Who's Rudy you may ask? He's the bartender/concierge at the hotel. We met him on our first day in during tea. He was very nice and friendly and provided us with some very good restaurant suggestions. He also told us we should check out the Farmers Market on Thursday morning, as it was a great event, where they sold some special chicken and almonds you could only get in Salzburg. Cool. We are totally going. Now, don't get me wrong, he was very helpful. But over time, every time he'd offer suggestions of where to go, it was always in terms of distance from his apartment. At one point, he actually suggested we check out the lobby in his apartment building... for the great architecture of course. Anyhow, eventually that just became the running joke with us. We're going to check out the Fortress... which is about 10 minutes from Rudy's apartment, or maybe Mozart's house... which is only 5 minutes from Rudy's apartment. I think maybe he should get maps made up, where there's a big star that indicates *Rudy's Apartment Here. hehe.
Nevertheless, Wednesday night, Gina and I took Rudy's suggestion and checked out Shrimps restaurant (www.shrimps.at), just off the Linzer Gasse. Vuong stayed in and it was a good thing, too. OMG. This place was a 5-8 minute walk from our hotel, but dorks that we are, we completely started off in the wrong direction and took the long 30 minute route. I think part of the reason is, we were reading the map as if we were staying in the main hotel, but were actually staying across the street. Therefore, we turned right coming out of our building, which would have been correct had we been staying across the street, but from our building, the totally wrong way. Oh well. We finally made it and the food was good.
The next morning, we enjoyed a nice full breakfast that had real scrambled eggs! Woohoo. Yes, a big deal, as we were growing tired of bread, cheese and jam. Then Gina and I went off to this famous farmers market. Yes, it was fun, as it's a bit different from ours as they sell a lot of fresh meats and cheeses, but we did not see any rare almonds there.
After the farmers market, we go back to check on Vuong. Girlfriend is not doing well. The meds her dad had shipped to her were stalled in customs. At this point, it was time to take some real action. We tell her to give us a list of the meds she needs so we can go out there and score some drugs. She's a pharmacist, so she knows what she needs. We go to the pharmacy, where the nice pharmacist informs us he cannot give us drugs without a prescription, but we can have her doctor fax it in and they can fill it. Cool! We get her some ibuprofen Austrian-style (which is now one of my souvenirs) and let her know. Luckily for her, Vuong's brother is a doctor. He tries to fax over the meds she needs, but it doesn't go through, so we walk back to the pharmacist, which is only around the corner from the hotel. We tell them we're trying to fax, but it's not going through, and we've got the doctor on the phone. After a lengthy discussion between pharmacist and doctor brother, the pharmacist gives us all of the necessary meds. Get this... only 52 Euro for 3 prescription drugs for someone without insurance. How awesome is that? You know in America they would have completely gouged you. Vuong takes her drugs and gets more rest. We head out once again.
This time, we visit the house Mozart lived in, "Mozart Wohnhaus," which is different from the house Mozart was born in, "Mozarts Geburtshaus." It's very interesting with letters and diaries and musical instruments. I'm a big Mozart fan since I used to play violin and piano and thoroughly enjoy it. It's not very big, but still very captivating. Imagine, you're standing in a room that Mozart used to walk around in! How cool is that? Yes, I am a big nerd.
After Mozart's House, we stop by St. Sebastian's which is a church on the way back to our hotel. Mozart's family is buried there. I love these old church's with their own little grave yards. They have so much character and are so much more interesting to look at than the cemetaries we have here, which essentially look like flat fields of grass. I like looking at the names and dates on the stones and wondering what these people were like. Gina was a bit freaked out, but since it was so well kept and orderly, it wasn't too creepy and I think the place grew on her. She didn't realize I was interested in seeing stuff like that, and then I told her that I've actually gone and visited Pere Lachaise cemetary (www.Pere-Lachaise.com) in Paris, where so many famous people are buried (i.e. Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, etc.), that it is a real tourist attraction.
