Honeymoon in Europe: Salzburg

After exploring Paris for the week we jumped on a Niki flight to Vienna and then an OBB train ride to our next stop: Salzburg.

When discussing locations for our honeymoon I never even considered Salzburg. But for Chrissy it was a forgone conclusion that we would be visiting the city; for basically one reason only - The Sound of Music.

It's Chrissy's favorite movie of all time and a key part of the Christmas season for her. Since she was young its been an X-mas tradition for her and her mother to watch the movie with some Baileys and hot chocolate. As the location of  Salzburg is as much a character in the movie as any other it's been her long desire to visit. And as the devoted husband I agreed to add it to our itinerary as long as we had the chance to explore the other sights of Salzburg. And so began the pilgrimage of Christina:

The Sound of Music Tour

Immediately upon arriving at our hotel Chrissy booked us on "The Original Sound of Music Tour" for the next morning. She woke up giddy as a school girl and within no time at all we found ourself on a big luxury bus zipping through the streets.

Between site stops the tour guide provided some great commentary both on the making of the movie and on the highlights of the city. An interesting piece of movie magic passed on was in regards to the Van Trapp residence. For the movie they actually used multiple buildings as the residence and were careful to shoot each facade from certain angles. 

The frozen over lake at the back of the house

The tree lane and front of the house

The gazebo, famous for fictional Nazi's stealing kisses from blondes was high on Chrissy's list to see. Funny enough, the gazebo is located way outside town, mostly due to it's popularity. Apparently it used to be located closer to the lake house. However, that location was right next to a conference center. The continual influx of visitors to the gazebo though made it intolerable to host a meeting near by. All of the tourists and fanatics singing and carrying on made so much of a ruckus that on the behest of the conference center the City had the gazebo moved.

The gazebo is locked down and you can no longer go inside to serenade yourself or others. A few years back an elderly woman was so compelled by the experience of being in the gazebo that she attempted to skip from bench to bench. Not as nimble as a 17 year old 'Fraulein' she slipped up and knocked her head pretty hard. Isn't that just like the elderly? Always getting in trouble and ruining things for the kids ;)

Included in the Sound of Music tour is a picturesque journey through the 'Lakes District' to the location of the big wedding.The journey was quite a nice change of pace after being in the middle of a major city like Paris so recently. 

While driving through the countryside the tour bus had music from the movie pumping to a) build on the experience and b) solidify cult like adherence to Julie Andrews. We were told that on some days it breaks out into a cacophony of song, but for us that day it was more of a modest sing-along.

St. Gilgen and Lake Wolfgang

The church of the big wedding was fantastic. From the outside, it looks like a nicely preserved church but the inside is where it really shines. Our pictures don't do it justice.

Mondsee (the town with the church) is a cute little place with a nice main square flanked by buildings with decorated facades. We only had about an hour in the town and spent most of that time wandering through the Christmas market and the traditional Austrian clothing shops.

Our tour ended back in the centre of Salzburg near the Mirrabell Gardens. The gardens were scaled back during the winter but they remained quite picturesque. If you are familiar with the movie you may recognise a couple of these sights.

The tour did not take us to every location that was used in the movie, but it did point out how to get to the remainder of them. 

Mozart Bridge

The nunnery where Maria resided

Christina thoroughly enjoyed the tour and thanks to the knowledgeable and charming tour guides surprisingly so did I. If you ever find yourself in the city, take the tour.

Christmas Markets

With only a few days left before Christmas the numerous markets were in full swing. Chrissy and I enjoyed multiple mulled wines, sausages and strudels while we strolled through plaza's looking for deals and soaking in the atmosphere.

Bräustübl Tavern

Co-located at the Augustine Brewery (founded in 1621 by monks) the tavern is the largest beer hall in Austria and considered one of the top beer gardens in the world.

The tavern is massive with 3 large halls that I can only guess seats close to nearly 600 people. The beer is distributed from massive kegs and can be ordered at the table or in person at the keg. The process of getting a beer at the keg is pretty cool and I would recommend doing that for any first timers. First, you select a mug off a side wall, bring it to a central fountain to wash (it was most likely placed on the shelf straight off the table), pay for the beer at a cash register and get a ticket, hand the ticket over to the keg master for a fill. Chrissy had some concerns about the sanitary nature of it all but I kind of liked the communal aspect of it and trusted in the healing principles of alcohol.

I of course had to order a full liter of beer.

Christina selected a smaller size but gave mine a try as more of a weightlifting exercise.

With all that beer we decided that some substance was needed to protect our stomachs. An Italian woman and her two young kids (family friendly establishment) held our shared table for us as we browsed the cafeteria vendors selling food between the halls.

I scored a sweet leg of ham with mustard while Chrissy went with a more traditional snack.

