Category Archives: Europe is Weird

20Sep / 2014

Mozart, Mozart, Mozart, Spam, and Mozart (day 13 2/2)

And we are all out of spam.

Make no mistake about it, Salzburg is all about Wolfgang. (And if you’re not here for old Wolfie than you’re probably trying to solve a problem like Maria – the sound of music is big business here.) We haven’t been here but a few hours and that is abundantly clear. The biggest tourist activities here are touring the Mozart birthplace, touring the Mozart house, or taking a Sound of Music tour.

It will come as a surprise to nobody when I tell you Jim and I are doing absolutely none of that.

We arrived in Salzburg around 3 this afternoon after our Adventures in Tyrol (see post 1 of 2) and immediately decided that the hotel is … well …. I’ll call it adequate (and I just had a very nice hot chocolate and half an Apfelstrudel at a sidewalk cafe so I am being generous) and that considering the only reason we came this way was so that I could see the Swarovski (not any) Crystal World (see post 1 for that fun too) that perhaps Salzburg was a … miscalculation in our plans.

Then we took a walk.

Salzburg, at least the south end of the old city nearest the river (where we are staying) and the old town on the far side, is stunning. Even, dare I say it, prettier than the Apfel of my eye, Munich. The streets are narrower, the town is less crowded (though that’s not Munich’s fault) and in some ways more authentic. Yes, Mozart is the draw, but I don’t feel like anything else is for show. Not like the Hofbrauhaus or the very in your face drinking culture is in Munich, that feels like a thing there for tourists – not that the Bavarians don’t love their beer, but the intensity of the culture there feels a bit forced.

That’s the entire Oktoberfest parade in Salzburg. A couple of soldiers, a cannon, a few ladies with bouquets made of hops and a march up to the church and back. Not like the very crazy mess that is Munich right now.

 

We have the car for another day, so even though the weather is supposed to be awful, Jim and I are going out to the Salzkammergut region (the Austrian Lake District) to take a scenic ferry and Austria’s steepest cog railway to the top of a scenic mountain. All of which we may not be able to see because of the lousy weather. But hey, it’s better than cramming into the Mozart Wohnhaus with the rest of the tourists. (All of whom seem to be American.)

So expect more from Salzburg in the following days, assuming the internet holds. (Please don’t assume the internet will hold. It seems to get worse everywhere we go.)

Tschüss!

 

 

 

 

 

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13Sep / 2014

This Now Ends our Regular Broadcast Day

A burrito and a beer alongside the River Spree. Hell of a way to start a spin through Berlin.

Im posting tonight to tell you all I won’t be posting tonight. Not much of one, anyway. Today we took an excellent private tour with David (the weather held for us, thankfully) that is definitely a highlight of this trip. Problem is, afterward he joined us at the Augustiner for Schnitzel as big as my head and a few Bavarian pretzels and after that Jim and I walked up to the Brandenberg Gate again to see it at night and it’s now 11pm and we are just getting in.

On top of that, today is a difficult thing to quantify or put into words. The history of Berlin is so vast and so complex (even just the last 70 years of it) and in so many ways incredibly heart wrenching that I’m not sure how to express all that we saw without putting you through the same whipsaw emotional ride we took. (Also, late and beer.) So instead I’m going to give you some Europe is Weird, German Edition and try to take new stock tomorrow when we will be visiting the German History Museum and, likely either the Topography of Terror or the East Side Gallery.

So, on with the fun:

This thing seemed to follow us all over the place but this is the best shot I got of it. It is a bar, complete with taps that you sit at and pedal (every stool has a set of pedals) your way around the sights. So you drink your beer (no open container law here) and pedal to power it and the operator steers it from the back and (ostensibly) sober.

This guy tried to charge me €1.50 for a photo, so Jim took a picture from down the block with the digital zoom. He is cooking sausages on a grill he is wearing strapped over his shoulders. It’s a neat little concept called grill runner and if he wasn’t such a jerk about the picture we might have tried one. Behind him in the former East German uniform is a guy who for about €5 would put a fake East German visa stamp in your passport. Which doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me, but I’m not behaving like a crazy tourist. (We actually saw someone taking a picture while giving a ‘heil Hitler’ salute at the Brandenberg Gate this afternoon. I’m going to assume that she had no idea what this meant because I’m not sure I want to live in the same world as someone who did know and took that picture anyway – there is a reason why that gesture is illegal in Germany and if she were a citizen the Polizei who were on site in front of the American Embassy would have arrested her. They take that stuff seriously among their populace.)

 

So I promise a return to regular programming tomorrow. Until then, gute nacht everyone.

 

PS Secret Message for Marni (yes again. She is my sister, stop groaning)

 

Look what passes for street food in Berlin!

 

 

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