So Long, Farewell…Salzburg!

June 12th—We got up and moving this morning. We had some more sights to see, but needed to get our stuff packed up first. We left the apartment about 9:00 this morning to do a self-guided walk of Old Town. During our walk, we saw the statue of Mozart in Mozartplatz, Salzburg Cathedral, a horse bath, a waterwheel, St. Peter’s Cemetery (While the cemetery where the von Trapp family hid out in The Sound of Music was a Hollywood set, it was inspired by this one.), and St. Peter’s Church. After this, we walked back to the apartment to gather up our luggage. We said goodbye to Ingrid at noon and headed to the train station. Our train left Salzburg at 1:00. We were lucky enough again to get our own compartment so we had another uneventful train ride. The ride was a little over 2 1/2 hours so we arrived in Vienna at 3:40. Upon arriving, we had a short walk to get on the metro. We had to change metros once during a trip to the apartment. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the apartment where we were welcomed by Axel, the apartment owner. He was very friendly and provided us with a lot of information on Vienna. After he left, we got our stuff organized and headed to the grocery store. On the way to the store, we were talking about our plans for dinner. We had originally planned on eating out until we found taco stuff at the store. I believe we all need a little taste of home tonight. We got back from the store and immediately started making dinner. The tacos were really good and a nice change. The kids took a bath and watched a movie before bedtime. Tonight was laundry night so that took up the rest of the evening.

...with the Sound of Music!

June 10th—We woke up this morning with the excitement of Sound of Music. We got picked up right in front of our apartment by Bob’s Special Tours. We got in the van and were on our way for a 4 hour Sound of Music Tour. Before the tour got started, we picked up a family that consisted of a dad and his 2 daughters. They were from Houston, Texas so we immediately had something in common. First, we drove through Old Town Salzburg, getting a quick tour of the major sights. Then, we drove out of Salzburg to get a look at the magnificent Palace of Leopoldskron. This is one of the houses used in the movie. The front of the palace was actually the back of the von Trapp house in the movie and includes the lake from the movie. The house is not open to the public because it is still someone’s residence. We then left on our way to Hellburnn Palace. On our way to Hellbrunn, we saw the wall and treeline used in the movie when Maria is singing “I Have Confidence”. Once at Hellbrunn, we got out of the van to see the famous gazebo in the movie. The gazebo is now locked for there have been too many injuries from visitors dancing around singing “I am 16”. From here, we got the opportunity to go down a toboggan run. It was so much fun and a very neat experience. The kids loved it too. In fact, we had a hard time explaining to Austin that he couldn’t keep doing it. We got back in the van and drove through the Salzkammergut Lake District where we got to do a little shopping. We also got to tour the Mondee Church, the grand wedding church from the movie. By now, our tour was just about over except for the drive back into Salzburg. Everyone enjoyed singing the music from the movie all the way back to Salzburg. It was after 1:00 before we arrived back to our apartment. We were expecting Lisa, Chance, Cole, Anne-Marie, Emma and Kaja to have arrived from Germany by this time, but they were not in Salzburg yet. Austin was not happy that his cousins were not there. We went to eat lunch while waiting on them and they finally arrived a little after we finished up lunch. All of us (4 adults and 6 children) walked to Mirabell Gardens. The Gardens includes the pegasus statue and the stairs which were the sites of the famous “Do, Re, Mi” song. In the movie, the children danced around the statue before lining up on the stairs. After walking around a little while, all 6 children managed to spot the playground close by. We had a little difficulty trying to figure out how to get to it, but when we did, we had to go down some stairs and through a tunnel. This playground had the tallest chute slide we’ve ever seen. Abby immediately wanted to slide down it. She came flying out of the slide. In fact, every time she did it someone had to catch her at the bottom. Mike went down once with Austin and Lisa went down with Chance. We all got a kick out of them. By this time though, the kids were getting hungry so we left the park looking for a place to eat. We settled on an outdoor seating in Alter Market. It worked out well because they had fast service and the kids could play in the plaza. After dinner, we all got ice cream per Chance’s request and headed back to the apartment. We were all able to get the kids to bed pretty early and the adults enjoyed sitting out on the terrace.

