  Their planes and accommodations aboard were phenomenal.  Europe's sights combined with its history are unparalleled, and we both had an extraordinary time.  You won't be disappointed if you visit any of the places we saw, but I hope these posts have given y'all an idea of places and things to see and do in each locale.  

Switzerland

SWITZERLAND

From Paris, we took a half day long train ride to Switzerland.  If you've never been to Switzerland, GO!  It is one of the most beautiful places on earth.  The Alps were absolutely breathtaking and the views from the peaks were nothing short of astounding.

INTERLAKEN

We started our journey in Switzerland from Interlaken.  Interlaken earns its name from its location between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and is the gateway to the Alps, more specifically the Bernese Oberland.   From our hotel's balcony we had a breathtaking view of the Alps.

About a few hundred yards from our hotel we made a trip from a funicular railway up the 4,337 foot summit to the Harder Klum, commonly known as Interlaken's Mountain.  The summit contains a restaurant that overlooks the surrounding lakes and the Alps.  It rained most of the way up the mountain, but in Switzerland the weather changes frequently, so after waiting 30 minutes we got some really good shots of the lakes and the mountains.  

Later in the day, we headed to the town of Spiez on Lake Thun to see Spiez Castle, a medieval Swiss Castle originally built in the 8th Century.  As was the custom throughout Europe, the castle was added on to and expanded as the owners saw fit.  The castle had some amazing views and the history was impressive.

The Swiss are a very independent and protective people.  They take pride in their independence and have refused to join the European Union, due largely to their banking laws and regulations.  In recent history, they have remained neutral, and thus protected their autonomous government while preserving their pristine landscape.  The water in Switzerland looked like something out a painting.  I have never seen water that blue in a landlocked region.  The Swiss landscape seemed to be completely lacking from pollution and almost untouched from modern industrialism.

The following morning we headed to the Schilthorn.  The top of the Schilthorn is only reached by a series of cable cars, or exceptionally well prepared hikers.  The Schilthorn houses a revolving restaurant named Piz Gloria, where the Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service was set.  They have a nice Bond exhibit at the top of the Schilthorn, and the revolving restaurant provides some stellar views of the Alps.  

However, the best views we had from the Schilthorn were on the ride down the cable car.  The view on the descent of the town of Murren was priceless.  Murren sits on the cliffs overlooking the Alps and is supposedly the birthplace of Alpine Skiing.  The town is practically deserted in April and early May, but still is extremely quaint and houses some of the best views in the world.  There are multiple streams that run through the valley below, while the mountains encompass your surroundings.  

Later in the day, we hustled back to our base in Lauterbrunnen, to catch another train up to the Jungfrau.  The views on this train ride were the best views of our entire trip.  The picture at the top of the post is the town of Wengen, which sits on a hill overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley, but the best view we had the entire time was taken slightly north of Wengen.

The Lauterbrunnen Valley with its waterfalls and lush green meadows was the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen.  Everywhere you looked was pristine countryside; it was truly stunning.  On the ride up the cogwheel train we stopped at Kleine Scheidegg for about an hour before we began our ascent up the Jungfrau.  We took the last train up to the Jungfrau and had a total of 20 minutes to see everything at the Top of Europe, by way of the Sphinx Observatory, at 11,716 feet.  

What they don't tell you is when you ascend that high that fast, you get altitude sickness.  You really need about 15-20 minutes to get acclimated to the altitude before you start moving around at a normal pace.  Well, we didn't have that luxury, so we ended up trying to see everything immediately, which basically equated to trying to move around at the Top of Europe while being drunk.  Your motor skills are slowed and your brain struggles to process oxygen to your limbs, which makes simple functions such as walking extremely difficult.  

There are several exhibits at the Jungfrau, one of which is an Ice Palace, which houses some very impressive ice sculptures.  The only issue is, you have to walk on ice to see them, which if you have not acclimated yourself to the altitude makes for an interesting journey, luckily there is a handrail.  After somehow seeing everything we could see we made our descent on the last train down the Jungfrau back to Lauterbrunnen and then finally to Interlaken.

