DAY 1: THE RIDE and ARRIVAL
I always have a hard time adjusting to the time change and not to mention sitting in a crammed seat for 10+ hours, but it’s worth it every time. It started off fun when I logged onto United.com to print out our online tickets only to find out they switched planes on us and I couldn’t find our reservation. Double fisted with two iphones on the way to the airport while Leslie drove, the “Let’s freak Mike Out” situation worked itself out and our reservations were intact. Whew and love how the Big Man upstairs puts us through daily tests in unexpected moments.
Ryan and Ashley loved how you could watch movies in their airline seats. It look a Sherman Tank to get Ryan off the video games on the flight, but once we let go, he went out for about two hours. Ashley on the other hand, was a chatty cathy and being this is our vacation and time to spend with the kids and Leslie, I let her go and just listened and talked with my daughter. The Plane was a 767 with 2-3-2 seat floor plan and Leslie sat in one of the seats by the window. I had a good time with my kids.
Once we arrived at the Munich Airport, I kept reverting back to the last time Leslie and I were in this City and we had no luggage, but once I saw Leslie’s suitcase come around the corner on the conveyer belt, I know we were home free. We jumped on our train from the Munich airport to Salzburg and had to transfer at Munich OST station. When we did transfer, it started hailing in the middle of Summer time and locals standing in line with us said that this was normal and happens all the time.
Our hotel is about .5 away from the station and great location to the old part of town. We decided to take a 1 hour van tour of the city to get our bearings figured out so we can make a plan of action the next day. We saw Mozart’s family residence and birthplace and various other interesting locations. It’s such a beautiful city, but they have too many restaurants that serve pizza (NEWS FLASH: RYAN LOVES THIS CITY).
We went to bed about 8pm last night and the kids slept all the way through till about 7am this morning. I woke up around 2:20am ready to go and watched a movie on my computer. Speak with you all tomorrow on our next adventure.
DAY #2: STORM SALZBURG
Today started off great all because we are rested and got some sleep. The kids were energetic from the get-go and ready to explore the city of Salzburg. We had breakfast at our hotel’s restaurant and Ashley had toast with Nutella, her favorite chocolaty spread now, Ryan with Sausage, bacon and fruit. We came back to the room and while I updated the blog, Leslie took the kids down the park where Ryan and Ashley found a tree they can climb all over on. Once I finished with the update, I met them down there. Beautiful big trees surrounded the park and the weather was around 68 to 70 degrees. Our first trip was the Fortress Hohensalzburg overlooking the city of Salzburg. This fortress was built to protect the City occupants from invading armies and the construction took 600 years and started in 1066. Next, we decided to grab lunch and after visiting 2 restaurants, Leslie made an executive decision to eat at this quaint, little cafe between two buildings the Old Town section of Salzburg. On the menu was Schnitzel Burger and Ashley, Ryan and I thought HAMBURGER so we decided to stay. Not what we pictured and the burger was a breaded chicken sandwich, but it satisfied our hunger. Our tour driver said to grab desert at Hotel Sacher, one of the best chocolate cakes this Texan has ever eaten and the kids loved the cake as well.
We spent a good two hours resting and back out only to find out that the weather changed and the temp was hovering around 58 degrees (Chilly). We marched on and decided to walk all through Old Town and we ended up visiting the Residenzplatz and Mozart’s family home, which was pretty cool. We saw the actual piano that Mozart played on when he was 9 years old. I tried to take some photos, but was busted by some dude dressed in black telling me not to take photos. The kids had a good time as this place and played some computer, interactive kiosk on Mozart.
We decided to grab dinner and everything closes around 5pm and Ryan was stuck on finding a great pizza place, but everywhere we went, places were closing left and right. Finally, we found a place underneath the Crown Plaza Hotel and after dinner, went back to the hotel room to prepare our destination: VENICE.
Goodbye Salzburg and thank you for the lovely visit. Farewell Fortress, Residenzeplatz, Climbing Tree, Kids Park, Old Town and the wonderful chocolate cake.
