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Tag: Salzburg

The Best Things I Ate This Month: Part 2

March 23, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Since this wasn’t the most exciting week for me, instead of writing about going to class and doing homework, I thought it was time for the next installment of my favorite foods of Europe. As you are probably well aware, one of my favorite things about living in Europe is eating in Europe. Since my last “Best of” food post was so much fun to write (and research) I have, in fact, decided to make it a series. For each of the four months of my travels, I will post the very best things I ate. While the first post was dedicated to German favorites, this one also includes culinary pleasures from Austria and Paris. Since I only spend 36 hours in Paris, there’s no way I could possibly do its incredible cuisine justice, but rest assured, I’ll be back someday. I have many, many things to share this month, so this is going to be mostly pictures (in chronological order) with short commentary.

First, the Thüringer Wurst, my first experience with street food. Surprisingly good for just 1 euro!

Next, there’s Spaghetti-Eis. It looks like spaghetti, but it’s ice cream. And it’s terrific!
I had this meal in a very old Austrian restaurant in Salzburg. It’s pork roast with the best gravy and a giant Knödel. That’s a dumpling, but I just like the word Knödel.
This was my meal at the Hofbräuhaus in Munich. This establishment isn’t exactly known for the food, so the schnitzel cordon bleu was just okay.
The apple strudel, however, was perfect. Fresh and not too sweet.
On a day trip to Ulm, we stopped at a little café for cake and coffee. This is a slice of blueberry goodness.
And now, on to Paris! The first thing I ate there (besides the free breakfast at the hostel) was a Nutella crêpe. They don’t skimp on the Nutella!
While in Paris, we decided to have one splurge dinner at a real brasserie. The steak-frites was great!
And the crème brûlée was even better! That crunch of the sugar on top is the sound of perfection!
     So those were the highlights. Over the next month, I’ll continue to be that tourist, taking pictures of all my food, so I can share it all with you! And next week, I’ll have more travel experiences to share!

Six Cities in Nine Days

February 24, 2014 / / 0 Comments
n the Reutlingen study abroad program, one of the courses is all about Martin Luther and Johann Sebastian Bach. It’s an interesting mix of history and theology, and as part of it, we all take a five day tour of Luther and Bach Land. That’s Leipzig, Wittenberg, Eisenach, and Erfurt. Following that, we have five days for free travel, just like after the Berlin trip. This time around, we chose to go to Munich and Salzburg. So many cities, so little time! We did so much this week, it’s impossible to talk about it all, so I’ll pick one or two highlights per day.

Saturday:
We actually arrived in Leipzig late on Friday, but Saturday was our first real opportunity to explore the city. While both Luther and Bach spent significant time in Leipzig, the guided portion of our day was more about Bach, who’s still clearly a local celebrity:

For a different kind of musical experience, that night, I found myself somewhere I never thought I would be: An opera house. By some miracle, we were able to buy very cheap, good seats for that night’s performance of Der Rosenkavalier. I wish I could be one of those truly sophisticated people who knows how to appreciate opera, but I’m still working on it. However, even though I didn’t know what was going on most of the time, the music was really beautiful, and I do recommend that everyone go to the opera at least once, at least just to say you did it.

Sunday:
     On Sunday, we took a day trip to Wittenberg. Here, Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church almost 500 years ago. Unfortunately, the church is currently undergoing a major renovation in preparation for the anniversary. I do think that the Lutherans in our group got more out of the day, but it was still very interesting to see where such pivotal events took place.

Monday:
    On Monday, we moved on to Eisenach, the birthplace of Bach and the location of the Wartburg castle, where Luther translated the Bible into German. For the history, as well as the wonderful views, the castle was my highlight.

That evening, we continued to Erfurt. Okay, my other, smaller highlights of the day were the charmingly eccentric Opera Hostel we stayed in in Erfurt and the surprisingly good steakhouse named “Texas” next door. I didn’t realize how much I missed American food.

Tuesday:
After a tour of Luther’s cloister, we had the rest of the day free to explore this city that pleasantly surprised me. At the beginning of the week, I really didn’t know what to expect of the former East Germany, but I was pleasantly surprised by all four cities, especially Erfurt. Because it’s a well-preserved, medieval town, it reminded me of why I fell in love with Germany. After exploring and enjoying the views from the Petersburg Citadel for a few hours, I spent the next two just sitting in an Eiscafé talking to a friend. It was the first real break I had all week, and while it may sound less than thrilling, it was probably my favorite day of the trip.

Wednesday:
To my surprise, I found out that the 10-day rail pass provided by the program is also valid on trains to Salzburg, Austria. Even though I’ve already been to Austria, I had to jump at the first chance I had to go to another country. Most of the day was spent on the train, but once we got to our hostel in Salzburg, one of our roommates invited us out with some of the other people staying there. Now, I’m not sure yet, what I think of the hostel experience. One the one hand, I had a fabulous, authentic Austrian meal at a table of people from 8 different countries, and that’s an amazing experience. On the other hand, I don’t know how comfortable I am wandering around at night in a foreign county with a bunch of strangers. Plus, it’s really hard to sleep in a room of 8 people snoring, coughing, and sniffling. So the jury’s still out on that one…

Thursday:
On Thursday, we saw the whole city, but the clear highlight was taking a cable car up to the top of the world. Yes, little old me, who’s afraid of heights , stood on top of a mountain. Like a real one… with snow and everything!

