switzerland

from austria we headed to switzerland. as previously mentioned, our last day in salzburg was a little rough. after the mozart dinner concert we pulled our luggage out of our locker and hung out in a heated waiting area until our night train arrived at 12:45 a.m.

for some reason i was really excited about taking a night train when we were planning the trip. this may have something to do with the fact that i've always loved squeezing myself into tight places (my dad would take me & my sibs to boat shows when we were little, and we'd always wedge ourselves into the tiny bunks and pretend we lived there), but really -- what was i thinking?

to begin with, the train schedule was awful (we arrived at 6 a.m.) and when it pulled up i was SERIOUSLY having second thoughts. when we opened the door to our tiny little room and it was dark and already full of four sleeping, smelly men -- i couldn't believe i had chosen this! i stayed awake most of the trip listening to snoring and thinking about all the bed bugs and lice i could be catching. i didn't even take off my shoes...i just shoved myself into my 6' by 2' bunk and waited for the sunlight.

after all that, switzerland was SUCH a nice relief. we were exhausted after having met our trip's halfway point -- tired of touring museums, tired of checking into new hotels, especially tired of entertaining ourselves.

so when we arrived in interlaken and it looked like THIS, we were thrilled:







can it BE any more gorgeous? switzerland is green, clean, crisp and amazing. after all the noisy dirty cities we'd been in, interlaken was an incredible change.

we were wasted when we got there after the train experience, but our awesome hostel let us shower and hang out until our rooms were ready.



the hostel was great -- super professional, clean and with great amenities. they even gave us free mini golf passes, which we put to good use.



we wanted to take the railcars up to jungfrau (one of the highest mountains in europe) but it cost 165 euro PER person! no thanks. we just admired it from afar instead:



switzerland proved to be just the relaxing break we needed. after the mini golf, we took naps, hung out in the hostel TV room watching CNN international and chocolat, walked through the tiny town admiring army knives and chocolate shops, and went out for official swiss fondue:



we were fully relaxed and ready for paris by the next day!

the hills are alive

i had been looking forward to salzburg for a long time. ever since brandon and i began discussing a trip to germany, i maintained that the only way i'd go is if we could detour to salzburg so i could take the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR. for those of you unaware, sound of music is one of my very favorite movies...i can quote every line, sing every song, even do most of the dance moves. i was fully looking forward to visiting the famous city where they taped the film -- and of course taking the tour!

but first things first. salzburg is a lovely town...don't get me wrong. it's very scenic and has a lot of things to do, if you're into mozart or the sound of music. but other than that...let's just say b has taken to calling it "sucksburg."



old town across the river -- we toured the hohensalzburg fortress, up on the top of the hill.



we toured mozart's residence and listened to some of his symphonies while visiting his house. very cool.



we stayed in one of these houses, up on a hill overlooking salzburg. this was b&b #2. and we had an amazing view of the untersberg mountain and the whole city out our bedroom window:



every town we visited on our trip started out sunny, and then we woke up to rain on morning 2 every time. salzburg was the warmest stop though; we even ventured outside withOUT jackets our first night there. i love sunshine!

we woke up our first morning there to finallllly take the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR. let me tell you, these people did not disappoint. i was absolutely thrilled and very excited from the moment they picked us up on our doorstep, to when they loaded us on the very touristy-looking painted bus, to when they drove us around austria, to when they dropped us off.

it was everything i dreamed of!! this included, but was not limited to, singing along with the soundtrack while we drove, a hilarious tour guide, all sorts of new and interesting facts/myth busters and visits to many of the key filming locations. woo hoo!

if this isn't a face of sheer delight i don't know what is:



i will now walk you through all of the sites we visited. if anyone is unfamiliar with the scenes i mention, please let me know. i will be happy to describe in full detail, complete with a personal imitation, each scene and maybe even queue up the footage on my 40th anniversary special edition dvd.

first off we drove through salzburg looking at famous sites, including the bridge they rode bikes across:



here's nonnberg abbey (the red dome), where the nuns lived:



this is the lake that was "behind" the von trapp house in the film. this is also the house that currently sits at the lake...NOT the house from the movie. they actually used two separate locations for the house -- one for the backyard (this one), one for the house. which also wasn't the actual von trapp house.



speaking of the house, it is privately owned and we couldn't even drive on the road right next to it (the one maria skips down on her way to meet the captain). boo. this is as close as we got -- you can barely see the brown building to the far left:



please also note the trees lining the road -- those are the trees the kids climb in their curtain clothes! ("do you mean to tell me that my children have been roaming about salzburg dressed in nothing but some old DRAPES?")

