Days 26 & 27: The Hills are Alive!

Salzburg is certainly a beautiful place. I started out fresh this morning and walked into town. It was easy to find in the light.What is magnificent about the long walk into town is that Nonnberg Abbey Towers over the road which brings me to town. This is the place where Maria was in the convent And also where she married Captain Von Trapp.

Having learned from the tour guide in Croatia I went directly for the festung Which went up the side of the mountain to the fort on top.  I was in one of the first groups to get up there. Much of the castle itself was closed for renovation. The living quarters of the kings and queens were closed. However, it did offer a beautiful views of the surrounding region. The mountains were so beautiful and surrounded the entire city. I walked around for a while and then went down the same way I came up. So much easier than walking.

My next stop was the cathedral of Salzburg. The cathedral is a beautiful building which sits in the center of the city. It is surrounded by large squares just bustling with people. When I go to the cathedral it was closed and people were waiting to enter for an organ concert. I gladly buy a ticket and when the doors open I was let into a most magnificent cathedral.As the time for the concert grew near, The church begin to fill up. The Organist began to play. He began with a piece by Brahms written for the organ.  It was a beautiful piece. He went on to play for an hour using different pieces from different composers. I preferred the pieces from the newer composers as they were more melodious.

After the concert, I began to walk through the city. The city had a very narrow streets  with shops on each side. All of the shops were very high-end suggest Armani and places like that. These jobs have no interest for me. There was a market in one of the little squares where people will their carts in and sold their produce.  Someone is selling sandwiches and pastries to be eaten there. I bought a cheese sandwich and sat on the steps of one of the churches, had my lunch and watch people go by. The streets were just packed with people. It was like being in a herd of cattle just walking slowly and one direction.

I walk till the end of town. There was a high cliff here but there were two cut outs that took you into another part of the city. There was no place to walk to get through the cut outs so I headed towards the river. I stopped to get an ice cream cone which had become a daily ritual. A bad ritual. The road along the river was just as crowded but there were places to sit and many people were just sitting along the banks. The shops here tend to be less expensive and there were lots of  fast food places.  The weather was still pretty pleasant but it was hot sitting in the sun. I sat by the river for an hour or so. I decided that I would wait till tomorrow to explore the other side of the river. I mosey on back to my hotel.  It was a good time to take a rest and put my feet up. Both of my feet are swelling in my legs are very sore.

Much to my dismay, when I returned to my hotel the Internet was not working and would not work for the rest of my visit. This is why three days are being done in one day  on the blog. I spoke to the woman at the front desk and she began to cry. You were not the first person she said and there’s nothing I can do about it. The manager just said it’s not working and that’s it. I was most unhappy. So I went upstairs to my room and I rested. About  6 PM, I decided I wanted dinner so I would eat at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It was called the Giacomo‘s and the food was fair at best. I would not recommend it. I would’ve been better going back to the place I ate last night which was fantastic. That was trattoria Campania.

After dinner I decided to take walk back into town to see all of the important buildings lit up. Unfortunately none of them were lit up. The place was a ghost town. All the shops are closed at six and all the people were gone. There was a concert outside the cathedral and people were just beginning to leave. Some of the outside cafés were open and concert goers were having late dinners.  There was a little to see, so I went back to my hotel.

After a good nights sleep, I checked into the hotel for breakfast. The breakfast was good but expensive. It was $20 a person. This morning I decided to check out the tram and take it to the train station so that I could be sure I was going to be on the right train the next morning. I got to the train station by using tram number five. I was told the ticket booth that all I needed was my Eurail pass And I was all set. Now it was time to explore the other side of the river.

I began my exploration with the palace Mirabel. This had been built by Kaiser Franz Josef I.  It was a beautiful complex of gardens and fountains. There were three weddings going on in the building so much of it was closed to the public. One of the weddings, the groom was wearing lederhosen. It was interesting to see. Across the street from the Palace , Was a church that was there for the use of the Kaiser. It was nothing special. I was very disappointed in the lack of design. I spent an hour roaming around the Gardens and then I move on.

