Innsbruck, day 2

Started with a visit to the Glockenmuseum. It's both a museum and still a founder making bells, mostly big ones. Very interesting, and they even explained about tuning them and had some you could whack to check out the sound.

I think we took a slight wrong turn and ended up with bruschetta for lunch, with a proprietor who decided to speak Italian to us. Not sure why.

Then back to Tirol, with a visit to the Hofkirche (all about Emperor Maximilian I) and the Tirolean folk culture museum. Traditional clothes, elaborate carvings on everything from tools to furniture, and more. Both the church and the museum were well worth a visit.

An hour rest in the Hofgarten, then off to a Tirolean dinner plus music and dance show. The show was for tourists, of course, but very well done and quite varied. A fun evening.

Innsbruck, day 1

Walked into town along the Inn river. The old town is very attractive though noisy and full of tourists (we've gotten spoiled bring in less popular places). Took a very nice 1 hour guided walking tour, then found a place to rest/people watch in a park. Then a visit to the Golden Roof Museum. Interesting audio tour though the museum itself wasn't so exciting. Dinner of kāsepātzele, salad and local (we think) wine. Then home for laundry and homework (readings for the seminar).

Innsbruck, notes coming in a separate post

From Wörtersee to Innsbruck

Quite a day! First challenge was to escape the Iron Man race. That accomplished, made our way to Millstatt and had a lovely panoramic cruise on the Millsättersee.

Then to the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern and over the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. Basically, it was a trip up and over the mountains, with spectacular views of the Alps, and especially the Großglockner, which is the highest mountain in Austria. Didn't have time for any hikes, and most visitor centers/exhibits were closed, but stopped for many scenic overlooks. Saw spectacular waterfalls, beautiful flowers (at lower elevations) and...marmots. They were to busy running away, so no picture. We're really happy we're ahead of the season! The thought of the enormous  parking lots bring full is pretty scary. Fortunately, they were all pretty much empty.

Gorgeous, but made us much later than we expected. Only option for dinner was McDonalds, which turned out to be a welcome respite from all the meat! Yep, grilled chicken Cesar salads, then on to Innsbruck.

Museum day

Rainy day, so headed to two museums. First was the Handwerksmuseum which turned out to be about "trades". There were exhibits about everything from the expected blacksmith, whose sign is in the photo, and barrel makers to hairdressers and glasses makers. Many of the tools were from the 50's and 60's, or so it appeared. Hair dryers from that time look like torture instruments.

The other museum was a folk culture museum, and was in many ways similar. It was in a palace, though, and included other stuff like an old school room (complete with big abacus), equipment for mountain sports (my favorite was the lineup of mountain climbing boots as they have evolved from the late 1800's to now), complete huts for dairy maids who made butter and cheese up in the high mountains with the cows, etc.

Wörtersee area

I seem to have done something so I can't comment on the same post as the pictures, so today it's separate posts. Oh well. Here's today's story and what the pictures are.

Stop 1 was the Burg Hochosterwitz, a medieval fortress that was never conquered. You get the idea seeing it perched up there on the hill. Then there are the 14 gates on the narrow path to the castle, each with a different method to do in the enemy. Met a nice young couple at the bottom, and ended up wandering around the whole castle together. He's Czech, she's Russian and then there's us. Several people were so curious they actually asked us how we all knew each other. Good fun.

Picnic lunch, as has become our habit, but particularly nice today with beautiful weather and beautiful views. Then to the Pyramidenkogel, a huge wooden observation tower from which you get a spectacular view of the whole lake and also the surrounding mountains. The tower itself is very interesting construction, and I think, beautiful though a bit odd sticking up off the top of a hill.

Wörtersee area

Graz to Auen (Wörtersee)

Left our wonderful hosts in Graz and headed west. First stop a museum about hunting and agriculture. I know what you're thinking! But it came highly recommended and turned out to be really good. Very interactive, trying to identify animals by habitat, by fur or feathers, sounds and more. It was made extra challenging because we didn't know what most of the animals were to start with.

Next stop, the Lipizzaner stud farm. Gorgeous horses. The best part was the barn with moms and foals.

Then on to our new home for a couple days in the Wörtersee area. It's beautiful, but very crowded at the moment. It seems there is an Iron Man on Sunday, which will complicate our departure a few days from now with road closures. We'll manage! The picture of the lake is from our table at the restaurant where we had dinner. We tried kasknudeln, a local specialty. It's sort of a giant ravioli stuffed with fresh cheese. The cheese was a little bit sour, though not as much as yogurt or sour cream. Very tasty.

Graz, day 2

Gorgeous day with beautiful weather and lots of fun stuff. Spent most of the day at the open air museum in Stübing. It's basically old farm buildings from all over Austria, so you can see regional differences. We still don't know what the little hut is that was made completely off bark. Sorry, no picture here. But you can see the beer keg in an ice box!

