Sound of Music Tour

Sound of Music Tour!

On Easter Sunday I received an email from Unc that started out like this : "So it's Easter and I'm here with Sparky who just threw up on my couch, and all I want is a new blog!!!!" This killer opening line was followed by a few threats and a ton of emoticons, but I've got to say - it worked.  Here I am posting pictures to at least 11 new blog updates (!) slowly but surely. Just a little taste of what's yet to come: the rest of Mom and Donna's visit (now almost two months ago), Dan's visit, my ski week with my school, bike trips all over creation on the first few springlike days here in Salzburg, and my trip to Ibiza and Madrid with Fleur, which included beaches, tapas, sangria, and an incident with a naked man in a public park. Don't worry Mom, it wasn't dangerous...except to my eyes which will never forget the awful image seared into them.  But you'll have to wait 10 posts to see that one.  It may take until July at this rate.

After we got our lay of the land by wandering the city and going up to the castle, Donna, Mom and I decided to bite the bullet and take the Sound of Music tour.  Actually it was one of the things that was on Mom's list of things to see/do in Salzburg - along with see a musical production, which I forgot to write about in the last blog post.  The plan was to see a ballet which I thought was at 8PM.  I had reserved 6Euro tickets at the theater, which was on our way to the city, so we thought we'd swing by and pick them up.  It turns out that the play was actually at 11.30AM or something ridiculous, and we'd missed the first half but could catch the second half if we wanted to.  The other production was the one at 8PM.  This one, Sleeping Beauty, was actually a kids' performance.  It actually turned out all right.  We saw the best of the ballet, and there was a ton of German narration, which meant I kept leaning over and translating to Donna, who would translate to Mom.  Nobody hushed us because we were surrounded by 5 year old girls, dressed in their Sunday best or princess dresses or dirndls, who had yet to learn how to whisper.  The performance was mostly cute, though at the end when we tried to use the restroom and the 5 year old girls pushed in front of us with absolutely no regard to lining up, it was less cute.
 Anyhow, the Sound of Music Tour was cold but lovely.  I had seen it all before, but it was nice to see it again with a different tour guide.  I learned things I hadn't the previous time - like the fact that Christopher Plummer (the Captain) refused to carry Gretel on his shoulders in the closing scene because she had put on so much weight during filming.  Apparently he told the directors that there was no way he was going to carry 'that little piglet' on his shoulders, so instead he carried a doll.  You can actually tell if you're looking for it in the scene!

The tour took us around the lakes, and eventually we ended up in Mondsee for strudel.  Unfortunately, what Mom and Donna really wanted wasn't strudel but pancakes, which the kitchen ran out of while we sat forever and waited for the waiter to take our order.  It turned out all right, though - the following day was "Pancake Day," the British version of Mardi Gras, so we ate pancakes for that instead.

My school was super nice to me and let me take Tuesday off, since one of the lessons was cancelled anyway, and the other was moved to Friday.  That meant we had the whole day to wander around the city, seeing the different sights like the market.  We also had the privilege of seeing tons of people in their ridiculous Faschings costumes.  For the Austrian version of Mardi Gras (Fasching) people dress up like they would for Halloween and eat marmalade-filled donuts.  After wandering around, we stopped for coffee at a cafe on the roof of a hotel with fabulous views of the city, then stopped for pancakes in honor of Pancake Day.  Finally, Mom and Donna joined me in my evening class, where my boys told them what they do for fun, where they live, and had the opportunity to ask questions.  It was fun having them there, showing them what my school looks like and introducing them to some of my favorite students.

That night we went to bed early to save our energy for the ski day ahead of us!

The infamous gazebo. Obligatory photo.

Standing in front of Wolfgangsee.  It was so cold!  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

A very cold Wolfgangsee

Aunt/niece

Mother/daughter

And all three of us

Sisters

 

Donna out on the dock taking photos

Mondsee church

My messy room.  Believe it or not, this is much cleaner than it was. Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna. 

The kitchen, courtesy of Aunt Donna

The kitchen from the other angle, with mom and my room in the background.  Another one courtesy of Aunt Donna.

If you're talking to me online, this is generally where I am sitting

Momma bear.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Aunt Donna on the bridge, photo from Donna's camera

At the market, photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Flowers at the market.  This photo is actually my own, though it's a copy of one that Donna took. 

Strange veggies in the market.  Donna's photo.

Cow made of buttons

Some school kids dressed up for Fasching. Donna's photo.

Fancy schmancy McDonald's sign. Donna's photo

View from the roof where we had coffee. Donna's photo

Roofs from the roof. Donna's photo.

The recycling system at one of my boys' schools.  Donna's photo.