Friday:
     I’ve been to Munich before, but I really did enjoy going again. We started the day with a free walking tour, which I highly recommend. It’s a great way to see the highlights if you don’t have a ton of time or money, and I know that many cities offer them. That night, I did the one thing I regretted not doing the last time I was in town. I went to the famous/infamous Hofbräuhaus. Honestly, I didn’t have terribly high expectations of the place because it is a known tourist trap, but still, it’s one of those things you just have to do at least once…like the opera. Anyway, the food was just okay, the beer was beer, and the Apfelstrudel was incredible. (Of course the dessert would be the highlight for me.) But the real reason why you go to the Hofbräuhaus is for the atmosphere. Surprisingly, there were actual Germans there, and we did share a table with them, and we did sing silly German songs. It was delightfully stereotypical!
It was a long week, and I’m glad to be home, but so grateful to have had all of there experiences. Sure, it’s hard sometimes, but this whole study abroad thing, this is the life!

The Land of Sounds of Music

December 4, 2011 / / 0 Comments

A taste of Salzburg

To finally finish up my blogs about fall break (which was actually more of a winter break, since we didn’t get back to Reutlingen until mid-November), I’ll talk about my time in Austria! In short, I love this country. I mean, The Sound of Music is my favorite movie, so of course that doesn’t hurt my fascination with it. But also, it’s just beautiful. The cities themselves are picturesque, and of course then there’s the Alps in the background in parts of the country. Just absolutely fabulous. And it’s a cheap country, even with the exchange rate. Just another enticement for someone on a student budget.

So first stop was Salzburg, THE land of the Sound of Music. Literally the only downsides to this place were the fact that we didn’t get to our hostel until 2 a.m. and the fact that it was so foggy the whole time we were there that we couldn’t see the Alps. Not that it wasn’t still beautiful. We walked around the city for a good bit, and went inside a few of the gorgeous churches and hiked to the top of one of the hills with a gigantic fortress on top. And after wandering around for a good long while, we got to take the super-touristy Sound of Music tour!!!

The Gazebo

Oh my gosh the marriage church.

Not that I cared how touristy it was. Because we got to sit in a van with other Americans and sing the soundtrack as we drove through beautiful countryside and see all the places that were included in the film. Like the wedding church where Maria and the Captain got married, the row of trees the children climbed, the Von Trapp house, the pond and gardens behind the house, the gazebo, most of the sights in the “Do a Deer” musical section, and so much more. It was some of the most exciting few hours of my life. And since I can’t put all the pictures up here, just look at the ones on Picasa.(https://picasaweb.google.com/100454144518688283131/SoundOfMusic) So doing all that, plus more walking around since it was a beautiful city, took up a good day and a half, and then we headed to Vienna!

Inside the colorful cathedral

Vienna was also amazing. There is so much history and culture in that city, it’s ridiculous. You can also see Zach’s and Jake’s posts about their time in Vienna. I didn’t have quite as much time there, just about two days, but it was still fantastic. We got in a bit before dinnertime, so decided to wander the city for a bit and get food. The absolute highlight of the night was going into the huge church downtown on a whim. Turns out they turn on tons of colorful lights inside at night, and it was just dazzling. I can’t describe it. So beautiful seeing a huge cathedral burst with color.

The next day we started at Schoenbrunn Palace, which is basically Versailles #2. It was absolutely gorgeous inside (and it was nice not to have to take a tour for once.. they just give out audioguides with the tickets and let you wander yourself). And the gardens also were fantastic. If it wasn’t so cold I could’ve spent an entire day there just sitting outside. After that, Molly and I went to the famous art museum while Matt went to go find Bach stuff, and other music-related stuff. It is famous for a reason, it had so many famous paintings by famous artists that even I knew, as artistically retarded as I am.

Molly in front of Schloss Schoenbrunn

After lunch at Nordsee (cheap fish!) Molly and I wandered around the city for a good bit. Since Christmas decorations were starting to go up, it was even more beautiful. After a bit of shopping and hot chocolate and cake, we made it over to the Belvedere Palace, which had a bunch of Klimt art, which Molly went crazy over while I relaxed in the garden instead. And then for the rest of the night we just relaxed in the city over drinks and at the hostel.

The next morning we decided to see if we could catch the end of the Vienna Boy’s Choir, since they sing every Sunday during the chapel service at the Hofburg Palace. We figured there’d be no way to see them, since they supposedly sing from the balcony and nobody can see. BUT turns out they came downstairs for a final song after the procession out! And we got there at just the right moment, right before they started singing. So we just so happened to see and hear the most famous choir in the world in a palace, without paying anything and without planning it. It was absolutely fabulous. And I mean, they’re pretty good, but the main attraction is that they’re so famous. There’s fabulous music all over Europe in the churches.