After the the brewery, we grab dinner at Republic (Anton Neumayr Platz 2), where we saw our unanimous vote for the hottest hottie of all vacation. We attempted to take a photo without being too obvious, but unfortunately it came out a bit blurry, and the photo does not do him justice:
When we're done trying to get a photo of McHottie, we head back towards the shops because I thought I saw a place to get schnapps that I had seen on Rick Steve's travel show...so we check it out. Sporer's on Getreidegasse 39 (www.sporer.at). It really is the same place as on Rick Steve's and apparently the family's been making schnapps for over a hundred years.
We go in and ask for a shot of whatever he thought was a good fruity flavor. He gives us apricot. SO GOOD. We ask for another flavor. And another. Oh yeah... we wuz getting drunk without knowing it, because that stuff is strong. Now, granted, we really are louder than most Salburgers. And we looked different from them too. So we figure that's why everyone's looking at us. We're loud and different looking. No, they were probably waiting for one of us to drop. Or maybe wondering why we're shooting the schnapps as apparently you are supposed to sip it.
We have at least 4 shots in succession. A veritable fruit salad of alcohol. Pear, apricot, apple and strawberry. Then we make the acquaintance of the others in the bar. A very nice couple, their son and his girlfriend. They buy us schnapps shots and strum. Strum is like the first distillation of wine. Not as strong and not as bitter, but just as tasty. So now we're at six shots of schnapps and two glasses of strum. We are beyond happy and having the greatest time with these very friendly and kind people:
We each buy a couple bottle of schnapps to take back. Then head back towards the hotel and engaged in one of the funnest past times ever: drunk shopping.
The next morning, we're a bit tired. Yes, a little from the alcohol, but mostly from a loud crowd of hopefully-not-Americans singing Sound of Music songs on the street at some ridiculous hour. We haul all of our dirty laundry down stairs since we plan on doing some laundry at the laundromat on the corner. We get there and she tells us we're too late. Apparently, they close at 10 a.m. WHAT? Didn't you just open? Crazy Austrians! There go our grand plans for clean clothes for the last two countries. Well, we have clean clothes, but they're all for warm weathered locales, which apparently we weren't going to be in, as it rained everywhere we went.
We drag all of our dirty stuff back up and head to breakfast, then do a bit of last minute shopping before taking the train to Vienna. Goodbye Salzburg! I had a FABULOUS time.
Nevertheless, Wednesday night, Gina and I took Rudy's suggestion and checked out Shrimps restaurant (www.shrimps.at), just off the Linzer Gasse. Vuong stayed in and it was a good thing, too. OMG. This place was a 5-8 minute walk from our hotel, but dorks that we are, we completely started off in the wrong direction and took the long 30 minute route. I think part of the reason is, we were reading the map as if we were staying in the main hotel, but were actually staying across the street. Therefore, we turned right coming out of our building, which would have been correct had we been staying across the street, but from our building, the totally wrong way. Oh well. We finally made it and the food was good.
The next morning, we enjoyed a nice full breakfast that had real scrambled eggs! Woohoo. Yes, a big deal, as we were growing tired of bread, cheese and jam. Then Gina and I went off to this famous farmers market. Yes, it was fun, as it's a bit different from ours as they sell a lot of fresh meats and cheeses, but we did not see any rare almonds there.
After the farmers market, we go back to check on Vuong. Girlfriend is not doing well. The meds her dad had shipped to her were stalled in customs. At this point, it was time to take some real action. We tell her to give us a list of the meds she needs so we can go out there and score some drugs. She's a pharmacist, so she knows what she needs. We go to the pharmacy, where the nice pharmacist informs us he cannot give us drugs without a prescription, but we can have her doctor fax it in and they can fill it. Cool! We get her some ibuprofen Austrian-style (which is now one of my souvenirs) and let her know. Luckily for her, Vuong's brother is a doctor. He tries to fax over the meds she needs, but it doesn't go through, so we walk back to the pharmacist, which is only around the corner from the hotel. We tell them we're trying to fax, but it's not going through, and we've got the doctor on the phone. After a lengthy discussion between pharmacist and doctor brother, the pharmacist gives us all of the necessary meds. Get this... only 52 Euro for 3 prescription drugs for someone without insurance. How awesome is that? You know in America they would have completely gouged you. Vuong takes her drugs and gets more rest. We head out once again.
