Catching Up
So the trip has been amazing so far except for the internet access, which is driving me crazy! Even places we had it last time we were not able to connect this year. But here is what we have done:
Vienna: walked around and were jet lagged. Visited two favorite restaurants. Celebrated Katie Isaak's birthday with flowers and chocolate gulasch.
Visited Melk and Mondsee on the way to the eminently perfect Dorfgastein.
Stayed in Dorfgastein for a week while the weather was horrid, and the kids had a great time anyway living in a small alpine village, baking bread, swimming in the rain, riding the ski lift to the top of a mountain covered in snow (in AUGUST!), and riding around, playing chess in the town square and running to the store. Rob and I did the hike down from the snowy peak, looking at "positive and negative yin and yang places" and trying not to be blown off the top of the mountain. We ate at an alm (mountain farm) where we pretty much ate and drank all of the day's fixings and then finished up with a mushroom walk. The second half was muddy and filled with cow pies and I was wearing Karen's pink low tops. Managed to make it all the way down and THEN slipped and fell in the mud. Still love Dorfgastein. Even a week didn't feel like enough. Almost all of the students have plans to get their families back here sometime.
Traveled to Salzburg where we found the kids' sightseeing muscles were severely flabby. Stayed in a hotel who had the whimsy to use toilet paper printed with soccer trivia and the courage to install linoleum over carpet. We were all in the same room which meant that Rob and I got to sleep a lot earlier than we had before staying up and washing clothes. Rode a fiaker around the old town because all three of them wanted HORSES!!!. Bought Maddie a dirndl. Rode a funicular up to the top of the fortress-mountain and the kids pretended to blow up most of Salzburg with the cannons up there. All three kids fell and scraped themselves at some point, leading me to believe that Salzburg has lots of large running spaces with uneven pavement. Stopped a lot to eat and reassure kids they would not starve while traveling. Ate Chinese. Ate Austrian. Ate gelato. Ate chocolate. Heard Papageno rehearsing on an outdoor stage. Went to church. Traveled to Munich.
Munich we had a ghetto hotel by the train station that our students call The DI Hotel. REally gross, but more on that some other time. Katie took us to three museums and the kids mostly got to play in playgrounds or stay in the hotel, which they liked quite well. No accounting for taste! Found a place that would wash our clothes for 4 euros a kilo. Washed 9 kilos and were happy to pay. Found a place that would rent a gigantic white Mercedes Benz van so Katie would not have to drive. We look like polygamists driving a garbage truck! After nearly swiping a couple of bikers off the road, we got out of town this afternoon and had a lovely drive out to Weissensee.
Weissensee: we are in a hotel as lovely as the last one was horrendous. We are on a lake with views and a nice pizza place and a smallish indoor pool that we went and used and a bathroom that we are not afraid to bathe in. We all had pizza for dinner and Rob went across the street and bought milke from the farm there. THey invited the kids back for milking tomorrow night. We are still going to try and see the castles, but if we dont leave this place, it will be enough.
Vienna: walked around and were jet lagged. Visited two favorite restaurants. Celebrated Katie Isaak's birthday with flowers and chocolate gulasch.
Visited Melk and Mondsee on the way to the eminently perfect Dorfgastein.
Stayed in Dorfgastein for a week while the weather was horrid, and the kids had a great time anyway living in a small alpine village, baking bread, swimming in the rain, riding the ski lift to the top of a mountain covered in snow (in AUGUST!), and riding around, playing chess in the town square and running to the store. Rob and I did the hike down from the snowy peak, looking at "positive and negative yin and yang places" and trying not to be blown off the top of the mountain. We ate at an alm (mountain farm) where we pretty much ate and drank all of the day's fixings and then finished up with a mushroom walk. The second half was muddy and filled with cow pies and I was wearing Karen's pink low tops. Managed to make it all the way down and THEN slipped and fell in the mud. Still love Dorfgastein. Even a week didn't feel like enough. Almost all of the students have plans to get their families back here sometime.
Traveled to Salzburg where we found the kids' sightseeing muscles were severely flabby. Stayed in a hotel who had the whimsy to use toilet paper printed with soccer trivia and the courage to install linoleum over carpet. We were all in the same room which meant that Rob and I got to sleep a lot earlier than we had before staying up and washing clothes. Rode a fiaker around the old town because all three of them wanted HORSES!!!. Bought Maddie a dirndl. Rode a funicular up to the top of the fortress-mountain and the kids pretended to blow up most of Salzburg with the cannons up there. All three kids fell and scraped themselves at some point, leading me to believe that Salzburg has lots of large running spaces with uneven pavement. Stopped a lot to eat and reassure kids they would not starve while traveling. Ate Chinese. Ate Austrian. Ate gelato. Ate chocolate. Heard Papageno rehearsing on an outdoor stage. Went to church. Traveled to Munich.
Munich we had a ghetto hotel by the train station that our students call The DI Hotel. REally gross, but more on that some other time. Katie took us to three museums and the kids mostly got to play in playgrounds or stay in the hotel, which they liked quite well. No accounting for taste! Found a place that would wash our clothes for 4 euros a kilo. Washed 9 kilos and were happy to pay. Found a place that would rent a gigantic white Mercedes Benz van so Katie would not have to drive. We look like polygamists driving a garbage truck! After nearly swiping a couple of bikers off the road, we got out of town this afternoon and had a lovely drive out to Weissensee.
Weissensee: we are in a hotel as lovely as the last one was horrendous. We are on a lake with views and a nice pizza place and a smallish indoor pool that we went and used and a bathroom that we are not afraid to bathe in. We all had pizza for dinner and Rob went across the street and bought milke from the farm there. THey invited the kids back for milking tomorrow night. We are still going to try and see the castles, but if we dont leave this place, it will be enough.
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