Happy Labor Day!

Austria
The hills are alive. This is as close as I’ve ever come to singing in tune. We traveled around Salzburg, visiting various sites famous for real or make believe occurrences. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This house, on this very busy pedestrian street is where one of the most famous composers the world has ever known was born—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salzburg, and to a lesser degree, the rest of Austria has commemorative plaques on places where he played, ate and slept. (It is kind of like George Washington on the East Coast of the United States. You think to yourself, on the twelfth time seeing a plaque acknowledging Washington’s having slept there, that, my goodness, the guy really slept around!) Actually, the opera house in Prague where we had the pleasure of seeing Don Giovanni was where the opera debuted. And, who conducted this first performance? Yes, none other than the omnipresent Mozart himself!

And, now, where in the world are Ethan and Siena? Salzburg is also the location for the film the Sound of Music. Thousands of tourists traipse over Salzburg and its environs to see the Abbey where Maria lived (This is the gates of the Abbey, actually a nunnery, built in the 8th century, I think), the gardens in which the children and Maria frolicked whilst singing Doe, a Deer, (beautiful gardens) and the plaza through which Maria walks on her way to become a nanny (unfortunately covered with scaffolding, like a good portion of Europe). Interestingly enough, the people we stayed with in Austria had never seen the movie, but understandably scoffed at tourists seeking out places based on fictitious events.

We spent a lovely day in the Alps. We climbed up a mountain, overlooking a gorgeous town and an even more beautiful lake (St. Wolfgang—no relation, phew, but his sister was married there, and his mother buried there.)

Now, where in the world are Ethan and Siena? The river in the background has been the major route for transporting people and goods in Europe for centuries. The color might be a bit misleading. If it were more blue, could you guess? Dah, dah, dah dah dah, bump bump, bump bump. This is the Danube River. We have climbed high above the river to a picturesque ruin of a castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned briefly. The surrounding countryside is covered with vineyards, and they make fabulous wine here. We stayed with a wonderful couple in Krems, an ancient walled city on the Danube, and sampled a number of bottles with them. One evening, we were treated to a Heuertigen. This is an old tradition in the region, where wine makers are allowed to sell their wines directly to the public for a specific week during the year. They serve cold foods along with their wines, and it is a bit like a city block party, that rotates week to week. In fact, we toured a winery in Krems, where they make not only lovely wine, but, as Ethan and Siena will attest, the world’s best grape juice. Each time there was a wine for us to taste, the kids got a different kind of grape juice. We also took a dip in the Danube to clear away the effects of drinking wine in the afternoon. The Danube is a fabulous place to swim. You can swim at whatever speed you prefer, depending on how far from shore you are, and never move a centimeter. Just don’t rest, or you’ll end up in Vienna!

Vienna was our next stop. We stayed with our sister-in-law’s counsin’s wife’s children and their boyfriends. Their home is high on a ridge, overlooking Vienna, and, despite the rather tenuous family connection, we were made very much to feel at home with family. Anna and Lisa were fabulous hosts, showing us the city and taking us to the best schnitzel restaurant in the world, where the meat is pressed through a series of rollers, to insure even thinness, and then fried in a series of pans to prevent the oil from cooling during the process. Yum. The only sad part of Vienna was this is where we said farewell to Ross, who must return to college. And, this is the end of the planned portion for a while.

We woke up the morning after dropping Ross off at the airport, trying to decide if we wanted to go to Budapest today or tomorrow, if we wanted to go by boat or train, if we wanted to stop for few hours in Slovakia on the way. Ultimately, we ended up going to Bratislava, and spending the night is this small, but beautiful capitol city. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are in the capitol of Slovakia, a relatively new capitol as this country only split from Czechoslovakia about 20 years ago. They speak a language very similar to Czech here in Slovakia, not unusual considering the recent split. We learned during the Olympics that the two countries even split their national anthem—with the Czech Republic getting the first half and Slovakia the second! We were given a tour of the city by a local, Andrej. At dinner that night, eating the traditional heuskys (kind of like gnocchi in sour sheep’s milk sauce…) we talked to the people at the next table. They informed us that the mountains in the eastern portion of Slovakia are amazing. So, the next morning we boarded a 4.5 hour train ride across Slovakia. Today, Labor Day in the US, Independence Day in Slovakia, we are planning to hike in the mountains. Tomorrow is the start of school back home. We wish you all a wonderful school year!

Nastrovy!
The Beattie Clan