Austria

We have made it safely to Salzburg, Austria. The Eurorail was very comfortable, I found it much more enjoyable then the coach we were traveling in for the past couple of weeks.

Before I write about Austria I´d like to expand on our coach tour from Paris to Rome. We saw so many things it’s difficult to remember them all.

The first destination for the tour was Paris. It took about 8 hours to travel to Paris from London so we were looking forward to a good nights sleep. The following morning we had a quick bus tour which gave us a look at the main attractions i.e Notra Dame, Eiffel Tour and the Louvre Pyramid.

Following the tour, we went on our own to explore Paris using some basic French that I’d learnt in school many years ago. First task was to see Mona Lisa in the Louvre. I was expecting huge crowds and line ups but fortunately this wasn’t the case. We manage to find the famous painting very quickly and I was surprised it was about an A3 size as many people had told me it was much smaller. Louvre was definitely worth a visit, I was surprised to see that we could take photos in some parts of the Louvre (obviously not of the Mona Lisa but of the statues and sculptures etc).

Following this we climbed the Eiffel tower, all 700 steps, to the second viewing platform and had spectacular views of the city. Bec also found a snack to rival the jam and cream donuts from Brampton; French waffles with chocolate sauce (melted Nutella).

To finish off the day we went on a river cruise and had dinner at.... (I’m embarrassed to say it).... Planet Hollywood. We were craving a steak so unfortunately I didn’t get an opportunity to try snails in France, maybe next time.

From Paris we traveled to Lucerne, Switzerland. It was a beautiful place nestled in the Swiss Alps with a huge lake called Lake Lucerne (of course). This best memory from this day was the dinner... the whole tour group went to a music/dinner night and some people including yours-truly went on stage. Bec and I went on stage and participated in a traditional Swiss dance and to finish off the night I was dragged up on stage to try out some yodeling. Fortunately, we didn´t have the video camera with us that night and I will not repeat the act for anyone back at home.

After that hilarious night we went to Venice, Italy. We were fortunate enough to witness an event that only occurs in autumn and winter, the flooding of St Mark´s square. During the high tides in Autumn-Winter, the low lying areas of Venice flood. Temporary fold-out walkways (similar to the collapsible tables that are using in Wrestling WWE-style) are put up for a few hours so locals and tourists don’t get their feet wet; it was amazing to see.

From Venice we went to Florence for some shopping and Pisa to see the leaning tower. After Florence we travelled to Rome.

Okay now I have comprehensively written about the coach trip so I can now write about my favourite place so far, Salzburg, the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music.

We arrived in Austria at about 4am on 2nd November for those of you who didn’t know it was my birthday on that day. Yes....30 years young.

For the first time in my life and probably ever I can say it snowed on my birthday. I’ve had 37 degrees in Australia but never minus 5. The train ride from the Austrian border to Salzburg went through some of Austria’s ski slopes.

The blanket of snow was about a foot deep and it was spectacular. Bec has taken more photos of the snow then of the Colosseum in Rome....now that´s saying something. Someone told me it was 25 degrees in Salzburg last week and now its covered in snow ! Winter has finally arrived.

We went on a city tour yesterday and last night we went to a beer hall for dinner. We managed to finish off a few litre steins and a small glass of jagermeister and tried to speak German to a few locals which was a challenge but also good fun.

Today we went on a Sound of Music Tour to satisfy Bec´s love for the movie. The tour was worth doing, just to see the snow covered mountains and the Austrian lakes district. While we were driving through some breathtaking scenery doe-ray-me was playing through the speakers of the coach, I couldn´t stop laughing.

Wow this has been a long message. I’d better go and I’ll try to write again soon. Thanks for your emails we´ll try to respond to them as soon as we can.