So Saturday night Emily, Judith and I drove from Mangoldsall (Judith’s home village) to Salzburg. It was a 3 hour drive and we arrived at 11pm. I was pretty tired during the drive but stayed awake the whole time, which was a good thing because German radio plays some real gems at night. We heard Final Countdown (which many may recognize as song that the Duke Marching Band Plays or as the song Gob Bluth uses in his shows), a song about a jetlagged heart (which Emily woke up to) and a song about Joan of Arc. Like I said, all winners.
We awoke the next day at 7:30 so we could drive 2 hours to Spittal Austria where they have an English speaking church that we attended. The songs were in German but the sermon was in English. After church we met Judith’s Austrian friend Florian who drove us to a mountain for hiking. We drove up 85% of the mountain and hiked the peak. It was all very Sound of Music - except Emily and I looked like TOURISTS. Florian told Emily that her giant straw hat made her look like a tourist - whoops. Around 2:30 we stopped for lunch and I ordered what I believed to be an Austrian crepe with apples and raisins. It turned out to be essentially a very large round pound cake served with cranberry sauce. Needless to say it was delicious and needless to say I only finished half of it. Who knew you could order cake as a legitimate lunch in Austria? Clearly this is a place where I need to spend more time. I also had a very good Austrian sparkling lemonade which Florian recommended. On the way back to the car (which involved more uphill walks and downhill walks) we ran into some “friendly” cows. They barely tolerated us taking pictures of them. A few minutes later we spied two sheep/rams and Emily got really excited. She started to run towards them. Unfortunately they did not share her enthusiasm and were even less pleased with our photo shoot than the cows. Oh well.
We finished up our hike, returned to the church (from that morning, it had some apartments upstairs where we were staying) to shower. Around 6:30 we met Florian again and he drove us to a CASTLE that the church owns for convention and retreat purposes. But seriously, it was a castle – complete with a prayer tower. Emily and Judith were in heaven. At one point Emily noted how the lawn overlooking the river was “a perfect place to have melancholy thoughts”. We went inside and met the people living there – mostly interns connected with the church and after much Duke style debate (in which nobody can decide anything or make any plans) we watched The Young Victoria. Did I mention that we were in a castle? After the movie and a make shift dinner of 2 apples, 7 pocki sticks, and several cheese twist crackers Florian drove Judith, Emily and I back to the church. On our way home, we were stopped by the Austrian Polizei!!! Apparently it was a normal weekend checkpoint and luckily we all passed!! So no Austrian jails for us (this weekend at least…). Since it was very late Judith, Emily, and I got ready and went to bed. And we fell asleep – to the rain. Austria is wonderful place.
We awoke the next day at 7:30 so we could drive 2 hours to Spittal Austria where they have an English speaking church that we attended. The songs were in German but the sermon was in English. After church we met Judith’s Austrian friend Florian who drove us to a mountain for hiking. We drove up 85% of the mountain and hiked the peak. It was all very Sound of Music - except Emily and I looked like TOURISTS. Florian told Emily that her giant straw hat made her look like a tourist - whoops. Around 2:30 we stopped for lunch and I ordered what I believed to be an Austrian crepe with apples and raisins. It turned out to be essentially a very large round pound cake served with cranberry sauce. Needless to say it was delicious and needless to say I only finished half of it. Who knew you could order cake as a legitimate lunch in Austria? Clearly this is a place where I need to spend more time. I also had a very good Austrian sparkling lemonade which Florian recommended. On the way back to the car (which involved more uphill walks and downhill walks) we ran into some “friendly” cows. They barely tolerated us taking pictures of them. A few minutes later we spied two sheep/rams and Emily got really excited. She started to run towards them. Unfortunately they did not share her enthusiasm and were even less pleased with our photo shoot than the cows. Oh well.
We finished up our hike, returned to the church (from that morning, it had some apartments upstairs where we were staying) to shower. Around 6:30 we met Florian again and he drove us to a CASTLE that the church owns for convention and retreat purposes. But seriously, it was a castle – complete with a prayer tower. Emily and Judith were in heaven. At one point Emily noted how the lawn overlooking the river was “a perfect place to have melancholy thoughts”. We went inside and met the people living there – mostly interns connected with the church and after much Duke style debate (in which nobody can decide anything or make any plans) we watched The Young Victoria. Did I mention that we were in a castle? After the movie and a make shift dinner of 2 apples, 7 pocki sticks, and several cheese twist crackers Florian drove Judith, Emily and I back to the church. On our way home, we were stopped by the Austrian Polizei!!! Apparently it was a normal weekend checkpoint and luckily we all passed!! So no Austrian jails for us (this weekend at least…). Since it was very late Judith, Emily, and I got ready and went to bed. And we fell asleep – to the rain. Austria is wonderful place.
Here are some things to avoid or else you will instantly be branded as a tourist:
- - do not wear tennis shoes everywhere (which I have done – apparently they are the only shoes I packed for Salzburg/Spittal)
- - do not wear giant beach style straw hats when mountain climbing
- - when your new Austrian friend mentions that we can go to Italy for dinner (in all seriousness), do not laugh
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| Emily and her new "friend" |
Quote of the day: “It’s been hours since I’ve stolen a flower!” Emily Gall
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| Emily and I on TOP of Golddeck Mountain, Austria |
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