I want to see the areas that were involved with Mozart.  This was a very big disappointment. There was little emphasis on anything about him. There was a museum that was part of a school of music that was on this day only open to students. The house where he lived was there and there was a long line to get into it. I chose to pass that up and just continued walking. I eventually decided  that there was little to see you on that side of the river and walk back to the other side and sat by the river again. I walk through the streets again just to see if I had missed anything. Cafés were starting to fill up so I picked one to have my dinner. I chose trattoria Domani. It was good but no where’s near as good as the first night.

After dinner I walked back to town. I took notice of all the buildings I had seen what a beautiful city Salzburg is. What I found interesting is that I had not had any encounters with any of the local people. I had spoken to some British people and some Canadians but no locals. They were not  terribly friendly. It was hard to find people who spoke English. The other thing I noticed was a definite lack of Americans. Usually you find large groups of Americans traveling in Europe at this time. This was not the case. I’m not sure why but they weren’t there.

I got back to my hotel and began my preparations for my journey to London.  I checked with the woman at the desk about the tram running on Sunday. She assured me that the number five would take me right to the train station. A pack my bags and went to sleep fairly early as I wanted to take the 9 AM train to Munich.

Day 25: Thinking About Stuff

Well most of the group is gone. There’s three people still left and I met them for breakfast this morning. I would be the last one to leave. Well most the group is gone. There’s three people still left and I met them for breakfast this morning. I would be the last one to leave. Dinner last night was at a place that was just so made the tourists  The place we had our farewell dinner last night was so made for tourists but it was a lot of fun.

We got there and there was some people dress the native costumes handing us plums and of course alcohol. I’m really very tired of the alcohol. Every place we go is just all alcohol. That’s one of the reasons I skipped one of the extra tour because it was a winetasting. Every restaurant we went into that was part of the tour started and ended with some type of alcohol.  I found it very tiring. I can go  into all the bars and not be tempted. But it’s these little things of Brandy that are native alcohol or native wines that I think well maybe I could just try it. But I know I can’t! To me, that’s a problem with this tour.

 Back to the dinner, along with the people handing stuff out there with two people playing musical instruments. There was a woman playing a bass and a man playing accordion dressed in traditional costumes.  We were seated a long table and then other tourists came in behind us. There was a group of Japanese and then I think it looked like everybody else was Italian. Once everybody was in there, more people join the group that we dressed in traditional costumes. Not only did we have music , but they also began to dance. Some of the dancers will rather unique like one where they kept taking the hat off the person next to them and put it on their head and the hats keep going round and round. They had volunteers go up and do it. Josh from our group and Richard to got up and did it for the men and Leslie and Juanita for the women.It was fun but I have to admit it was like being at a wedding where we really didn’t know  anybody at the wedding.

Although the evening was fun, food was terrible. After all the good food we had had put the two weeks it was a shame we ended on such a bad food no. However we had a great evening.  Before we went out to dinner we sat around the table and had a session of people talking about their favorite part of the trip. I know I’ve been rather critical of the group but they had some really nice things to say about me. And as I did have an opportunity to individually speak with each person in the group many of them had started to grow on me and in the end it was an enjoyable trip. They were good company  for the most part.

Today I spent a little time walking around the downtown but really didn’t stay very long. Once it’s time to move it’s time to move. I checked over my train tickets and realize that I had eight minutes to make one train to the next. Having been on this train before and realizing that it was 43 minutes late the last time I took it I decided Bag the train and take a bus. The bus cost €25 with everything. It was leaving at 1:30 and it was going to get me there at 5:30. My train wasn’t leaving until 340 and was not getting me  here until 8 o’clock. I thought the best option was the bus and I do believe I was right. Even though the bus was an hour late because of the line at the border between Slovenia and Austria it was still worth it to take the bus. The scenery today was magnificent. The Alps are so beautiful and majestic in the villages all have that alpine look what a great experience.  The scenery today was magnificent. The Alps is so beautiful and majestic in the villages I’ll have that Alpine look what a great experience I was very lucky because when I got off the bus it was pretty desolate at this particular bus stop. I cab happen to come  around corner and I took it to my hotel.