Interlaken, while a beautiful town and a great jumping off point to see the Alps is filled with tourist traps.  Virtually every shop on the main stretch is a watch shop, chocolate shop, or Swiss army knife shop.  If you go a block or two off the main stretch you can find some really nice pubs and some good shops.  My wife really wanted a new Swiss Army Rambler knife, and while we weren't able to find one in Interlaken, we did find one online with the Edelweiss logo in purple and I was able to get it for her.  My best advice if you visit Interlaken is if you find something that you really want that you can't get anywhere else, buy it.  But, if you can get it online, wait until you get home and get it at a better rate.  Switzerland has some great gifts, but they are expensive.

The following day, we made our way from Interlaken to Luzern on an hour and a half train ride, with views that were nothing short of historic.  We traveled through the Alps through small Swiss towns, most notably Giswil, that was everything you'd think Switzerland would be.  It was clean, gorgeous, and classic to the point where you could imagine yourself in a different century.

LUZERN

The views from Luzern were unbelievable.  When we got to Luzern it was raining, but the following day the sun came out and gave us some picturesque experiences.  Our hotel sat right on the edge of Lake Luzern and the Kapellbrucke with a view of the Alps in the background. 

We traveled up to Mt. Pilatus, on the steepest cogwheel train in the world.  The grade was 48%.  To give you an idea of what that is, here's a look of what it looks like when the weather is clear.  Now, when we traveled up it, past the view you see in the picture above, it was almost entirely in the clouds, so you couldn't see more than 50 yards up or down, which was probably good, but you could feel that we were on the edge of a cliff and were climbing pretty high.

                                                       Courtesy of cal12news.blogspot.com


Mt. Pilatus is supposedly the home of dragons.  I don't know where they got that from, or how they justify it being the home of dragons, but someone in 1421 claimed he saw a dragon, then in 1509 someone else claimed dragon powers could heal the sick, so now this is the home of dragons.  Game of Thrones would not be impressed.

                                                                     Courtesy of 6yka.com

Switzerland is the most beautiful place I've ever seen.  The landscape, the culture, and the people are all just mind-blowing.  You can drink the water straight out of lakes and rivers; it's that clean.  The hiking trails and trips you can make from the mountain passes are unparalleled.  I'm not a big hiker or someone who does exceptionally well with heights, but Switzerland makes it all worth it.  If you have to pick one country in Europe to visit your lifetime, make it Switzerland.  You will not be disappointed.  It's well worth the trip.  Auf Wiedersehen!

Paris

PARIS

After spending 3 days in Scotland, we took an early morning flight to Paris.  Our hotel was 2 blocks from the Eiffel Tower, and the views were nothing short of spectacular.  The picture above is the view from the front of our hotel.  We had lunch at a French/Italian cafe filled with colonial African paintings and decor on the walls that looked like something out of Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro.  

After checking into our hotel, we found that the hotel had given us some fresh macaroons due to our newly married status.  They were fantastic.  Every single one of them tasted like they'd just been made by a world class chef.  

The best part of our trip to Paris was The Midnight In Pairs on Wheels tour.  If you ever go to Paris, look up this tour and contact Nicolas.  It was hands down the best tour we'd ever been on.  Nicolas picked us up at our hotel in a classic 1950s Citroen 2CV and provided us with a nice bottle of chilled champagne just as it started to rain.  Most cities are depressing in the rain, but Paris at night in the rain was gorgeous. 

Our guide drove us all over the city and we saw far more than we'd have ever seen on any normal tour.  We stopped at The Louvre, Moulin Rouge, the Elysee Palace, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and some amazing side streets that looked completely deserted.  

We drove to the top of Montmartre and got some phenomenal pictures of the Sacre Coeur as it overlooks the city.  Even in the fog and the rain, the views from Montmarte were fantastic.

  
Probably one of the coolest things we got to see on our tour, were the steps where Owen Wilson's character waits to be picked up by Hemingway and Fitzgerald as the clock strikes midnight in the film Midnight In Paris.  I asked Nicolas if we could go get some pictures in front of the steps and he happily obliged.

The tour ended in front of the Eiffel Tower at night and again the pictures were jaw-dropping.  I can't say enough nice things about the tour and everything we got experience.  It made the trip to Paris far better than we could have imagined.

