The Hills Are Alive! Salzburg and Austria's Best Villages

We loaded up and headed out to Salzburg, a.k.a. the land of the Sound of Music as Jen would remind us all. Very nice city. The weather, on the other hand--not so nice. Even though it is still officially summer, winter has set in. We didn't let that deter us.

While Julia and Jen took in a Sound of Music marionette show on our first night there, Luke and I hit the town. We hiked to the top of the fortress and took in this grand city. My son, who is too cute for words, has become quite a flirt. BTW, he loves it when girls speak German to him. He gets the biggest grin and really responds to it.

Salzburg was also the home to one of the best Biergartens I've ever seen. The Augustiner Brauhaus is exactly what I picture when I think of a good biergarten: Huge beer steins, endless tables under the shade of trees, and lots of brats and pretzels. A little slice of heaven! Speaking of which, the place was run by monks. I wonder that meant we didn't need to attend church the next day. I certainly hope so.

Here are some pix of our day in Salzburg:

Jen and I in Mirabell Gardens

Cannons awaiting the Turkish Invasion

Happy Family

Hi. I'm Luke and I'm Cute!

As nice as Salzburg was, I knew Austria had better to offer. The next day, we discovered that it did indeed. In fact, I 've come to adopt a travel philosophy as a result. It goes like this: Over the last two and some odd years, I've learned a valuable travel lesson: Stay out of the cities. They're overrun with Japanese and Americans (or worse, new rich Russians), they're expensive, and they're not authentic but rather kitschy. Sure, the cities are cool for a while but after a while the become boring. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Jen will definitely disagree but once you've been to Paris, all other cities pale in comparison.

Julia Taunting the Ducks

I've found the best of Europe in the small villages. One such village was St. Wolfgang which was about fifty clicks outside of Salzburg in the Austrian Lake District. This place was incredible.

It wasn't crawling with people and it really felt like the real deal. Example: the locals actually wore lederhosen and it wasn't for some lame tourist attraction. Let me try to paint the picture for you...We were taking in the amazing half timbered houses and quaint walkplatz streets as night fell after an incredible Italian dinner. As we were taking in this great lakeside village on foot, the town marching band marched into the town square with trumpets blazing and performed a set for anyone who would listen. As they played locals got up from their tables and danced the night away under the stars. The ladies who accompanied the drum major went around to those who gathered and filled their wine glasses with schnaps from a barrell slung over their shoulders. Our kids were totally into in and Jen and I even got a chance to share a kiss while the kids were distracted. I wish there was a better way to describe the felling but you really needed to have been there. Here are some pix from St. Wolfgang:

The next day we make our way back to the Fatherland and stopped at the border town of Berchtesgaden. Most Americans remember this town as the home of Hitler's Eagle's Nest but it is also home to the Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden or the town Salt Mountain mine. This is part mine, part attraction. On a rainy day like last Sunday, it was just what we needed. It didn't start out so well. We explained to Julia that she had to put on a blue jumpsuit just like the other miners and she flipped out. Not just a little but a total and complete "Tom Cruise Crazy" hysterical breakdown. "I WANT TO WEAR PINK!" she cried. Once we got her in the suit, she saw how incredibly cute she looked and quickly got over it. Thank God! Anyhow, we descended deep into the mountain and got a tour of the salt mining operation. To get down you had to take a large slide down. Cheesy? Yes. Fun? Oh yeah. Take a look at the pix (poor quality unfortunately). What a blast!

Little Miner in Training