This time, we visit the house Mozart lived in, "Mozart Wohnhaus," which is different from the house Mozart was born in, "Mozarts Geburtshaus." It's very interesting with letters and diaries and musical instruments. I'm a big Mozart fan since I used to play violin and piano and thoroughly enjoy it. It's not very big, but still very captivating. Imagine, you're standing in a room that Mozart used to walk around in! How cool is that? Yes, I am a big nerd.
After Mozart's House, we stop by St. Sebastian's which is a church on the way back to our hotel. Mozart's family is buried there. I love these old church's with their own little grave yards. They have so much character and are so much more interesting to look at than the cemetaries we have here, which essentially look like flat fields of grass. I like looking at the names and dates on the stones and wondering what these people were like. Gina was a bit freaked out, but since it was so well kept and orderly, it wasn't too creepy and I think the place grew on her. She didn't realize I was interested in seeing stuff like that, and then I told her that I've actually gone and visited Pere Lachaise cemetary (www.Pere-Lachaise.com) in Paris, where so many famous people are buried (i.e. Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, etc.), that it is a real tourist attraction.
Once we finished taking a look around at St. Sebastian, we went back to see how Vuong was doing. She was much improved already! Gotta love drugs! Actually, she ran for the potty and barfed, but after that, she was much better! So we went off to get dinner and let her rest up a bit more. This is when we decide we're going for Chinese food. It'd actually only been 8 days that we'd been on vacation, but when you don't really get a variety of food choices, you feel like it's been longer. Anyhow, it was probably the worst decision of our trip. Yes, even worse than pulling out only $10 in Prague. The food was bad, the service was blah, and it was pricey. So be warned... Happy Feast... not so happy a feast.
We decide to take Rudy's suggestion of checking out the Hotel Sacher for dessert. Thank good ness we did. The desserts were so good, they nearly made dinner nothing but a distant memory. Gina had the famous Sacher Torte, I had some raspberry chocolate dessert. Excellent stuff. Not too rich, not too sweet. Just right. Even her tea and my cocoa were wondeful. We were able to end the night on a happy note - Vuong was better and we had just had some good food.
Friday morning, Vuong was well again, so she joined us for breakfast, and we decided to go on the 9 a.m. Sound of Music Tour (www.panoramatours.com). Yes, it sounds horribly cheesy, but I'm in Salzburg, and I'm going on it darn it! Well you know what? It was one of the funnest things on our trip! They send a shuttle to pick you up from your hotel quarter to 9 and take you to tour headquarters. Then you get on a huge bus full of people. We were among the last to arrive, so we are in the very last row. I'm smack in the middle of the five seats. If the bus driver were to hit the breaks really hard, I would have gone rolling towards the front.
We decide to take Rudy's suggestion of checking out the Hotel Sacher for dessert. Thank good ness we did. The desserts were so good, they nearly made dinner nothing but a distant memory. Gina had the famous Sacher Torte, I had some raspberry chocolate dessert. Excellent stuff. Not too rich, not too sweet. Just right. Even her tea and my cocoa were wondeful. We were able to end the night on a happy note - Vuong was better and we had just had some good food.
Friday morning, Vuong was well again, so she joined us for breakfast, and we decided to go on the 9 a.m. Sound of Music Tour (www.panoramatours.com). Yes, it sounds horribly cheesy, but I'm in Salzburg, and I'm going on it darn it! Well you know what? It was one of the funnest things on our trip! They send a shuttle to pick you up from your hotel quarter to 9 and take you to tour headquarters. Then you get on a huge bus full of people. We were among the last to arrive, so we are in the very last row. I'm smack in the middle of the five seats. If the bus driver were to hit the breaks really hard, I would have gone rolling towards the front.
Our bus driver Markus and our tour guide Peter are HILARIOUS. They take us to look at the various sites where they filmed the movie and give us all sorts of background info about the movie and the real Von Traps - did you know they own a resort in Vermont? We also head out into the countryside where we get to go bobsledding! They put a wheeled seat on the bobsled track and tow you to the top then let you go. It's so much fun! Unfortunately, they'll only let you do it once before the bus leaves. On the way to the town of Mondsee, we get to see the international headquarters for Red Bull. Did you know it was invented in Salzburg? Me neither. No wonder it was everywhere.