The following day was May Day, which we were unaware is basically Labor Day on HGH.  Virtually every private business and establishment in Paris is closed on May 1st, because they have to pay their employees far more than the usual rate.  Parisians use the day not only as a national holiday, but also as a day to protest a variety of things.  We decided to take the day and walk around the city and take in the sights.  We walked past the Arc de Triomphe and up and down the Champs Elysees, despite most of the businesses being closed.

We ducked into a cafe on the Champs Elysee and spent several hours having lunch, wine, and people watching, which if you're ever in Paris, is first class entertainment.  

On the way back to hotel we took the Paris Metro, which was extremely inexpensive and one of those things you need to do if you go to Paris.  The Metro was clean and is a great means of transportation in Paris.  It is far cheaper than any taxi, and very safe.

We got multiple warnings that the French are arrogant and that you'll be treated poorly if you visit France, but in my opinion that's not accurate.  The service in France, as well as a lot of places in Europe is much more relaxed, and if you accept that most people aren't in a hurry, you'll have a much better experience.  We took the mindset that we were there to enjoy ourselves and relax and it made for a much more enjoyable trip.  We found that with a lot of things in life, if you're polite, patient, and respectful of others, you'll be treated far better.  Learning a few basic French phrases goes a long way with the Parisians.    

Scotland

SCOTLAND

I recently got married, so that's why I haven't made a post in a month or so.   We decided to go to Europe and visit several countries for our honeymoon.  Furthermore, some of my friends and family have asked for details about the places we traveled to, so I figured this would be an easy way to fill them in on our trip.  Our first stop was in Scotland, which depending on who you ask is or is not a country.

                                                                    Courtesy of onebigphoto.com

DAY 1:  EDINBURGH & ST. ANDREWS

When we arrived in Scotland, the first thing we noticed was that it was much colder than the 70 degree temperatures we left back in the States.  The weather was around 50 degrees, sunny, but with strong winds.  I slept about 45 minutes on the plane and we got into to Scotland around 8:00AM Scottish time, so I felt like it was 3:00AM.  

                                                                     Courtesy of funkeydoos.com

The architecture in the City of Edinburgh though was phenomenal.  Most of the architecture in the New City is either Georgian or Victorian, named after the monarchs that ruled during the 18th & 19th Century.  Our hotel,The George Hotel, pictured above, is located in a building that was built in 1780s in the heart of the Edinburgh.  We were in walking distance of just about every major sight, so that obviously made it a lot easier to see more of the city.

Edinburgh is full of monuments.  The monument above is The Scott Monument, a Victorian Gothic monument to Sir Walter Scott, located about 2 blocks from our hotel, and as you can tell it's massive.  Officially, it's the largest monument in the world to a writer.  Scott was a poet, novelist, and playwright, and is most famous for his works Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and Waverley, which are national treasures in Scotland.  

We were in Scotland for 3 days, and the one thing I definitely wanted to see while we were there was The Old Course St. Andrews.  Despite being extremely jet lagged, I was able to convince my wife to go with me on the hour train ride from Edinburgh to St. Andrews.  Luckily, my wife loves golf just about as much as I do.  Seriously, she sends me reminder emails and text messages to sign up for Masters Tickets, so convincing her to go wasn't too much of a struggle. 

The amazing thing about The Old Course, is that you can walk around the Pro Shop and the Hotel, which has some amazing paintings of The Old Course, like it's a local municipal course.  We bought some Old Course souvenirs, then headed to a local pub right beside the 17th hole for a drink and some food.

One thing we discovered early on, Scottish people love Whisky (what we call Scotch).  They think it's the best thing ever invented.  So, while at the Jigger Inn we ordered some 15 year old Balvenie single malt whisky.  Now, I'm not normally a big scotch person, but I think that's because the Scots are selling us their bottom of the barrel rotgut bathtub liquor, because this stuff was AMAZING!  It was extremely smooth with a hint on vanilla, and tasted like what I imagine angels serve to Scottish warriors who died in battle.

   

The only thing better than the whisky we had was the view on the way out of the pub.  We got a great view of the 18th at St. Andrews as we left the Jigger Inn.  Though the weather was cloudy and windy, it was gorgeous and we were both pretty thrilled with how the trip had started.

DAY 2:  SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS

On our 2nd day, we took a tour to The Highlands of Scotland.  The weather changed constantly on our tour.  In the span of 30 minutes we had sunshine, snow, rain, and gale force winds, but the landscape was gorgeous.

