Tag: Austria

• Biking From Germany to Austria

  Posted at 2:00 PM by Brittany, on November 27, 2019

  When I first arrived in Germany, a few of the girls I work with encouraged me to buy a bike. I knew I wanted a bike anyway, but while most people buy bikes that will solely get them from where we live into the center of town, I wanted a bike that would take me on mountain roads as well. Initially when I purchased my bike, I felt a bit of anxiety for spending more than I wanted (I wanted to spend no more than $300), but quickly realized I made the right choice.

  

  My bike is by no means expensive, especially compared to what a lot of Germans spend on their bikes if the bike is their main mode of transport. I spent about $400 after using a VAT form and that included a kickstand and a bike lock, but it was more than I would have thought to spend on a bike I’d only need for a year and a half.

  I can’t imagine not having this bike, and it has allowed me to go on any adventure without thinking twice. 

  

  

  One of the bike rides I knew I wanted to embark on before the winter months hit was to a lake in Austria called Plansee. I jokingly posted a photo of Plansee on my Instagram with the caption: “My dad rode his bike from Seattle to Portland…twice. A worthy feat from one state to another, but how often can an American say: “I rode my bike from one country to another.” Just a casual (1033 ft climb) bike ride into Austria.”

  

  I say jokingly because in all reality I live in the south of Germany, and this bike ride only took about an hour and 40 minutes. If I were driving I could arrive at the lake within 20 minutes. Although Austria isn’t far from where I live in Germany, it was still fun to say I biked from Germany to Austria. The bike path to Plansee is amazing, and has a slight continual incline for most of the path.

  Until the last push which is straight up, and it was intense. 

  My only goal was to not walk my bike up the hill, so I clicked her into low gear and slowly but surely climbed pedal after pedal. A few people passed me on e-bikes, and I just muddled under my breath, “CHEATERS!” In all reality I would love to take an e-bike up some of these mountain paths! Once I arrived at the lake I felt a strong sense of accomplishment.

  

  

  There is a small camp ground surrounding the lake, and a hotel/restaurant. I sat at the lake eating a snack for about 30 minutes before riding back to Garmisch. I’m trying to work on savoring the moments instead of reaching a destination and quickly turning around to leave. Another lovely Bavarian bike ride, and another bike path to add to my bag of tricks. I later returned to this path with a friend, showing her the way to Plansee.

  I love friends that are up for a good bike ride.

  

  The Seattle to Portland bike ride is still on my bucket list, and one day I will accomplish it, but for now I’ll just keep riding between European countries. 🙂

  Q: What’s the furthest you’ve ridden on a bike? I’ve ridden further rides than this, but all within one country. 

  

  | 10 Comments Tagged Austria, Bike Path, Biking, Brittanys Life Abroad, Germany, Plansee

• Salzburg, Austria – Pt.2

  Posted at 5:00 AM by Brittany, on April 23, 2019

  Before I went to Salzburg, I knew that the city was famous for some of the Sound of Music filming locations. I did some Google searching to find out my options to visit these locations, and settled on a three hour bike tour. I’m not normally one to take a formal tour, but when there are bikes included I can be convinced. The tour turned out to be one of the best decisions I had made all month. 

  

  

  Most people take a bus tour, but I knew I wanted to ride a bike around Salzburg so this was the perfect activity for me. My group had eleven people consisting of mostly other Americans, some British folks, and a cute Australian guy. The tour took us to multiple filming locations, and through some of the outskirts of Salzburg. Getting out of the city center was so much fun, and the weather was absolute perfection.

  

  Maria’s Abbey

  

  The lake terrace scenes at the von Trapp’s family home were all shot at the baroque Leopoldskron Palace dating back to 1736.

  

  The actual “16 going on 17” gazebo.

  

  View of Untersberg Mountain – referenced in movie.

  While riding through the outskirts of the city, we had a stereo playing songs from the movie. The wind was slightly blowing, the sun was out, and I couldn’t slap the smile off my face if I’d tried. 