In Mondsee, we get to visit the cathedral in which Maria and the captain were married in. We also get to try some apfel strudel with vanilla sauce. The dessert was good, the wasps hovering over us were not. Yes, we ran around and screamed like the girls we are. After the SOM Tour, we visited the Mirabellgarten (where they filmed the Doe-A-Deer scenes), and the Festung Hohensalzburg, the big fortress atop the hill. Afterwards, we trek over to the Mullner Kirche and Augustinerkloster und Brau. You have to love a church that has a brewery beneath. If my church had one, I'd attend mass more regularly:
In Mondsee, we get to visit the cathedral in which Maria and the captain were married in. We also get to try some apfel strudel with vanilla sauce. The dessert was good, the wasps hovering over us were not. Yes, we ran around and screamed like the girls we are. After the SOM Tour, we visited the Mirabellgarten (where they filmed the Doe-A-Deer scenes), and the Festung Hohensalzburg, the big fortress atop the hill. Afterwards, we trek over to the Mullner Kirche and Augustinerkloster und Brau. You have to love a church that has a brewery beneath. If my church had one, I'd attend mass more regularly:
After the the brewery, we grab dinner at Republic (Anton Neumayr Platz 2), where we saw our unanimous vote for the hottest hottie of all vacation. We attempted to take a photo without being too obvious, but unfortunately it came out a bit blurry, and the photo does not do him justice:
When we're done trying to get a photo of McHottie, we head back towards the shops because I thought I saw a place to get schnapps that I had seen on Rick Steve's travel show...so we check it out. Sporer's on Getreidegasse 39 (www.sporer.at). It really is the same place as on Rick Steve's and apparently the family's been making schnapps for over a hundred years.
We go in and ask for a shot of whatever he thought was a good fruity flavor. He gives us apricot. SO GOOD. We ask for another flavor. And another. Oh yeah... we wuz getting drunk without knowing it, because that stuff is strong. Now, granted, we really are louder than most Salburgers. And we looked different from them too. So we figure that's why everyone's looking at us. We're loud and different looking. No, they were probably waiting for one of us to drop. Or maybe wondering why we're shooting the schnapps as apparently you are supposed to sip it.
We have at least 4 shots in succession. A veritable fruit salad of alcohol. Pear, apricot, apple and strawberry. Then we make the acquaintance of the others in the bar. A very nice couple, their son and his girlfriend. They buy us schnapps shots and strum. Strum is like the first distillation of wine. Not as strong and not as bitter, but just as tasty. So now we're at six shots of schnapps and two glasses of strum. We are beyond happy and having the greatest time with these very friendly and kind people:
We each buy a couple bottle of schnapps to take back. Then head back towards the hotel and engaged in one of the funnest past times ever: drunk shopping.
The next morning, we're a bit tired. Yes, a little from the alcohol, but mostly from a loud crowd of hopefully-not-Americans singing Sound of Music songs on the street at some ridiculous hour. We haul all of our dirty laundry down stairs since we plan on doing some laundry at the laundromat on the corner. We get there and she tells us we're too late. Apparently, they close at 10 a.m. WHAT? Didn't you just open? Crazy Austrians! There go our grand plans for clean clothes for the last two countries. Well, we have clean clothes, but they're all for warm weathered locales, which apparently we weren't going to be in, as it rained everywhere we went.
We drag all of our dirty stuff back up and head to breakfast, then do a bit of last minute shopping before taking the train to Vienna. Goodbye Salzburg! I had a FABULOUS time.
2 comments:
Nice update! I want to go to Salzburg now...
I think Rudy had the yellow fever.
McHottie looks like that weird dude that kept smelling Drew's hair in Charlie's Angels (at least in that blurry picture he does.)
And no wonder you don't remember IMing me from Salzburg you drunkards!
I IM'ed you? hehe. j/k. Good times.
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