We got to see some of the filming locations for the James Bond movie Skyfall, which even in the frigidly cold air and cloudy day was beautiful.  We are both huge Bond fans, so to see some of the spots they filmed Skyfall was pretty cool.  Along the drive we also passed Doune Castle, which was used for Winterfell in Game of Thrones, and the battlefields of Stirling and Bannockburn.   

One of our best views of entire trip was at Glencoe, pictured above.  In 1691, William of Orange "offered" all Highland Clans a pardon, due to the participation in the Jacobite Rebellion, if they would swear allegiance to him as the new king before the end of the year.  The MacDonald Clan got the message sometime in mid-December, giving them 2 weeks or so to make a pretty important decision.  The MacDonald Clan chieftan was late by a few days in taking the oath, though he did take it and evidence showed he tried to take the oath before the end of the year.  

Well, King William was apparently a real stickler for punctuality, because he ordered the MacDonald Clan elders to be extirpated or murdered.  To make matters even worse the rival Campbell Clan invited the MacDonald Clan into their homes and then slaughtered them in their beds and in the valleys and hillsides of Glencoe after plying them with food and drinks for several days.  Now, this might seem like a long time ago, but Scottish people do not forget anything.  They remember The Massacre of Glencoe very well, and the MacDonalds still hate the Campbells to this day with a passion.  If you ask the Campbell descendants what they think about The Massacre of Glencoe, they simply answer...

                                                                        Courtesy of pandawhale.com

We also visited Loch Ness and had lunch at a Restaurant on the banks of the Loch, though to be honest, it was rather lackluster.  The landscape of The Highlands reminded us a lot of western North Carolina, which likely explains why that part of the Tar Heel state is filled with Scottish families who immigrated there from The Highlands.  Steep hillsides and mountains with narrow brooks running through valleys dot the landscape.

                                                                       Courtesy of stravaiging.com

One of the last sights we got to see on our ride back was the forest commonly known as Birnam Wood, from Shakespeare's Macbeth.  The best thing about Birnam Wood, besides it's role in the play, was the history of how it was created.  Apparently, the hillside where Birnam Wood sits did not originally grow the types of trees located on the hill.  So the ruler of the area at the time, anxious to populate the hill with trees, filled his cannons with seeds of the trees he wanted to grow and fired them at the hill until it was covered with the trees we see today.  

DAY 3: EDINBURGH

The last day in Scotland we spent exploring Edinburgh, namely Edinburgh Castle and the area around it.  The castle sits on a huge hill overlooking the city and the views both from the city and the top of the castle were spectacular.  The walk from our hotel up to the castle took about 15 minutes, but if you visit Edinburgh, the castle is a must see.  

Edinburgh Castle houses the Scottish National War Museum, which had a lot of amazing artifacts from Highland dress to weapons used for over a 1,000 years.  Standing guard over the castle is the cannon, known as "Mons Meg" in the picture at the top of this post, she continues to protect the City of Edinburgh from attack, likely from the English.  The cannon was used for centuries against invaders and the plaque next to the cannon reads, "Defend Mons Meg.  She leveled castle walls and terrified the enemies of Scotland's kings.  Please treat this grand old lady with some respect."

Inside Edinburgh Castle's Great Hall stands what I'm going to say is probably the best decorated room in the world.  Strategically placed ornate guns and swords, multiple fireplaces, and medieval armor line the entire room; it was magnificent.  

Just outside Edinburgh Castle is The Scotch Whisky Experience, where for about $15-20 you can learn how whisky is made and get to sample some whisky from each of Scotland's four regions.  You finish the tour by viewing the largest private whisky collection in the world, which needless to say is impressive.  Lastly, we finished up by visiting the restaurant downstairs and trying out some more of Scotland's finest.

This comes from one of the highest whisky distillery in the Scotland, based on elevation.  We passed by it on our ride through The Highlands, and heard good things so we tried a glass and were not disappointed.  

Even with the beautiful scenery, bloody history, and unpredictable weather, the best thing about Scotland are the Scots themselves.  The people of Scotland are some of the most friendly, laid back, genuine people you will ever meet.  Everyone we met could not have been more courteous and kind.  If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend visiting Scotland...just make sure you bring a rain jacket and some warm clothes.