Oh dear...I'm very well behind. And this post is no NewYear's-resolution post, either! I'm just trying to get some things down before I lose them. No promises, mister!
Speaking of NewYear's Eve though, we spent that sleeping. Our plane touched down at 4:30 after...19 hours or so? of travel...and, lucky enough to have good neighbors who cooked us dinner, we crashed immediately afterward. It was no later than 7pm.
There are updates from our trip but they have yet to arrive from Gmail, so I am running off to spend an evening with my wife, which has not been happening since she is falling asleep every day at 6 or so. Rockin' new year!
Following are notes taken from our trip.... supporting photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/verasken
Dec 11th
Well we arrived in Budapest on the evening of the 11th, which was Thursday night there. We only picked up a rental car and stayed the night, but received 2 parking tickets in that short time. If you think Hungarian is difficult to understand, try their parking signs!
Dec 12th
The next day we drove west, past Vienna and along the north edge of the Alps, around Salzburg and turning south into the Alps to reach Veronika’s sister Judit’s new apartment, where she is working there as a nutritionist in a hospital. It was snowing for most of the ride and still the cars drove as fast as possible, usually around 120-140mph, but once we left the snow belt it picked up to 150+. I guess that’s around 90mph. Makes you pay attention! We did notice a few castles in the Alps and quite a few tunnels through the mountains. These tunnels were rounded while all the tunnels around Vienna were squared. I guess those were going under roads, but in some places you would think cows. They seem to like tunnels here.
We found Judit’s place while in the dark, with only printed directions from Google, which, as good as they were, did not really ‘get’ all the German, and could not make sense of the circles that appeared above the main road. We were surprised to find that she lives in a tiny postcard-perfect ski resort town, its only main road winding tightly through European chalets covered in snow with warmly glowing windows and coach lamps. Her place is at the end in a less romantic building, but with a million dollar view of the alps from her balcony. In walking distance is the town marketplace, considered the most beautiful in Europe. Good job hunting!
The kids were excited to see their Aunt Judit and the played until late into the night, still not adjusted to the timezone change. At 11pm we all went to bed but Simon wanted to sit up with Judit on her floor mattress to “wait for the sun to come up” so they could go out and build a snowman. After a few minutes of sitting in the dark he was asleep.
Dec 13th
We spent this day leisurely, everyone was tired including Jan Bacsi (Uncle Jan) who arrived after midnight the night before. He and I picked up a table Judit had ordered while the girls took Simon and Anna outside to play and walk in the snow, and later we all took a drive that ended up at Hohenwerfen, a castle where an old Clint Eastwood war movie had been filmed called “Where Eagles Dare”. A small tram took us up the steep hillside into the castle, where in the medieval courtyard was a Christmas market lit with holiday lights and fires in caldrons, decorations, booths with crafts, hot wine, and bratwurst, and the sound of a live chorus bouncing around all the walls. Simon was so excited about the train he wanted to go back down and ride it again immediately. He did not stop reminding us.
Dec 14th
In order to fulfill Simon’s latest urgent desire of sledding, after seeing a high-dollar sled in the store the night before, and mine and Jan’s desire to go skiiing, we drove through the mountains to another town to find a sled and go skiing. Not only did we find a super little tobaggon for Simon, we also managed to get our cars up a windy one-lane road to a sledding center, after getting stuck a few times. As it turned out, the kids just rent sleds there and run down the road itself! Oops – not too pre-schooler-friendly – so the girls took the kids home to sled while Jan and I went to the ski mountain, where we skii’d until dark surrounded by unbelievable scenery . As I understand it the kids were pulled along in their sled surrounded by their mother and aunt, but I am sure they had a great time too.
15 December 2008
Simon coined my new favorite phrase today, describing the evening as “it’s a lotta dark!”. We wanted to get the train to Salzburg today, but ended up sleeping until after 8. So we just took an undirected drive looking for stuff. We found the less-impressive little castle called Klammstein castle on top of a low but steep – hill, however, it was closed, along with all the restaurants in the country. Monday seems to be reserved for the tourist industry day off. Anyhow we drove through a bunch of ski towns, including Muhlbach which Jan and I had skii’d yesterday, and one really big one called Bad Hofgastein. The highlight of the day was when the main road just stopped at a train yard. You drive your car onto a train, which ferries you through the mountain and to the other side. The snow over there was tremendous and still coming down. The train station is at very high elevation, and we drove down and around to reach another beautiful little town (Obervellach). After resorting to a grocery store for food we had to race back up the mountain Bond-style to catch the train back.
16 December 2008
This day we actually planned out the night before, more or less. We wanted to see some more local sights, AND see Judit’s office and have lunch at the cafeteria there. So we spent the morning on a loop drive through Muhlbach ski area, along the Hochkonig mountain range, one of the highest in the area. We found a ski trail and took Simon up for sledding. That was a blast after my wife calmed down about her feet getting wet through her boots. The trail up was pretty thick with snow. Lunch was great at the hospital, although we were an hour late on account of having no map and missing some turn on the back half of the loop. Afterwards Judit and I went to pick up her new sofa. The kids had a great time playing with the packaging, and later, on the big new L sofa.
17 December 2008
Today was our last in Austria so we resolved to visit Salzburg. It was cold and overcast and the kids were tired, so they were rather challenging at times, but what a wonderful city. The parking garage itself was amazing, cut into the rock under the hill west of the old town, with tunnels cut all throughout to get you outside. Then the abudance of old churches, streets, markets, the castle on the hill and Nonnberg Abbey was really impressive. We did not have time to make it across the river to see the gardens, but it’s winter anyway. Next time over.