June 11th—Unfortunately, we were awoken early this morning (6:30 am)by Lisa. She had been sick all night long and needed us to help her with the boys. We've come to the conclusion that she has a “bug” and are just hoping that no one else gets it from her. After a slow start to the morning, Lisa, Anne-Marie and I went shopping at the Christmas in Salzburg and Easter in Salzburg stores. Mike offered to stay behind and watch 5 kids (we brought Cole with us). Mike was a brave man to watch that many kids at once! We made a quick dash through both stores looking at all the ornaments they had to offer. We made our purchases and headed back to the apartment to relieve Mike. All kids had done great and were highly entertained by each other. We all gathered up and headed downstairs to eat lunch. Mike and I had a taste of what it would be like to have 4 kids. Lisa stayed back at the apartment to rest so we took Chance and Cole with us. Luckily, all 6 children were very well behaved and the lunch was a success. After lunch, our visitors decided it was time for them to pack up and head back to Stuttgart, Germany. It was a lot of fun to see them and we look forward to seeing them again soon. After saying our goodbyes, we went back to the apartment to take naps so that we wouldn’t be tired for our fun evening. We left the apartment about 6:30 to head for Sternbrau Inn where the Sounds of Salzburg show is performed. We found a garden that had a playground so we stopped there first. Mike and Austin went to get McDonald’s for the kids to enjoy while playing. It was then time to go to the show. The show started at 8:30 and was a fun mix of music from “Sound of Music”, Mozart and yodeling. During the yodeling song, Austin was invited up on stage to dance. It was so cute watching him. The audience got a kick out of him too. Abby was too shy to participate, but still enjoyed the show. We arrived back at the apartment a little after 10:00 and all (even with naps) fell fast asleep.

The Hills are Alive...

June 9th--Today we travelled to Salzburg. We caught a train leaving Budapest at 11:00. We had open seating and were able to find our own 6 seat compartment on this train. It was absolutely wonderful because we had a lot of room to sprawl out. In fact, Austin did lay down and take a much needed nap. We arrived in Vienna around 2:00 and had to change trains. Luckily, this was really easy because the train we had to get on was right across from the one we just got off of. Before getting on the train though, we confirmed that it was the correct train and were told to go to the very first car because the air conditioner was working on that car. We were so glad to have gotten that information plus the car was pretty much empty and we got another compartment all to ourselves. This compartment was even better than the previous one because we had an outlet. So, I was able to update the blog and then we watched "The Sound of Music" on the computer all the way into Salzburg. It was neat watching the movie with the "real life" scenery going by outside the window. We arrived into Salzburg a little before 5:00 and then caught the bus to our apartment. After we got off the bus, we kind of stood there for a while because we had a hard time figuring out the map. We finally asked somebody where Linzer Gasse (the street of our apartment) was and they indicated that we were heading in the right direction. We arrived at the Frauenbergers Restaurant that is just below the apartments and run by the same owners of the apartment. We were greeted by Ingrid. She took us upstairs and showed us 3 different apartments we could choose from. They were all awesome and painted very colorful. The apartments have only been open for about a month after being totally refurbished. After getting settled in and making a quick run to the grocery store, we went downstairs to the restaurant to have dinner. It was then off to bed so that we can get up early for our "Sound of Music" tour in the morning.

Budapest at Best!