  One of my favorite filming locations, which I visited multiple times while in Salzburg, was the Mirabell Palace and Gardens. The gardens at the palace are said to be among some of the most beautiful gardens in the world. I visited the gardens the previous day, as well as later that evening for a concert.

  

  

  

  

  

  My only regret of this tour, was not being able to visit Werfen, aka the picnic meadow where they sang “Do Re Mi.“ This town is about a 40 minute train ride outside of Salzburg, so I plan to return to walk the “Sound of Music Trail” INTO the Austrian alps. Overall this was such a fun way to see the city and to see some of the filming locations. I wish I had watched the movie the night before (my hostel shows the film every night at 8p) but I’m an old lady and need my sleep.

  After the bike tour I lost my morals and grabbed a Salzburg Pretzel, which was basically a pastry in the shape of a pretzel covered in chocolate. The pretzel was the size of my face…twice. It was intense. I chomped on my sins as I walked towards Mozarts Geburtshaus, aka Mozarts birthplace. It only made sense to stand in the room where Mozart was born, before listening to his music at a concert in Mirabell Palace later that evening.

  As regular readers know, I’ve made it a priority to see a classical concert in each new country I visit while living in Europe, and Salzburg was no exception.

   

  

  

  “In this room Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756.”

  

  I stood in the birth room for a full five minutes soaking in the music playing through the speakers. It was a surreal moment to stand in this room. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of his music or not, Mozart was a huge influence on classical music. His talents will live on forever. Sorry, I think the sugar rush from the pretzel was seeping through my fingers as I typed that.

  After I visited Mozarts birthplace, I made sure to walk past the house the Mozart family moved to next. I didn’t feel the need to go inside, and I started to feel the effects of the pretzel and the Mozartkugel I had eaten and needed a small break from wandering. I headed back to my hostel for a bit to shower and change, and then it was time to visit the Mirabell Palace and Gardens again, but this time to go inside. I had booked a ticket for a Mozart concert and I got a front row seat.

  

  The palace was built in 1606, and is used today for concerts and weddings. The room where the concert was held is full of gold and marble, I can see why people want to get married there. The palace staircase felt like a scene from Titanic, and every detail was immaculate. The musicians were amazing, and they all looked so young.

  I’m constantly in awe of those who can play a musical instrument. I played the clarinet for a few years when I was in school, but couldn’t play a song if my life depended on it today (except for hot cross buns, forever for the HCB.) I’d always wanted to learn piano, but never made the time for it. I’m a sucker for piano, and my future husband will not only be able to build me a house in a flannel with a beard, he will also play the piano.

  

  I left the next morning around 10am. I would have stayed a bit longer, but the weather turned crummy and I felt I’d seen all I needed for this trip. Plus the longer I stay places the longer I’m off track with my eating and start to feel like I’ve been hit by a train. I had a great last minute trip to Salzburg, and am happy I live so close to such amazing cities full of history.

  Q: Are you a Sound of Music fan?

  

  | 28 Comments Tagged Austria, Bike, Brittanys Life Abroad, Mozart, Salzburg, Sound of Music, Travel, Travel Abroad

• Salzburg, Austria – Pt. 1

  Posted at 5:00 AM by Brittany, on April 17, 2019

  Last week I was lucky enough to snag another three day weekend. If it hasn’t become obvious to those of you who regularly read my blog, I have a bit of an addiction to traveling. Sometimes I need to take it down a notch and remember to appreciate the trip I just went on before trying to jump into another one. Living in Europe makes that difficult! I decided to go to Salzburg for a couple days because it’s only about a 3.5hr train ride away.

  

  I actually ended up deciding the day of that I wanted to go, and booked my train and hostel in a matter of minutes. I had looked up options a few days prior, but didn’t pull the trigger until an hour before I was to catch the train. Sometimes last minute decisions are the best. I arrived in Salzburg around 3pm, which gave me enough daylight to get acclimated to the city for a few hours.