   

Mom and Donna visit, first weekend

My March was full of craziness, though definitely a good kind of craziness.  Mom and Donna were the first to visit, followed by Dan, followed by a ski week with one of my boys' schools.  Mom and Donna landed on a Saturday morning, which meant that I was up at 5 to get to the airport in Munich by 9 (in case their flights arrived early).  I was a little drowsy when I got there but was excited.  Mom's flight was already on the board labelled 'descending,' which I took as a good sign.  I got myself a coffee and a pastry and camped out in front of the security doors....and waited.  And waited and waited.  The flight changed from 'descending' to 'landed' to 'baggage claim' and still no Mom.  My coffee was finished and at this point I had to use the bathroom pretty badly.  But Mom couldn't be that long, could she? I didn't want to miss her, since neither she nor Donna had working cell phones, a fact that made us all nervous.  Meanwhile Donna's flight changed from 'descending' to 'landed' to 'baggage claim,' too, and Mom's flight was taken off the board to make room for other flights.  I waited some more.  Around 11.30 I finally decided to ask for assistance.  I called Dad.  Dad is not a morning person, and especially not a 4 in the morning person.  I'm not sure that he even woke up to answer the phone, but he somehow managed to tell me that Mom had in fact gotten on the plane and should be there.  Then he told me something really inspiring like 'it's not time to panic' and promptly fell back to sleep.  Thanks, Dad.  Almost as helpful as the time we had a mouse under the tent (that I thought was actually in the tent because I could feel it moving around) and Mom instructed me to 'deal with it' when I woke her up.  Very helpful.

After Dad's inspiration, I asked the lady at the information counter.  She cheerfully informed me that someone's luggage had probably been lost, and that I should just wait.  Ugh.  At this point I was grumpy, and I had to pee so badly I was sure I would wet myself in the airport.  Finally I decided that it was a life or death (slash eternal embarrassment) situation, and ran to the restroom for 5 minutes.  During this time I left my post at the doors.  When I returned, Mom was on the other side of the doors waving to me.  Apparently she had been waiting there the whole time, running back and forth between the doors hoping to get a glimpse of me so she could tell me that Donna had lost her luggage and would be a while.  I, however, had been standing between the doors in such a way that I couldn't see her, and she couldn't see me.  It was all very dramatic at the time - everything's dramatic when you've been up for ages and are concerned that your mother and aunt have potentially made it to an unknown destination and are somehow wandering around Europe totally lost and without communication devices.  Oh well.  In the end, Donna managed to call me on someone else's cell phone, and together we sorted out the luggage dilemma.  It actually made getting back to Salzburg much easier.  

Back in Salzburg, we fit in as much shopping as we could before the stores closed for the weekend at 6.  Lufthansa was kind enough to offer to cover the cost of any replacement items while they located Donna's suitcase (note to self: always fly Lufthansa when going through Philly with luggage, as they will inevitably lose it and I can get a 50% off shopping spree out of it).  Then we wandered, ate, and passed out.

The next day was cold and grey, but was thankfully not rainy, so we hiked up to the fortress to see the city from above.  Donna took about 8 million pictures of every door in the fortress, which actually turned out quite nice though we gave her a hard time about it.  We wandered until closing time, which was early because it was Sunday, then wandered around the city again and had another delicious meal, though I can't for the life of me tell you where or what we ate that night.  Regardless, all of our meals were good that week!

On the train back from Munich, photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Take two.

You could look directly into my bedroom window from Mom and Donna's hotel room!  I'm pointing to my window, though actually it's the window to the left of where my finger is.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Donna taking pictures in Mirabell gardens

Salzburg.  Mom is on the left looking up at the statue.

Statue in the cool cemetery we stumbled upon

Mom and Donna checking out the little chapel that smelled like incense

Sorry Mom, you're making a funny face.  But Donna looks happy so I had to post it.  On our way up to the fortress

Still climbing up to the fortress

At the top, Mom checking out the view

Trying to get her bearings

The view from above.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Marionette exhibit in the fortress

Donna and I as marionettes

Mom as a marionette, right before she epically failed at taking our picture.  Instead of looking through the viewfinder, she tried to look through the flash and then wondered why it wasn't working.

Mom looking through the wrong part of the camera and laughing hysterically.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna.

Salzburg from the fortress

The fortress

More Salzy

Enjoying a little momma bear time at the fortress. Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna/

Hiking back down.  Donna was somewhere taking pictures of doors

Mommy, looking very happy

And again

The descent

Mom

Mom again

Momma bear and Kerbear

Doesn't she look happy?

Donna doing her thing

One of my goals for Salzburg was to get a picture alone in front of Mozart's house.  It's almost always overrun with tourists.  This isn't alone, but it's pretty darn close!  Only one tourist managed to sneak in there.