June 7th—We left the apartment fairly early this morning since we only had 2 days in Budapest. It was a warm, sunny day as we were leaving the apartment and walking towards the Great Synagogue. Our apartment is located in the Jewish Quarters so we were about a block away from the world’s second largest synagogue after New York’s. It was interesting walking into the synagogue because all the men, including Mike, were immediately handed a yamaka to wear. After walking through the synagogue, we went outside to the Tree of Life sculpture that was built on the site of mass graves of those killed by the Nazis. The willow tree makes an upside down menorah, each individual leaf lists the name of a victim, and pebbles represent prayers. We also walked through the Jewish museum which had very sad pictures of the victims in concentration camps. After leaving the synagogue, we walked down to the Vaci utca which is a hopping pedestrian boulevard that features Eastern Europe’s first McDonald’s. It was hard to convince the kids we were just looking at the McDonald’s not eating especially since it was getting close to lunch time. Speaking of lunch, we ended up walking to the end of Vaci utca to the Vorosmarty Square where Gerbeaud is located. Gerbeaud is the most famous restaurant in Budapest. We sat outside under big umbrellas which will become real important later on during our lunch. Gerbeaud is where we enjoyed our first Hungarian meal. Mike ordered a plate of Hungarian meats and I got a Hungarian salad. The part about the salad that made it Hungarian is that it had every kind of pepper (or to be correct I should call them paprikas) on it. Budapest is known for its paprika. It is used in a lot of different foods. Anyway, as we were eating, the clouds rolled in and it started raining. It wasn’t just sprinkling it was pouring down at times. This is when the big umbrella we were sitting under came into play. Since we weren’t prepared for the rain, we had no umbrellas, we decided to just stay put at the restaurant until the rain passed. This allowed us to order desert as well. The rain finally slowed enough to a drizzle that we were able to leave and start walking towards the Chain Bridge. The chain bridge is one of the world’s great bridges that connects Pest’s Roosevelt ter and Buda’s Adam Clark ter. It crosses over the Dunabe River that once separated the 2 cities (did you know that Buda and Pest were origainlly separate cities?). We enjoyed our walk across the bridge and up the funicular to Castle Hill. The clouds looked threatening at this point, but so far we had made it without getting wet. From Castle Hill, we walked past the National Dance Theater and the former Defense Ministery (that sill show war damage from WWII) on our way to Matthias Church. Before reaching the church, we got stuck in the rain again and took shelter against a building. It was at this time we decided to make a run for the church and get out of the rain. The church was pretty to see and a chance to stay dry for a while. Unfortunately, it wasn’t big enough to occupy our time long enough for the rain to stop. When we got back outside, we walked to the Fishermen’s Bastion. It looked like the façade of a fairytale castle. It was very impressive and we got some great views of the Danube River and the Hungarian Parliament from here. It is called Fishermen’s Bastion because in the Middle Ages, the fish market was just below here and it was actually guarded by fishermen. From here, we took shelter under a pavilion in a small park. We got some good laughs here because it was just us, 4 American’s, huddled under this pavilion until we looked up and were surrounded by an Asian tour group and a Hungarian band group also seeking cover. We quickly got pushed out of the way by the band group and were back out in the rain. Luckily, the rain stopped again and the band was setting up under this pavilion for a performance. Mike went to get us some snacks and we enjoyed the live music for a while. There were several people dancing around to the music as well. It was a fun afternoon, but we had had enough of fighting the rain so we decided to head back to the apartment. We weren’t at the apartment very long before we went to eat dinner. We went to a restaurant called Blue Rose. It is right next to the Jewish Synagogue so it’s not far from our apartment. We enjoyed more Hungarian food. Mike got goulash soup and I ordered beefsteak stroganoff. Both were very good! When we paid our bill, the waiter gave us a 10% discount for the next time we return and we told him we would be back tomorrow. When we got back to the apartment, we had an e-mail from our apartment we were renting in Salzburg. The e-mail informed us that the apartment had a leak and it was flooded so they wouldn’t be able to rent the apartment out. So, we had to do some quick searching for a new apartment.