Then went with our past of our host family to the berg, to see views of the city and the famous clock tower. Introduced the 11 year old daughter to knock knock jokes (she started the joke telling, in English!).

Then home for a delicious BBQ, with various kinds of meat and grilled veggies. Dessert was also a local specialty--an ice cream version of an apricot dumpling. Yum. Stuffed! Good thing we're walking so much.

Graz

Drove to Graz on pouring rain. Managed to park fairly easily, and by then the train had let up. A very nice woman in the tourist office gave us an excellent brochure for a walking tour, an intro to traditional foods of the area and told us where her favorite ice cream place is. By then, the rain stopped, so we got the walking tour (and ice cream) with very nice weather. Lovely city. Very quiet today with a lot of candles in street memorials because 4 people were killed by a crazy man who drove a car straight into them.

Then to our couch surfing hosts for a nice dinner and good conversation.

The photos are one of the old buildings in Graz (maybe you can spot the lips and noses amidst the flowers) and a double-decker bicycle rack outside the train station.

Day at Dachstein

Spectacular day! Nice weather for going up to the high mountains. Visited an ice cave (spectacular ice formations), then took the second stage of the cable lift even farther up where we got spectacular views of what remains of the Dachstein glaciers and of the lakes/valleys/towns far below.

Back for a short nap, then dinner--more saibling, and decided to try the trout. Both were delicious. Hungry for vegetables, though. We'll have to work on that...

Raining again tonight, but at least we had a clear day for our trip up the mountain. Quack. Wish we could send some home.

A day in the salt mines, literally

Started the day touring a salt mine. Turns out it is the largest active salt mine in Austria, and they have a lot of salt mines. This particular one was also used to store art treasures the Nazis had "collected" during WW2 to keep them safe from Allied bombing. Very interesting and fun. The picture is a chapel the miners had. The light is just ordinary light bulbs behind blocks of salt.

Then a hike from Gössl, on Grundlsee, to Toplitzsee (thanks Brooke, for the suggestion). Lovely-- felt like a rain forest though fortunately not actively raining. Then a wander around Bad Aussee. How do that many dirndle shops stay in business! And another hike, this time to a waterfall up the hill (mountain) from our pension.

Dinner today around 2pm. Some kind of roast pork and beef liver. Both good, but not exceptional.

Altaussee, day 1

Successfully made it from Munich to our cozy pension in Altaussee.  Went to a botanical garden and saw our first Edelweiss. As you can see (at least, I hope you can), its not quite in bloom yet, but it's good enough for us. The mountains are spectacular, but it would certainly be nicer if it weren't raining and cold. Oh well.

Dinner tonight was the fish called saibling,  right out of the lake. Yum. Also spinach dumplings (knödel), also delicious.

Day at the Deutsches Museum

Photo is of a flat knitting machine at the Deutsches Museum, a humongous technology museum. Basically, spent the day there looking at everything from mining equipment to textile equipment to musical instruments. Dinner at a traditional beer hall: pig's knuckle and cheese spätzele (and of course beer).

Munich

Started with a 3 hour walking tour around the Marienplatz area and, of course, saw the glockenspiel. Interesting, but then had to go home for a nap. For lunch, leberkäse semmel with sweet mustard. It's basically a slab of some kind of meat loaf on a roll and has nothing to do with either liver or cheese. Also tried roasted pork burger, which was sort of like a BBQ pork sandwich (burger send to mean sandwich). It was good, but not as good as NC BBQ.

After nap, a couple hours at the Bavarian National Museum. Nice, though we were still too tired to pay full attention. The violin is some kind of metal, out maybe just enclosed. Couldn't understand the label. Would love to hear what it sounds like. Resonator violin? Then dinner at a small beer hall. The beer was, of course, great. For food we had a sampler platter of Bavarian sausages. Very good, though we prefer spicier ones.

Wir sind in München

We're here, settled in our room/apartment. Time for a short exploration, then Lebanese dinner which seems to be what's local for our neighborhood. Yum. Now to bed!

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OK. I've added a widget so you can subscribe and get new posts in your email--if I've done it correctly. Welcome if you want to do that. No worries if not! I expect there will be approximately one post per day while we're traveling. If you do this, do check your spam folder...

Getting Ready

Only a week to go... Lots to do, but mentally, we're ready!

This trip was prompted by my acceptance into the Salzburg Global Seminar as an SJSU Fellow (http://www.sjsu.edu/salzburg/ if you want to know more about it). Henry was accepted as an observer, which means he can listen but has to keep his mouth shut. That will be a challenge, I'm sure!

Of course, we had to add vacation to it, so we're spending three weeks traveling around Austria before attending the seminar. We're flying into Munich, so the trip starts there.... next week!