 

Before I could get too crazy (I had already expressed my desire to live in the building) Chrissy pulled me out of the beer hall. We didn't get too far though as something caught my eye...a man pulling a steel bar out of a fire and into a sleeve of beer. I had to try it.

The result was a delicious contrast of cold beer and a warm frothy head. Surprisingly fantastic.

Hohensalzburg Castle

While in Salzburg we were treated to exceptional weather that was about 10-12 degrees warmer then the usual (think +6 as opposed to -6).  However, our good fortune was balanced by an unfortunate fog that settled over the city for the first 2 days of our stay. Here we were in a city recognised for it's beauty and one of the largest medieval castles in Europe and we could barely see it.

Waking early on our last day in the city we ventured outside to find the fog had finally lifted. Relieved we bee-lined through Mirabell Gardens to the downtown and the Castle.

We rode the funicular up the hill to the top and took our time wandering around reading the multi-language signs describing the history of the city and the structure. My favorite sign relayed the story of the 'Painted Bull'. Basically, the city was under siege for an extended period of time and things had gotten so dire that they only had one bull left as livestock. The commander of the troops with a flood of inspiration decided that he would parade this bull atop the main walkway of the castle so those conducting the siege could see it. The next day he ordered the bull painted a different color and once again paraded, and then again the next day. Eventually after a few days the soldiers that had the Castle surrounded decided that since the Castle was so well provisioned with winter coming they might as well end the siege and return to their homes before winter trapped them in the City. The gambit of the painted bull paid off. Pretty cool little story I thought.

The castle itself is nice but the most impressive aspect of it is the view it offers. With the sun shining down on us we enjoyed our last few hours in Salzburg looking out at the city and surrounding countryside.

Other Highlights:

The specialty dessert of the city - Salzburger Nockerl

Our awesome tour guide and his dramatic flair

Painted Cows

Notes: 

• Mozart was born in Salzburg and his image is nearly everywhere. Other than a breakfast at the Cafe Mozart and eating chocolates with his image on it we didn't do anything Mozart related on our trip. It was a pilgrimage of more modern music sensibilities.
• On our first night in the city I got terribly turned around in the fog and ended up leading us a few km in the wrong direction. Eventually we found a sign that had 'zentrum' written on it and Chrissy recognized it as meaning center. We followed the river for 4km past the control damn and weir into the city from that point on. A few days later when we got to the top of the castle we could just barely make out how far away we were in the wrong direction. Whoops.
• The founder of Red Bull is from Salzburg and the Head Quarters of the company is located outside the city near the Lakes District. We drove past it and it looked pretty cool. I want to work there.
• Stiegl beer has a fantastic pub halfway up the walking route to the castle. It's a great pit stop.
• Next Stop - Vienna

Honeymoon In Europe: Paris

Over Christmas this year Chrissy and I cajoled our bosses into letting us take a full month off work so we could take a honeymoon in Europe. First stop on our tour was Paris.

Arriving from the airport around mid morning we easily found our hotel (Millesime Hotel) in the Saint-Germain-des-Pres area and were fortunate enough to be able to check in early. The hotel, aside from being in a fantastic location, was quite nice and offered outstanding service. This included a special surprise for me arranged by Chrissy....a collection of French craft beers.

As Chrissy used her credit card to book the hotel you can see we were officially welcomed not as Kehrig's but as Okinczyc's. This became a bit of a running gag throughout the whole honeymoon,

With many beers to select and a soft bed, I decided to have a mid morning night cap and a nap as we had much sight seeing to do. Highlights and some quick thoughts below:

Notre Dame Cathedral

I first visited the cathedral about 20 years ago on my first and only time to Paris prior and my strongest memories of the building were of it's scale. Since that time I have been in many famous and or prominent world buildings but to me few can compare to Notre Dame. Besides it's size and beauty the sheer fact that a building this complex was completed between the years 1163-1272  and still stands today just boggles my mind. Coming from a Western Canadian province where infrastructure of settlements are barely over a 100 years old the history and the amount of human lives affected by the Cathedral can't help but give me pause. 

Arc de Triomphe

Once again the scale and age of the structure force a sense of awe in witnessing the monument in person.  

Upon ascending the 284 steps to the top we were greeted with a very cool view of the city and much to my surprise a relaxed security rail system.

The Champs-Elysee

Off with his head!

Montmarte

Home to a venerable who's who list of Bohemian and Impressionist artists through the 19th & 20th Century the Montmarte area is steeped in style and atmosphere.  Chrissy and I came into the area a little ignorant to it all and ended up mostly wandering along the streets in the general direction of the beautiful church on the hill (Sacre Coeur Basilica). 

Eventually, we came across the Musee de Montmarte and decided to take a walk through. Chrissy decided that we should visit it as she thought it looked charming, and apparently she has good taste as Renoir used to live there.