June 8th—Today we were hoping for no rain, but nevertheless brought our umbrellas with us. We walked to the Great Market Hall. This is the popular Old World mall with produce, cheap eateries, and souvenirs. We first walked the bottom floor exploring all the heaps of paprika available. We were kind of doing some bargain shopping until we realized that paprika was being sold everyone and were getting confused. We settled on a booth where we got both hot and sweet paprika. We can’t wait to use it back in the States. We then wandered up the stairs where there are many places to eat and souvenir shop. We walked around the entire top floor looking at all the different Santa Claus’ available. We finally settled on the one we liked best. I never would have imagined that I’d find a Santa made in Hungary, but I did and am thrilled about it. It is absolutely gorgeous! After our purchase, we decided to eat lunch at the market. So, we went into a cafeteria style eating restaurant and again enjoyed some Hungarian food. Mike got “real” goulash and I got a stuffed paprika. Again very good! With our bellies very full, we left the Great Market Hall and caught the metro to the Andrassy street. This street is Budapest’s main boulevard lined with shops, theaters, and cafes. We strolled down the street and got a good feel for today’s urban Pest. Along the street was the Opera House so we walked into the entry of it, but did not take a guided tour. Once we reached Oktogon Street, we got on the metro and took it to the very end of Andrassy. This is where Millennium Monument is located. The monument was built to celebrate the city’s 1,000th birthday in 1896. From the monument, we walked into City Park. The kids immediately spotted a playground and ran to go play. It is in this park where the Szechenyi Baths is located. We weren’t sure if the kids were allowed in so Mike went to check it out while I watched the kids play at the park. When he came back, we were all so excited to know that we could all participate in taking to the water. Upon entering the bath, we got a personal changing cabin. This thing was about the size of a small entry closet. All 4 of us crammed in there to get our bathing suits on. The anticipation of getting in a heated swimming pool was almost more than we could all handle. The first bath we got into was about 30 degrees Celsius. It felt so good. We literally stayed in it all afternoon. The kids swam around. We were glad to see that Austin does remember how to swim. The other swimming pools we had encountered during our traveling have been too cold for him so he had a blast today. There was a center section of this bath that blew jets and when it wasn’t blowing jets, it had a current pool that rotated the water creating a kind of moving river. The middle bath was for swimming and was about 28 degrees Celsius and the other bath which was the warmest at about 38 degrees Celsius. Since I love “baths” so much, I had to at least go see how warm that other one felt. It was heavenly except for the old men in their speedos. J We had to drag ourselves out of the water because it was starting to get close to dinner time. We headed back to the apartment and quickly got ready for dinner. We decided to go back to the Blue Rose in order to use our coupon. We all enjoyed goulash soup tonight except Mike who had a cold, fruit soup. After dinner, the kids went to bed and the adults did some future trip planning. Luckily we found a replacement apartment in Salzburg, which is where we head tomorrow.

From a "Kuna" to a "Forint"

June 6th--Today was a travel day and we did not want to leave the beautiful paradise of Croatia. We could have stayed here for weeks, but we had to say goodbye to our apartment, our new friends, and Denis. He was the perfect host throughout the week and was even so nice to allow us to stay later than the standard "check out" time. When we did drive away from the apartment, he said goodbye and waved at us until our car was no longer in sight. We told the kids to wave goodbye to "Uncle" Denis. He was part of what made our time in Croatia so wonderful and we will definitely return there someday. After leaving the apartment, we drove into Trogir for lunch. Instead of eating at a restaurant, we returned to the local market for a quick lunch. We then headed to the airport for our flight. Thankfully, we arrived in plenty of time to return our rental car because it took Mike about 30 minutes to get the car turned in. We did all the standard check in procedure at the airport and boarded the plane. Our plane left Split about 3:00 and arrived in Budapest a little before 4:00. Thank God for short flights. Austin fell asleep before take off and didn't even know he was ever in the air. After arriving at the Budapest airport, we went looking for our driver that we had arranged with the apartment owner. We normally just use public transportation, but the apartment had offered this so we decided to take it. Well, no one was to be found. Mike called the numbers we had and talked to several people in broken English. We thought that this was going to be our first experience of not really having a place to stay... that it wasn't going to be legit. Luckily, we finally got a hold of the apartment manager who got us a taxi that took us straight to the apartment. Before leaving the airport, we got money out of the ATM and had to figure out how to convert Hungarian forints to dollars. Before heading to Croatia, we had gotten used to converting euros to dollars. Then, we arrive in Croatia where the money is "kuna". I was just getting the hang of converting that and now we are using Hungarian forints. Its a little more of a challenge because the exchange rate is about 200 forints to $1. It's definitely a little scary at first to type 40,000 into the ATM (to get $200). You pray that you got the exchange rate correct. I'm sure just about the time we leave Budapest I'll have it figured out. Then again, maybe not. After finally arriving at our apartment, we were greeted by Nora. She was very nice and helpful with the local area. After she left, we went to Subway for dinner. Abby had spotted it on our drive to the apartment and this is her all time favorite place to eat in the States. Not exactly "Hungarian" food, but we had tired and hungry kids (Hungry in Hungary!). As we were walking to Subway, Austin kept putting on the breaks and saying "I don't want to get on a subway!" Isn't it funny that before traveling, he would have never thought about the word "subway" in any other way than a place to eat. It has a whole new meaning to him now. We stopped by the grocery store right by our apartment and picked up just a few things since we are only here for 3 nights. All to bed early to rest up for our busy 2 days in Budapest.