Ok, so now for the even more over-due update about my trip. (Scroll down if this is the first post you've seen in a while - there are 2 more updates about daily life from earlier in the day :).
The trip was wonderful. :) Like I said before I left - three good friends came to visit for the week that I was on spring break, and the week/weekend following. Jess, my good friend here came with us on the last leg of our journey as well. It was very brave of her to join us. :) Here's the group at it's largest:
So it was lots of fun renting a car (Rachel learned how to drive a stick about two months earlier, but did marvelously!) and sitting in the navigating seat for most of it. A few of the cities were a bit stressful to drive in and out of (Munich and Vienna!!) but other than that it was good. We just became very good at reading our maps, asking for directions, and finding knew ways to get to places. :) Honestly, some of the best parts were driving from place to place, oo-ing and aw-ing at the glorious scenery (The Alps). We didn't have too much of an agenda the whole time - just general ideas of things we wanted to do and when, so this allowed us to spend as much time as we wanted yelling out "Rachel, pull over!" so that we could stop and take pictures, like so...
Munich, Germany we enjoyed; however, we were ready to move on after a couple of days. Fussen, Germany was quaint and charming and the castles we saw were so fun. The weather this first week was pretty frigid - "unseasonably cold" we kept hearing with the high temp being around -14 or -12 degrees Celsius. This did prove to be worth it, however, for the day we went to the castles - it literally looked like a winter wonderland with layers upon layers of white fluffy snow, and snowflakes literally sparkling in the air against the deep blue sky. You can see pictures of it, and the first half of the trip if you copy and paste this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013127&id=142700074&l=851462cf9b
After Munich and Fussen we drove to Salzburg, Austria for our very own Sound of Music Tour. We printed off the list of sights and Rachel (amazingly) google-mapped directions to each of them. We did find them all, despite a few wrong turns and misleads and it was so much fun so see it all in person.
The back of the Von Trapp Family house (with the Hohensalzburg Fort in the background)
My favorite story from the trip actually comes from this tour of ours.
We were trying to find the Rock Riding School which is the outdoor theater that hosts the festival that the Von Trapp Family sings in at the end of the movie. This was the sight that I was most looking forward to seeing, both because of it's beauty and the significance it has in the film. The back of the theater is majestically carved into the side of the mountain with rows upon rows of arch ways. In the movie the German soldiers are standing in each of these arch ways, as they are planning on taking Captain von Trapp in for service to the Third Reich at the end of the night. After tearfully singing his Edelweiss love song to his country, however, Captain von Trapp escapes with his family through the corridors of the theater and takes refuge in the Abbey before running to the hills.
We had the location pinpointed on our city map, but when we got ourselves there, all we found was a very large and very long modern-looking building. On the side of the building, however, we found a picture of the theater (advertising tours of it) and the same stone that it was made out of. There were actually lots of old steps that led up to a walk-way at the top. All of that, however, still did not get us to the actually theater. We knew it had to be there somewhere, so we kept searching. Eventually we walked back around to the front and concluded that what we were seeing was actually a modern-day theater that they had build around the one we were looking for, so that it could be used for shows in everyday life. Having concluded that what we were seeking was just inside, we did what anyone would do - we tried to go inside. We soon found, however, that as it was the middle of the afternoon in the middle of the week with no shows playing, the likely hood of finding an open door was not very high. But not being the type to give up, we kept trying and eventually found that one of three doors in a large gate was open. Very pleased with that discovery we stepped into the gated area and tried the door of the building. This too was opened, so we made our way inside.
As we had thought, the building was a modern-day theater with large, open halls and tall ceilings. My heart was beating rather quickly at this point, but we were so close that we were not about to turn around now (did I mention that I was leading this exhibition?) We heard some voices and saw a man walk by talking on his phone, but just pretended like we had every right to be there, obviously. So we walk farther in and down the hall and come to some more big wooden doors. I tried one of these, and sure enough it was opened. At this point we just peaked our head inside and saw that it was yet another large hall, with a long counter bar on the side and two staircases on either side at the far end of it. It was the place where people come out for refreshments during the intermission of a show. At this point we knew that we were getting even hotter, but still did not know quite what to do. We also heard more voices coming our way. Rather than doing something crazy like hiding, I decided to be on the offensive and stop to ask them if they knew where the theater was. The voices were that of two middle-aged men speaking German, but when I asked if they spoke English they were eager to help. They said that they too were wishing to see the Rock Riding School theater, and that it was indeed behind the rooms we were standing in. The doors to it, however, were all locked they said, due to it being under construction (we found this construction to be common theme, touring in the off season). I was very sad to think that we could be so close and yet so far. "You can't even peak your head in to look at it?" I asked. But no, they said. All locked. We thanked them and they went on their way, leaving us to decide our next step.
Well, the only thought I had was that it couldn't hurt to try it on our own. That mentality had gotten us this far at least, what would be the harm? Rachel and Jamie being in agreement, we went back into the big hall and this time walked down to the end with the stairways. We could look back and up and see/hear some construction working going on with the lighting, but those men didn't seem to notice us being there. When we got to the end of the hall we saw that there were doors at the top of the stairs on either side. A bit more excited now, we tried the door on the right, but quickly found it to be locked. Not deterred in the least I crossed over to the door on the left and found that it was not only unlocked, but it was partially opened with big electrical cords running out from it. And along with the cracked door came a cool outdoor draft and this point my heart was pounding.
I whisper-shouted for Rachel and Jamie to join me, pushed the door even more ajar and stepped over the thresh hold. Directly to the right were some stairs leading down with an old music stand at the top of them. In front of me and wrapping slightly more to the right were about ten more steps leading up and beyond those I could see the stone arch ways of the theater on the opposite side. I was too shocked to go any farther at this point, so Jamie took the lead climbing up the steps and snapping pictures. Rachel followed close behind, and then me. Standing at the top of the steps we were actually in one of the archways of the theater looking out at the stage and everything else. There was lots of construction, and a big tarp covering the seating area (which is where we would have come in, had we done it the right way, from the front of the theater) but the whole back of it, built into the mountain where we were standing, was the same. It was pretty freakin' cool. :)
We snapped a few pictures and then turned and ran back down and out. At this point I had the scene of the German soldiers chasing the family through the theater running through my head, but I tried to push that aside as we calming left the building.
So there you have it. Again, there are many stories from the almost three weeks we spent together, but I'll spare you any more details unless you specifically ask for them. :)
After Salzburg we drove to two other small towns close by - Mondsee and St. Gilgen which were both set beautifully on a lake in the mountaints and then back to Munich and Oberaummergau, another small German town. From there we headed back to Prague and had a very enjoyable time here. The girls did lots of exploring during the day while I was teaching and then we spent our evenings either taking in the beautiful night time shots of the city, or making dinner and giving each other massages. :)
The next weekend we drove to Vienna and then back to Salzburg, St. Gilgen (to share with Meagan) and Munich to drop of Meagan at the airport. Rachel and Jamie drove me back to Prague, rested up for the night and then headed out the next day. You can see the rest of my pictures from the second half of the trip if you copy and paste this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013288&id=142700074&l=1d1fc5b0f1
Well, I think that's enough of an update for you for now at least. :) It's at least as much as I can type at the moment. Thanks for reading! <3
(Sound of Music pose we forgot to do at the scene) :)