like THIS needs any introduction...but here's the gazebo from liesel & rolfe's 16-going-on-17 song! they used this one for the exterior, but did all the interior dancing etc. on a soundstage. unfortunately we couldn't go inside. apparently an 80 year old woman broke her hip inside it trying to do a liesel-hop across the benches. stupid lady.



then we hopped back on the bus to drive out into the famous lakes and mountains region of austria -- GORGEOUS. that's where maria took the kids to teach them do re mi, along with where they rode the train, skipped by the river, rode bikes etc.

here's me in front of the lakes region. and yes, i'm wearing that hideous maroon sweater again. did i mention i wore the exact same outfit -- jeans, maroon sweater, scarf and converse -- EVERY day because it was freezing and that was my warmest outfit? yeah, i came home and burned the sweater.


the main point of going out there was to see the famous church where maria and the captain got married:



here's the interior:



we had lunch (and more apple streudel!) in the little town and then boarded the bus back to salzburg. they dropped us off in the famous mirabellplatz garden...probably one of the most recognizable places from the movie. recognize these?







i was in heaven, recognizing every part of the garden we walked through. my favorite part was the shady archway -- maria and the boys run through it in the movie. so of course i did the same. here's me running with the ghost of julie andrews...sheer bliss.





and then we were done. my dream had come true.

the worst part of salzburg came the next day -- sunday. it started off badly because we had to check out of our hotel at 9 a.m. and had nowhere to go all day. then we decided not to find a church to go to because all the LDS meetinghouses were far away and salzburg has a crappy, confusing public transportation system (although we did check out a musical mass in the salzburg cathedral).

we tried to find ways to stay busy and warm throughout the day; we ended up reading our books in burger king for a few hours in the afternoon. that night we did one of the coolest things of the trip: we attended a mozart dinner concert.



that's us at the dinner. it was really fancy and so much fun -- we both wished we could have dressed up a little more, but no formal clothes would fit in my one carryon. we had a fantastic three course meal of mozart-era food (my favorite was the warm lemon cream soup...mmm) with performances between each course from a five-piece string orchestra and two opera singers. we were in a historic building right next to st. peter's cathedral in the heart of the old city. definitely memorable.

and a side note: you may notice a gray line on the bottom of some pictures. the day after we got back from europe, i began loading our photos on the computer. as i usually do, i hit the "delete from device" button for after the pictures got transferred. however, our disk space was full so ALL the pictures from austria, switzerland and france ended up in space and got totally deleted. i FREAKED out. luckily, my amazingly techie husband figured out a new software to download that saved all our pictures. unfortunately some of the pictures came back to us with some issues. but that's okay -- i'll take it!

neuschwanstein castle

after munich we headed to a town called fussen, on the southern border of germany. fussen recently celebrated its 700th birthday and was the cutest little village ever.



fussen is also home to two famous castles, hohenschwangau and neuschwanstein. they're only about 200 and 150 years old, respectively, but they were really amazing.

here's hohenschwangau...we didn't tour this one:



instead we walked up an insane mountain (it puts byu's hill of death to shame) to tour neuschwanstein. it was built for king ludwig II, who was allegedly a bit of a whoopsie if you know what i'm saying. he was kicked out of the castle when only 14 rooms were done because he was judged "unfit to rule"...and then he mysteriously died a few months later. very suspicious.

regardless, he did a great job designing the castle. so much so that neuschwanstein was actually the inspiration behind sleeping beauty's castle at disneyland. fun fact.







like i said, we hiked up really high.



view from the top:



we took a tour of the castle, or rather of the 14 rooms that were finished at his death. our tour guide was hilarious, complete with high-pitched voice and random hand gestures...i think HE was a bit of a whoopsie. ask brandon to do the impression of the guide the next time you see him. i still laugh just thinking about it.

then we hiked up even higher to get cool pictures of the castle. which was being renovated on the exterior. bummer. still a cool picture though.



one of the funnest parts of this portion of the trip was that we stayed in a bed&breakfast just down the hill from the castle. in the picture below, the wall on the right is our hotel -- to give you a little perspective.



i had never stayed in a b&b before...it was a little strange feeling like i was staying in some random grandma's house or whatnot. we had a tiny shower and sink in our room but had to walk down the hall to use a shared bathroom. the owner was really nice and even fixed us a delicious breakfast in the morning.





and that was fussen.