Vienna Boy’s Choir

Vienna’s Rathaus, or city hall

After that, we had a few hours to wander around before our train back to Reutlingen. So we found the beautiful Austrian Parliament building, and the city hall of Vienna. Both absolutely stunning. And the Christmas market in Vienna had just started, so we were able to get our first taste of Christmas in Europe! More posts about Christmas markets coming later, of course, but this one was beautiful with the gigantic city hall in the back ground. But then we had to leave.. And thus concluded my fabulous two-week adventure all over western Europe. Five countries, plus an island, and many more cities than that, not bad for two weeks. Bis zum nächsten Mal!

View from the Festung Hohensalzburg

The Cities of Europe! (part 2)

September 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

1)   Munich, Germany

Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan

Theatinerkirche St. Kajetan

While we were staying in St. Johann, we were able to make a couple day trips to visit places like Munich and Salzburg (both within driving distance). Munich is a great city, but it is definitely touristy. But to its credit, we basically only stayed right in the middle of the city and saw all the typical things like the Hofbräuhaus; I’m sure if you wander outside the “tourist-zone” Munich has many great things that aren’t swamped with Americans. The city had a lot of character to it, and it was also home to some of the most amazing gardens and churches! There was also a big market in the Viktualienmarkt, where my brother got some fresh strawberries.

Hofbräuhaus München

Best of: Hofgarten (gardens); Theatine Church; Neues Rathaus (new city hall) Hofbräuhaus (famous restaurant/brewery)
Not so great: lots of tourists

2)   Salzburg, Austria

View from the Festung Hohensalzburg

The other excursion we took was to Salzburg. We woke up early and drove into Salzburg hoping to see some things before it got too busy. We started at the Mirabell palace, which has quite extensive gardens. From there we made our way over to Salzburg’s

Mozart's Birthplace

most famous shopping street, Getreidegasse. They had EVERYTHING on this street. From McDonald’s to H&M to high priced jewelry, you name it they had it. The house where Mozart was born is also on Getreidegasse. We wanted to take a tour but the lines were kind of long.

Perhaps the coolest opportunity we had was to see the Festung Hohensalzburg (translates

View from the Festung Hohensalzburg

to: high Salzburg fortress). It was amazing to see a medieval fortress, and the views from the top were spectacular. We walked up to the top (much cheaper than taking the tram), and it wasn’t as bad of a walk as it looks. The price of admission to the fortress also includes entrance to all the museums inside, so if you go it is well worth it to see the princes’ chambers, as well as the torture room/dungeon!

Salzburg also has plenty of amazing churches and lots and lots of concerts. When you walk through the streets you are bombarded with advertisements for concerts. Every night, almost every church in the inner-city has a concert. They are very proud of their connection with Mozart, so a good portion of the concerts have at least a couple works by him. While we were there, my brother and I saw a organ concert at the Franziskanerkirche. It was fantastic (and only 14 Euro a ticket!).

Festung Hohensalzburg

Salzburg at night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best of: Getreidegasse; Festung Hohensalzburg (fortress); Concerts

3)   Heidelberg, Germany

During our travels we also made it to Heidelberg, where we have a lot of relatives! We didn’t get to see much of the city, but we did get a chance to visit with family for a couple days. It was very comforting to know that I have family here in Germany, and that I’m always welcome in their homes. I know I’ll be making at least a few weekend trips out to see them!

Family from Ladenburg, Germany

Family from Mannheim, Germany

4)   Zurich, Switzerland

My "I can't believe my coffee was that expensive" face

I’m not sure I can afford to ever go back to Zurich. It was ungodly expensive in the city. To its credit, it was beautiful, but even the cheapest food was unreasonable. My Starbucks Chai Tea Latte (normally 3.25 USD) cost the equivalent of 8.60 USD. For lunch we found an average street café, and it was 70 USD for two beers, a Coca-Cola and a small plate of appetizers. Craziness, I tell you!

Our other mishap in Zurich was with the hotel phone system. We had dropped my brother off at the “Zurich Flughafen” earlier that morning because he had to make it home for school. We wanted to get a hold of him that evening to make sure he made it home okay, so we tried calling using a pre-paid calling card from the hotel phone. We never ended up getting through to him that night, but spent about 4 minutes total on the phone. When we checked out the next morning, the hotel had charged 230 Swiss Francs for our phone calls (about 294.00 USD). Because these charges were absolutely outrageous (not to mention that we were calling a toll-free number within Switzerland) we managed to get the charges down to 20 USD.

I think Zurich was a little pricey – beautiful but very expensive.

Nonetheless, Zurich was pretty

Best of: Bahnhofstrasse (famous shopping street); the lake
Not so great: Expensive

I’ll post soon about some of my adventures in Tuebingen and the local region around Stuttgart!

Bis dann! Tschüß!

 

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