Flashback Series: Eurotrip 2014

June 2014

After Scandinavia, including a bonus day in Copenhagen, I headed back to Germany to begin a week of driving around Europe in the company of a pregnant woman and a 1 year old.

Baby James, the star of the show.

For her third installment please allow me to re-introduce Chelsea, long time friend and former co-worker at Mankato’s very own Massad’s, where she met her husband Ben. They are currently living near Frankfurt, Germany, and being the adventurous spirits they are, with Baby James in tow, have taken Europe by storm in the past two years of living there,. No destination is too great for them, so I knew when Chelsea and I first discussed the possibility of me revisiting them in Germany so that we could travel more together, I was on board. Unfortunately, Ben couldn’t make the week-long trip, but he makes a cameo appearance at the end.

So, after so kindly picking me up at the airport about an hour away, Chelsea, James and I reunited once again after our last minute spree across Ireland in April. I swear, James will be just about my height by the next time I see him. We had a night at Chelsea’s home, (which was thankfully many, many degrees warmer than it had been in January) during which we finalized packing, loading the car, and planning.

Vienna, Austria

The next day was takeoff! We set off bright and early for our long, not very anticipated, and longest driving day of the trip: about nine hours across Germany and part of Austria to Vienna. The ride went by more quickly than we expected, as we used the time to catch up on our lives. We arrived in Vienna in the heat of an anti-American protest somewhere near the city center that we drove by – after looking it up we learned that Putin had just visited for the day, and the pro-Russian protesters decided to make a statement. We figured we should stay clear of that area.

Home of Beethoven, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Mozart and the Sacher Torte, Vienna is simply a beautiful, must-visit city. As the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, it is a city with hundreds of years of history, and just as many cafes. We were amazed by all of the big, old, beautiful buildings that graced our presence everywhere we looked. We only had a few big things on our list to see, which made for a fairly relaxed trip through the city. 

The first full day we focused on The Schoenberg Palace, the former Hapsburg summer palace. It had beautiful and massive grounds that took hours to walk through. We got to see the rooms of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife, as well as the palace grounds, which were more appreciated by Baby James, as he could run around and be wild as opposed to on an audioguide tour inside the palace. 

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Cathedral interior

Walking through the central downtown, it was easy to spot St. Stephen's Cathedral, which was so large it was hard to get a photo of it. We were able to enter and walk around it, and got a little creeped out by all of the catacombs. 

Unfortunately, most of the rest of our time in Vienna was rained out - we managed to see quite a bit in a short time. To me, the word to describe Vienna is 'grand.' Everything is big, ornate, decorated, polished, imposing, and impressive, which is exactly what the Hapsburg Dynasty needed to represent them. Today, it's a modern city but still retains some of those regal impressions. I hope to return someday and give it more time to learn about it properly. But as always, it was time to move on. 

Beautiful Vienna

Salzburg, Austria

The Hills Are Alive. Can you hear them? Wait, do you hear an echo of the Sound of Music soundtrack too? No, it’s just me, and the echoes of those songs will be there every time I think of Salzburg.

Oh yes. It happened. 

Yes people, it’s true. I am now one of the many happy tourists who has participated in the beloved ‘Sound of Music tour’ in Salzburg, Austria. There was singing. There was movie viewing. There were old ladies with matching pantsuits. There were camera toting fanatics. And they were all to be embraced in unity for their love of the Von Trapp family and their band of belters. Myself, Chelsea, and Baby James (though he doesn’t know it yet) included. Why else would we go to Salzberg?

Downtown Salzburg

"I'll meet you in front of the pickles." 

Salzburg fountain

Just kidding. Salzberg was incredible, and the SOM tour only added to its delightfulness. We pronounced it as an “adorable city,” and spent most of our time in the historical city center, home to many tourist shops, beautiful restaurants and cafes, and lovely cobblestoned streets. Our tour was the day after we arrived, so the first day was just walking around in the sunshine, enjoying the views, looking in the shops (where James tried to grab everything from his stroller), and taking pictures. The city really is alive with music (no pun intended), as it is the birthplace of both Amadeus Mozart and Johann Haydn and has dozens of beautiful church concerts. After wandering for an appropriate amount of time, we decided to eat Indian food, just for a change, which ended up being a perfect decision. Sometimes it's important to go against the grain and do what you feel like doing, even if isn't other people's ideas of 'proper traveling.' We did it and we loved it. 

"The Gazebo"

Our highlight tour, which commenced the next day, drove us out of Salzburg proper and out toward the little town of Mondsee, Austria, where the wedding ceremony was filmed. On the way, we made some scenic stops, and our guide told us a little about the history of the film. We made a stop at Schloss (castle) Leopoldskron (pictured) to see where the lake scenes and the outdoor scenes at the Von Trapp house were filmed, plus we saw the gazebo, which was moved there after filming. Apparently they used to let people inside but they no longer do after a woman got hurt jumping from bench to bench. 