  

  I dedicated my first afternoon to wandering the city, and the Hohensalzburg Fortress. The Fortress was built in 1077 and is the largest fully preserved castle in Central Europe. To access the fortress you can walk up a relatively large hill, or you can ride up in a Funicular. I’m always down for a walk, and I’m too cheap to pay for the easy way, so I walked up the hill and earned my view. The museum was closed when I visited, which I was more than ok with, so I only had to pay 4 euro to walk around the grounds.

  

  

  The fortress was huge, and I spent about an hour walking around and appreciating the views. I can’t help but wonder what it was like living in castles like this when they were actively used by European royalty. I also wonder what the view was like back then. The view now is amazing, and provides an arial shot of the Salzburg Cathedral. The view walking up to the fortress was great too, and each twist and turn provided a different angle of the city.

  

  

  

  

  Salzburg Cathedral dome and towers in the middle/right.

  After I pretended I was Salzburg royalty I walked around the city for a while before it got dark. Near the hill up to the fortress is a gate that leads into St. Peters Abbey and Cemetery. Never have I ever seen a more beautiful cemetery in my life. It was small, but the effort the families put into each burial spot was amazing. This cemetery was the inspiration for one of the scenes in the Sound of Music, when the Trapp family fled through the cemetery to hide before fleeing to Switzerland.

  More on the Sound of Music filming locations later. 

  

  Notice the dwelling in the wall of the cliff? Upper left.

  

  

  Salzburg Cathedral dome in the back.

  The dwellings in the cliff wall apparently served as both hermitages and burial sites. I didn’t discover the dwelling was accessible until after I left. There are stairs leading up to the dwelling, and the entrance is found at the foot of Mozarts sisters grave. Yea, the Mozart. Honestly I’m super bummed I didn’t know about the stairs leading up, looks like I’ll have to return!

  From the cemetery I found my way to the Dom zu Salzburg, aka the Salzburg Cathedral. The large onion dome and two smaller towers in front of it are seen in a few of the above photos. The cathedral was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times by fires, but you’d never know by walking through the isles. It was beautiful inside, as are all European cathedrals. There is a lot of history inside the cathedral, but the one that resonated most with me was that Mozart was baptized in this cathedral.

  

  Photo of a photo I was given for making a donation.

  

  

  The rest of my first day in Salzburg was spent preparing for the following morning. Day one was a mere four hours in the city, but it was already off to a great start. I stayed at the YoHo Int. Youth Hostel, and it was very close to both the train station and the city center. I stayed in a four female dorm, and my first night there were three Koreans in the room with me. Thankfully they were very quiet, as I needed a goodnights sleep for day two!

  ….to be continued!

  Q: Can you make last minute decisions for an adventure, or do you need everything planned prior?

  

  | 22 Comments Tagged Austria, Brittanys Life Abroad, Europe, Salzburg, Travel, Travel Abroad

• Innsbruck, Austria

  Posted at 5:00 AM by Brittany, on February 4, 2019

  The town in Germany that I live is in the southern tip of the country just a hop, skip, and a jump away from both Austria and Switzerland. I’ve been in Germany for two weeks as of today, and I didn’t hesitate to start my travels. My first day off was last Wednesday, and I made plans with a few of the other newbies here to take the FlixBus to Innsbruck. The bus ticket was $14 round trip, and took about an hour each way.

  

  

  

  We arrived in Innsbruck around 930 am, and the only “plans” we had were to see the river with the colorful houses, and I really wanted to visit Ambras Castle. The rest of the day was free to roam and soak up as much of the city as we could. We started at the first cafe we could find for some espresso and a treat.

  This was the first of many encounters with locals that didn’t speak English, but we made it work eventually. 

  After our pick me up we wandered into the Old Town area. These medieval buildings are paired with contemporary architecture, all surrounded by the Alps. There was a City Tower we stumbled upon that provided a panoramic view of the city, and was well worth the 3 euro to climb the stairs. The Old Town is also home to the Golden Roof, which is the cities most famous symbol. The roof is made of copper tiles and was for Emperor Maximillian I to mark his wedding.

