Hallstatt, Upper Austria

This trip is comprised of “travel days” and “do things days.”  For every place we go we travel, do things, repeat!  So today was a “do things” day but unfortunately, it was also a cloudy rainy day.  Our plan was to take the funicular to the top of the mountain and walk the “sky walk,” one of those glass floored platforms that hangs over the edge of a cliff, and then visit the salt mines that are oldest mines in Europe.  My poor modestly acrophobic and claustrophobic wife must have been disappointed that we had to cancel.  She’s a trooper!

Instead we searched for some cough medicine (to no avail).  Then we looked for an umbrella and some Hallstatt centric Christmas presents.  Realizing that our train travel tomorrow would go through lunch, we bought some sandwiches and drinks for the trip.  

Our room 3rd floor, right

On to lunch, a tour of the local museum, drinks dinner and a chat with our eldest son.  Of course, people watching was high on the list, and they didn’t disappoint.  We have been surprised by the number of Asian and Arab tourists that come here.  Deb googled it - there are 780 residents in the town and typically 10,000-30,000 visitors (even on a rainy day)

Tomorrow, back to our little hideaway in Vienna.

Hallstatt, Upper Austria

 Today is our first train ride (many more to come) in Austria.  We are leaving most of our stuff in Vienna, taking just a small backpack to Hallstatt, a picturesque town in the middle of Austria.  

Yesterday, we learned that in World War I, American soldiers brought the “American Flu” to Austria.  Well, it appears that the Austrians are paying it forward.  Deb and I have both caught colds.

The train ride was through rolling hills, until it wasn’t.  The landscape became strikingly rugged in an instant.  The town of Hallstatt was only accessible by ship until the late 1800’s.  You can now drive here, but the train station is on the other side of the lake, so you need to take a small passenger ferry to get to the town.  We stopped for a beer and an aperol spritz.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to share some beef goulash.  And yet, there was room for an apple strudel.  

Tomorrow is suppose to be cold and rainy.  Not exactly sure what that mean to our plans.

Vienna, Austria (Day 2)

 I think we are finally adjusted to Austria time.  Today’s challenge is city transportation.  Vienna is suppose to have one of the best.  It turns out that our first challenge is to not get run over by a tram.  Not as easy as it sounds, they are, for the most part, silent.  If you get in front of one, they tinkle a little bell.

Hofburg Palace

After escaping death by tram, getting a breakfast pastry (Deb’s choice - a 3” cold margherita pizza!), we plan our first public transportation trip.  Tickets are purchased on line, and usually not checked.  Of course, travelling without a ticket has severe consequences (apparently so bad that they can’t talk about it).

Deb wants to get a sense for the history of Austria, so we go to the Inner Stadt where all the museums are. There are dozens of them and thousands of tourists.  The history museum starts in 1918 and goes to 2018.  After an hour or so of very detailed exhibits, we are as educated as we are going to get.  Deb is getting flashbacks of her teenage visit to Germany and needs a Bratwurst fix!  We find a würstrelstand, and devour some good German sausages (small faux pax - next with mustard!) 

Drinks and dinner without a hitch.  We are getting to be travel pros.  Tomorrow,  Hallstadt.

Vienna, Austria (Day 1)

 

The timezone change is getting to us, but we are troopers!  After our morning nap, we took a nice stroll around the area.  Everything is very baroque - lavish, over the top.  Even buildings built in the 50’s are in a baroque style.  Then all of a sudden we come upon the Hundertwasser building.  Freidenreich Hundertwasser was apparently not a fan of baroque architecture, or any other architecture for that matter.  He was more a visualist with an environmental slant.

As we walked around, the meal alarm in Deb’s head went off.  We looked at a few al fresco dining spots, but Deb realized that she had not studied up on Austrian dining protocol and was unwilling to make an egregious dining faux pax on her first day.  I was willing to risk it, since every place was apparently filled with the dinner crowd.  Then I realized that my internal clock was way off…it was actually the lunch crowd.  We still had several hours to go for dinner.  So we got two good Austrian pretzels at the grocery store, took them back to the VRBO, and took another nap.

Once Deb had googled Austrian dining protocols, she was good to go, and dinner, as far as we know, was a smashing success.  

Deb made it to 7:30 PM local time before settling in for a good night’s rest.  I made it until at least 7:45!