Schloss Leopoldskrom estate and lake. 

Recognize this?

After our stops, the bus headed back to Salzburg, where we stopped and got down at the Mirabell Palace and Gardens, where many of the 'around town' scenes were filmed. If you recall the song 'Do-Re-Mi', you'll recognize the pictures. The tour ended there but we had as much time as we wanted to wander, so we took way too many photos and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was fun to be with a fellow Sound of Music lover, and we're hoping we indoctrinated James subliminally, even though he fell asleep through half of it and tried to steal my camera on the bus. We'll give him time. 

Mirabell Palace and Gardens with the city in the background. 

Hey James. Give me back my camera.

Innsbruck, Austria

The next day was our last in Austria - we had a room booked in Switzerland that evening, so we packed up and headed out. We took advantage of the route, however and made a few stops along the way. The first was Innsbruck, Austria, just an hour or two away from Salzburg, where Chelsea and Ben (and James) had visited before in the winter - a beautiful little town popular for skiing, with pretty mountain views and a nice preserved downtown that we spent some time wandering around in. It was fun to see a smaller town compared to what we had just seen, and it was so beautiful to see the mountains in the background. 

Innsbruck, Austria

 Leichtenstein

Scenic driving views of the Alps

The next stop on the drive was Liechtenstein. Is that really a place, you ask, as you scratch your heads to recall your European geography? If you suffer from eye problems, you may not realize that this is actually a bona fide country on the map. So get your magnifying glass and your map (more like your Google maps app) out and scour the boundary area between western Austria and eastern Switzerland. Do you see it? That tiny country whose name is bigger than its borders? I went there. And it was lovely.

Liechtenstein Castle

Proof we have been there!

Life in Liechtenstein

Admittedly, we only spent a few hours in Leichtenstein, as a stop through from Austria to Switzerland, but we can now say we have been there, as Baby James can prove. I believe it was a Sunday when we were there, which meant many things were closed down and we couldn't do much in Liechtenstein, but we enjoyed the novelty of being there. The little tablecloth I that I bought in Liechtenstein makes for a nice display - my living room wouldn't be the same without it! 

My best and only picture of Switzerland - on the road stop!

 Zurich

Switzerland, in a word, is stunning. Everywhere you look you see beauty. Unfortunately, we were a little too far north to see the Alps, so we only caught a small glimpse of this beauty. When we arrived in Zurich, it ended up being more of an industrial town than the scenic mountain city we had envisioned. Shame on us for not doing our homework more carefully. In addition, it was raining and cloudy and we were at the end of our trip, so instead of staying the extra time we had planned, we decided to quit while we were ahead, and head home. No pictures from Zurich! 

Home, Sweet Home

We returned home to Kaiserslautern by late afternoon on Monday, June 30^th. This happened to be my birthday, and with Chelsea’s coming up on July 2^nd, we had decided to make this night our double birthday celebration, complete with a menu and task delegations, months in advance.

What was on the menu, you might ask? I’ll give you some hints. Ben and Chelsea served these at their wedding reception, they are the source of fine dining at the Mankato River Hills Mall, they require many post-consumption peppermints or sticks of chewing gum due to their garlic content, and they are the reason Ben, Chelsea, and I met in the first place.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we were treated to…a recreation of Massad’s schawarmas. Who better to make these for us than Ben? Nobody, except perhaps John Massad himself. After years of dedicated service to Mankato’s outstanding little Lebanese restaurant known throughout southwestern Minnesota and probably even northern Iowa (you’re welcome, Iowa), we all paid a tribute to our former employer and our beloved little hometown with a schawarma birthday celebration. These days, Massad’s schawarma sauce is so famous (my poor grandmother never managed to get the secret recipe she so desired and thought she had in the bag once I started working there) that is a marketed product on the shelves of local grocery stores. They had secured a jar of this sauce during their recent trip back home, and saved it for this momentous occasion. My friend Jen from Russia even came down to join the party, as she was staying with her parents in Germany not too far away!

Birthday celebrations!

After schawarmas, birthday cake, and some games, the trip was complete. I’d seen Ben, Chelsea, and Baby three times in the past six months, and each trip provided wonderful and lifelong memories. I wish them the best of luck with the new addition to their family (updated: they welcomed Baby William to the world in December 2014) and the remainder of their time in Germany. Ben and Chelsea, (and James) thank you so much for your warmth, generosity, and friendship. I only hope I can return the hosting favor sometime in the future.