The museum had some really cool prints including the famous lithograph for the Chat Noir. 

On a recommendation from my sister Monica, we decided to try out the restaurant Refuge des Fondue for a 'special' dining experience. We arrived to the small busy restaurant shortly after 7PM and were seated at the last table in the establishment. As the last spot we were seated by the door as opposed to every other seat in the house where you literally step on a bench and over the table to another seating bench along a wall. Chrissy was ok with not doing this though as she was quite stiff after a few days of walking through the city.

Once seated we were given some pickled munchies and asked if we wanted "Meat or Cheese" and "Red or White". We selected Meat and each selected a color. Before we fully realized what was happening we were presented with a fondue pot, a bowl of chopped steak and two baby bottles of red and white wine. Yes, baby bottles! 

In no time at all, due to the large drinking holes on the nipples, we had finished a few bottles each and were released out in to the Paris night. After a few misadventures we arrived back at the hotel safe and sound, but a little less for wear the next day.

The Louvre

By far the best art gallery in the world. Arrive early and plan to be there for most of the day.

Pro-tip: Arrive early and take a bee-line straight to the Mona Lisa like we did. When we came through a few hours later the mob around it was about 20 people deep.

The Venus de Milo really is beautiful. You can just tell the quality of the marble by how it catches the natural light. Pictures really don't do it justice.

I'm no art historian or even skilled in the arts but that won't stop me from picking a favorite artist. For the moment I am quite partial to Caravaggio and the masterpiece below: Psyche Revived by Cupids Kiss.

I like naked ladies. ART!

Gabrielle d'Estree and One of her Sisters

Versailles

A quick train ride from the center of the city took us right to the Palace of Versailles. We arrived early to spend a good portion of the day there and were greeted by some early morning sunshine on the gilded gates. 

Let the opulence begin!

I have to say that I liked Versailles, but the whole idea of an opulent palace left me a bit cold. Walking around seeing the magnificence of the building and the personal placement of the 'Sun King' with the Pantheons of Roman and Greek Gods pissed me off. That and the self adulation and hypocrisy of his predecessors who stated an abhorrence to court life and yet demanded all of the extravagance that it entailed (looking at you Antoinette) just makes me think the guillotine was maybe too good for them.

However, I have been accused of not appreciating finer things...and in that same manner I have to say I quite enjoyed the humbler "Queens Hamlet:" at Versailles. Consisting at one time of 11 houses to represent a quaint Norman village the buildings today are a quintessential  image of life in an idealized storybook fairy tale.

The Catacombs

Created as a backfil of sorts in the limestone quarries that were excavated to build the city the catacombs are a sobering analogy of the perpetuity of Paris and the fleeting life of those who built it. Once again the scale and humanity of the location is too much for my feeble brain to process.

No flash photography from this point on so some pictures will be a bit more grainy than usual.

Eiffel Tower

We saved our excursion up the Eiffel Tower till the end of our visit so we could survey and take measure of all that we had seen in our week in Paris. As we are both scared of heights we had a nervous elevator ride up and it took us awhile to go to the end of the railing but eventually we acclimatized...a bit.

Christmas markets after the rain at the Eiffel Tower

Just for the experience of doing so we took the steps down from the midway point of the tower. A cool thing that I noticed on the way down was the length of the stair cases. They always kept a similar angle but continually changed in length as you got nearer the wide base. It kind of threw off my rhythm.

Other Highlights:

Seine River Cruise

Lafayette shopping centre Christmas display

Christmas market and lights along the Champs Elysees

Trees that had color in December

Onion Soup

Musee d'Orsay

Notes: 

• Did you know that Paris is often referred to as "The Saskatoon of France"?
• Paris is bloody expensive and we ended up saving some bucks daily by stopping off at a grocery store and getting the fixings for ham and cheese sandwiches.
• Definite advantages of travelling in December is getting away from the crowds and line-ups. We waited only 15 minutes to get into the catacombs while the usual wait time can be 1-2 hours.
• The Versailles gardens are pretty much dormant through the winter. While a disappointment, the amount of people was much less than summer and  it was nice to have time to ourselves in some of the rooms of the Grand Trianon and Estates. 
• The Christmas markets in Paris were nice as an introduction to them but they seemed to lack a certain authenticity.
• After our first day we realized that our camera wasn't taking the greatest pictures anymore due to age and wear. C'est la vie...
• Next Stop - Salzburg, Austria

Back in Edmonton

Chrissy and I have arrived back in Edmonton after our month long honeymoon. We spent our time being a tourist through Europe and thoroughly enjoying the food, drink and culture.

Classing up the 'Continent'

As we settle back in, and again get used to the cold weather (we haven't seen weather colder than +4 in weeks) I will be posting a bunch of pics and some stories to accompany them.

In the meantime - Happy New Year!