My hotel is very comfortable and I have a very large space. The weather is cool and I’m able to open the windows rather than use the air-conditioner. The only drawback the hotel is that it is 25 minute walk to the downtown . I know I’ll manage but I got lost going both ways. I can’t let that happen tomorrow I have to start learning to read a map again. Anyhow, I walk downtown and I had dinner at a small outdoor Trattoria. It was lovely. The food was wonderful and there was some famous Czech  Opera singer eating at the table across from me. I didn’t know him but I did find them on the Internet and it is certainly quite accomplished. Anyway I finally get home even if I did get lost and go around about. I’m staying in a lovely neighborhood. So tomorrow will be another day. And I get to see Salzburg. Good night!

Day 24: A Day at Lake Bled

 This morning was another early day. We were off to Lake bled. It’s one of the few things I’ve really heard about in this area. I was excited to see it. Unfortunately it was raining and overcast. This prevented the lake to have the emerald green color that it hasn’t so many pictures. However we made the best of it.

Only 12 of us decide to go on this trip  today. We boarded the bus and away we went. As it was early everybody was quiet except for the tour guide who I wish I had been quiet. It took about an hour to get there. The first thing we did was to walk and climb steps up to a castle on the hill which overlooks the lake. The castle was nicely restored  and they have different areas in the castle showing the different types of work that was done on a daily basis on the castle grounds. The most interesting was a print shop. They had a replica of the Gutenberg printer and the young man that was working it gave us a demonstration of how they printed in those days. That certainly would make getting textbooks and other things so much more difficult today.

After a short time with castle and taking in the views, we boarded the bus again and went over to the banks of the lake where we were going to get a boat to take us over to the island in the lake. The island had a small church and I and little else. We got to the shore and to the boat house but we’re told we needed to walk down to a different departure point. We did that and  we boarded  hey both that would needed to be rode over to the island. The lake a lot of swimming but it does not allow motorboats. I guess you might say it was similar to a gondola in Venice but this boat had two ores and moved us fairly quickly over to the island.

 Once on the island they were 100 steps to go up to the church. The church was very pretty and you could ring the bell from inside the church. Everybody was ringing the bell. There were some original frescoes that have been left on part of the wall. Other than that the church been completely rebuilt over the years. There was a clock tower Where are you could climb up and get a beautiful view. I chose the view from in front of the church. From this view you could see the summer home in separate tea house of Tito the former ruler of Yugoslavia.  We had about 30 minutes free time at the church which was really enough. We got back on the same boat and were safely deposited upon the shores of the lake.

We boarded the bus and said goodbye to the lake, and made our way to a small village for lunch. If nothing else overseas adventure travel feeds us well. They just keep you stuffed. The town was Radovljica.  It was a quaint little town with several cafés and restaurants. The main street was cobbled and the buildings were certainly original. When we got there it was pretty quiet and we went right into our restaurant which was also a gingerbread factory. We were taken right to the basement so that we could get the pitch on why we should be buying their gingerbread figures. They were not really meant for eating,  they were meant for giving and for keepsakes. Some of the ones they had on display where is much is 70 years old. Pretty good without molding!

We then were brought upstairs and taken to our table. It was really a very pretty dining room and it had a view of the mountains. What I didn’t realize is that Slovenia has part of the Alps running through the northern part. The scenery  of the Alps is stunning.  The lunch was quite hearty and included locally  made sausages, beef rolls with plums, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. It also included soup which was the consummate with noodles and a little beef and a salad with pumpkin seed oil dressing. It was quite good. After lunch we walked around the village a little bit and then we were back on the bus and on our way back to Ljubljana.

 Back in town we are on our own. I’ve been up early so I took a little rest and then went back out and walked around the city. It was dark and overcast but the cool temperatures felt wonderful. It was most enjoyable. I met the group from Chicago for dinner at the burger bar. The burgers were delicious and the company was delightful.  After dinner I walked around and took some photos of the city at night. It’s a beautiful city  but has little history a significance in the big picture of the area.

Time for bed and to get ready for our last full day together. The group will be dispersing on Thursday morning. So we’re all going to have dinner tomorrow night for a farewell moment. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. As time is going on there is certain people on the tour That I have become very fond of. There are others, oh well! Like I said it’s time for bed.