still alive, really

okay, i feel an apology is in order. i have been doing a pathetic job of updating this bad boy. but hey, that's what happens when you do things like work 12 hour days. and then get a migraine and sleep for 12 hours. yep, that's my life these days.

anyway, that is no excuse. i am leaving for georgia on friday, where i will be for two weekends AND my anniversary. sucks for me. but my goal is to have all my lovely readers up to date on the remainder of my europe trip, prior to my departure. i still have a whole week of our euro trip left to blog! oy.

so here goes.

talk about a flashback...

background...
so in 2004 i was a sophomore in college. i worked at the marketplace cafe in the business building at byu (cooking the best paninis and quesadillas in town, might i add). i kept my backpack in the small side office while i worked between classes. one day my dickies messenger bag, along with the backpacks of two other girls, was stolen right out of the office while someone walked down the hallway. (yes, crime exists even at byu.)

cops ended up finding a few things -- my bag, my school books and a few other things. unfortunately, items such as my cute scarf, mittens and wallet were never returned.

flash forward to oct. 1, 2008...
on wednesday, my mom got a call from byu police asking if i still lived there. eventually she found out that a member of the grounds crew had found my wallet in the bushes this week while doing landscaping and they wanted to return it.

my wallet has spent FOUR YEARS sitting in the bushes. that's four seasons of snow, sunshine and squirrels.

my mom told the cop to send the wallet to me for closure. it arrived today and i was so intrigued to see how it looked.

you could barely make out the white-and-purple flower design or the roxy logo on there. this baby has definitely seen better days:



inside were a variety of cards including my cafe rio meal card, a disneyland ticket, a school photo of my bff kelly, my blood donor card, and random papers that were practically disintegrated. also included were my drivers license and various high school ID cards, all perfectly preserved. this is all a testament to my packrat tendencies -- seriously, what use did i have for a four-year-old ID card?

i've already thrown everything away as it was filthy and falling apart. i kept the ID cards for posterity. and i've spent the majority of my week being fully amused by this little blast from the past.

new york city

just got back last night from new york. i was so happy to be back in my favorite place! proud to report i can still hail a cab, find my way around the city and navigate the subway system like a champ.

this time around, though, i did realize just how dirty and crowded it is there...i think i'll stick to my sunny, spread out, friendly california thank you very much.

so i was actually there for work. we had a media reception for my client and all went well.

we did cool things like put motorcycles up on bars...



and hang out with people like tyson beckford...





you may recognize my boyfriend tyson from such shows as make me a supermodel or zoolander (which is really the reason i know who he is...besides the fact that i'm pretty sure he's mentioned in that old "she likes me for me" song). he was SO nice and friendly and talked to me and my co worker for a little while and then kissed us on the cheek when he said goodbye! EEK. (don't worry, brandon is fully aware of my enamoration. despite the fact t. beck showed up with a hot little gf.)

i guess i'm like a celeb magnet these days because sandra bullock & jesse james were also on our flight out of LAX. what can i say, that's how we roll.

we also had a little time for some sightseeing.

started out at ground zero...it is basically still a big hole with a bunch of cranes in it. not much different than the last time i was there. still a sobering sight.





then we headed to wall street. the day after the senate passed the bill to save wall street's butt. so guess what we saw?



tons of news vans everywhere. it was my co worker jolee's first time in the city so it was fun to show her around. here we are in front of the american stock exchange.



here's a shot of the federal building (where george washington was inaugurated as the first president of the united states...didn't know that) and trinity church of national treasure fame :)



i also finally got to see the famous bull, which i'd never visited before. i had five seconds to push past all the photo-taking asians to get my picture...which may explain the face.



we had lunch in little italy, bought purses from a secret basement in chinatown, walked around rockefeller center and then headed back to the airport. a quick trip but it was super fun.

however all the fun pales in comparison to the fact that i went all the way to nyc and didn't have a cupcake :( i walked past two crumbs locations while neither were open, and never had time to get over to magnolia. sad sad.

and of course i waved goodbye to my favorite spot in all of new york (and always a special place to me & b :)...the empire state building. (can you believe how beautiful that sky is?)



gotta love new york...but it's nice to be back home. again.

jetsetter.

sorry to report that the blog recap of europe is facing a brief postponement. i leave tomorrow for new york city.



am i excited? YES. this is my first time back to the city since my internship, so i'm pretty pumped to get back. not to mention i get to see one of my favorite girls on the planet.

am i feeling totally grossed out by the fact i have to get on a plane AGAIN? yes.

paris to frankfurt to los angeles to new york city in one week. what.