  I love history. 

  

  View of Golden Roof from the tower.

  

  City Tower, circa 1442-1450.

  

  

  

  After being awed by the view from City Tower, we wandered around Old Town a bit, and I ended up buying a souvenir. I never buy souvenirs because I don’t like to accumulate “things,” but this one spoke to me. My room in Germany is very empty, to the point where the housing manager thought I had moved out when he came to do a room inspection.

  What can I say, I’m tidy and I’m a minimalist. 

  

  You had me at the hiking boot.

  From the Old Town area, we migrated towards the river. When Googling Innsbruck the river houses were one of the first images that caught my eye. These colorful buildings are a must see, and a perfect spot for a tourist to take a photo. We walked the river for a while, wandered down random roads, stopped into open cathedrals, and then made our way outside of the city center towards Ambras Castle.

  

  

  Ambras Castle is about a 2 mile walk from the city center, and Google Maps was the real MVP on this trip. I just learned that I can download maps of any city to use offline, which will be such a life changer while I explore without data for my cell phone. We stopped in to use the toilet at a gas station along the way, which was stop number two where no one spoke English. We were beginning to stick out like sore thumbs, but everyone was kind.

  I’m a sucker for a good castle tour, so when I saw Ambras Castle pop up as one of the must see places in Innsbruck I knew it needed to be one of the main stops for the day. Archduke Ferdinand II rebuilt the castle using part of it to display his collections of armor, weapons, oddities, rarities, and precious items, making this the oldest museum in the world dating back to 1570.

  

  

  

  

  The exterior of the castle alone is enough to summon a visit, but my favorite room on the inside was The Spanish Hall. This room was used for balls and special occasions, and upon entry you can immediately see why. Some of the portraits that line the walls are comical, and I can’t help but wonder if the men actually posed the way they were portrayed.

  

  

  My favorite pose. What’s going on with that hand, and that hip pop is on point.

  The castle has a cafe where we ate lunch, and this was the third and most difficult encounter with a woman that didn’t speak English. She was sweet as candy, but my goodness did I wish I knew Google Translate allows language downloads to use offline before I visited this cafe. I learned this life hack as well as the Google Maps offline hack AFTER this trip. I tried to order a chicken salad, and I don’t know what she was saying, but I ended up guessing she was telling me they didn’t have anymore. Instead I ordered a tuna salad, which was delicious.

  We were all given coupons to get a free espresso, so I also ordered an espresso. When it came time to pay I presented my coupon, and she became confused. I had no idea what she was saying, but I kept presenting the coupon hoping something would happen. I’m still unsure, but I think perhaps she thought I was trying to use the coupon for my entire meal. Eventually she said “OHH Espresso” and it was taken care of.

  We all laughed, and did the best we could. 

  

  

  The castle grounds had three peacocks roaming around, which was random as hell, but also fun.  After we finished with the castle we took a bus back into the city, and my copilots stopped for a warm drink and some cake to kill time before our bus disembarked back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We also stopped at a place called Mamma Mia where I ate the biggest slice of pizza I’ve ever seen.

  I payed for it later, but when in Austria.

  Our bus left Innsbruck at 735p, giving us ten hours in the city. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, my company was perfect (we all got along great and were happy to go with the flow) the sights were beautiful, and the food was delicious. We walked a total of 12 miles – a perfect first trip while living abroad.

  Q: What are your favorite things to do while traveling? For me I like to try new food, coffee, museums, and anything outdoors.

  

  | 31 Comments Tagged Ambras Castle, Austria, Castle, Europe, Innsbruck, Living Abroad

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• BRITTANY- Self proclaimed minimalist "granola" striving to maintain a balanced, healthy life with good food, long hikes, strong relationships, exploration, lots of broccoli, and laughing like it's my J.O.B. Currently living and working in Germany, join me on my adventures abroad!
• Contact: blissfulbritt@yahoo.com

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