Radetzkystraße VRBO - Vienna, Austria

 Wahoo! We have a direct flight from Logan to Vienna on Austrian Air. We arrive the prescribed two hours early, find a nice bar in the international terminal with entertainment.  A lovely parade of mice scurrying across the entrance to the kitchen.  The bartender says that if you wait until closing we can get quite a show.  Unfortunately, our flight is leaving so we’ll miss it.

Our new collapsible luggage.

We are flying “Premium Economy” which seems like an oxymoron, but I’ll let it pass.  More than half the compartment is made up from a single extended family, from infants to grandparents, uncles and aunts.  I kept wondering what the occasion was. Wedding? Family reunion?  Now, we’ll never know.  The flight was non-eventful but I don’t think I have ever been fed so much on a plane.

We reserved our VRBO a day earlier than we were arriving so we could crash when we got in at 8:00 in the morning.  We got the key, the tour, and some detailed instruction about not inadvertently ringing the neighbors doorbell when trying to turn on the hallway light.  Then we took a tiny little three hour nap!

Hanover Inn - Hanover, NH (Last day)

 

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial 

Went to the Dirt Cowboy Cafe for breakfast.  The only seating was outside, but it was pouring rain, so we ended up eating at the desk in our room, not quite the plan.

After breakfast, we made a slight detour on our trek home to visit Saint Gauden’s National Park.  I used to live fairly close to it and bicycled to it once.  He was an incredible sculptor, some of his works were on display.  Our original plan was to hike a nice little trail in the park, but it was wet and buggy, so we did an abbreviated walk and spent more time looking through his studios and other displays.  

Adams Memorial 

The drive home was all in the rain, and 20 degrees cooler.  It was a really good trip!

Hanover Inn, Hanover NH

 Now that our youngest son has escaped the tsunami we can get on with the matter at hand.  Hanover has a restaurant called “The Works.”  We have one at home and know the menu.  After breakfast, we are going to do a morning hike, while it is still cool.  Not far from Hanover is Boston Lot.  It checked all the boxes, not too long, not too steep, not too tough.  Everything going well till a woman talking loudly on her cell phone got behind us, and then in front of us.  At Deb’s suggestion, we found an alternate trail, a little too long, a little too steep, and a little too tough.  It was warm and sweaty, but back at the hotel with a shower and a fresh change of clothes we were ready to face a new challenge…lunch!

A quick dash to Vermont and we were at King Arthur Flour.  They have a nice café, and we had our lunch before…yes…our annual first Christmas shopping trip.  We got some nice presents, we’ll see if we can find where we put them, come December.

King Arthur Flour

Well yesterday was Molly’s which means that today has to be Murphy’s.  After a drink or two, we settled for Fish and Chips (still at 4:00, still had to split it). Back to the hotel for a nightcap (yeah, still around 6:00)

Well, at least the heat wave is over.  Tomorrow is suppose to be rainy, and in the sixties.

Hanover Inn - Hanover, NH

 It’s déjà-vu all over again.  In May, we planned a trip to Bar Harbor and it turned out to be during a heat wave! In June, we planned this trip to Hanover, NH and it turned out to be in a heat wave.  Should we tell the weather people that we are heading to Europe at the end of August, or should we just let that heat wave be a surprise as well?

The drive was short and very pleasant.  The Hanover Inn is much more hotelish than innish, but that’s okay.  So for dinner, there’s Murphy’s and Molly’s.  We settle on Molly’s and their $3 Margaritas.  Deb says it’s more of a Margarita spritz, kinda of a three buck suck!  By 4:00 she is hungry and ready for an  appetizer.  Just so you neophites understand, an appetizer at 4:00 is going to be shared and more importantly, it’s going to be dinner!  Yup, half a tiny chicken quesadilla.  Live free or die(t).

Back to the hotel for a nightcap (it’s only 6:00 by the way).  Deb is sound asleep by 8:00 only to be awaken by our son who is vacationing in Hawaii to tell us that there is a tsunami coming his way.  The hotel tells him not to worry because he is on the sixth floor unlike those unfortunate people on the fourth floor.   The tsunami is going to strike at 1:17, our time (such precision).  We are up watching the weather channel, remembering the destruction in Japan as a huge wave rolled in years ago, with views of the beaches in Hawaii.  Some tsunami expert describes the anticipated !slow rise of water.  It’s kinda like watching bread rise.  We’re too tired to watch anymore, hopefully he’ll be okay! (He was fine.)