The sun came out so we spent the day on foot and took in Vienna’s sights and smells yet again. We took the long fancy shopping strip near our apartment and sauntered down some side streets, inadvertently sticking our heads into one of the most famous historic cafes in Vienna, before arriving at the Naschmarkt. Endless rows of  stalls of fresh produce and a surprising amount of Turkish and Middle Eastern treats are on display for a packed crowd, I can’t imagine this place on a weekend. We people watched over breakfast and ruined our appetite before checking out all the store treats.

Nearby was a surprisingly dominant memorial to the soviet liberators of WW2, and hidden behind that are the grand gardens of the gorgeous Schloss Belvedere. It felt like a hidden palace in the middle of the city!  We wandered the grounds before ducking into a nearby brewery for a delicious tasting plate of local beers.

Next stop was the House of Music, a totally interactive museum that not only celebrates Viennese composers, but takes you on a journey through sound intself. Yes, that sounds like total toss, but you enter the museum through a room that recreates what a baby hears in the womb – and then continues to surprise with little demonstrations of sounds and instruments. You can conduct your own orchestra, discover that you have a better hearing range than your young wife, tease her about it for the rest of the day, fun things like that.

After a few kebabs we walked back towards our apartment, Marthese stopping for a famous Vienna cake (which turned out to be disappointingly lacking in sugar, wheat and dairy, totally defeating the purpose) while I checked out a record store so dense, it was impossible to actually leaf through the boxes of records – everything was crammed in!

Last stop before home was the English cinema and an afternoon screening of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Good fun. But now we’ve realised tomorrow is our last day in Europe so we’re suddenly profoundly sad. Marthese – get your coat. There’s a bar down the road…

The Kunsthistoriches Museum is yet another gorgeous, massive building in the middle of Vienna which houses a mind boggling collection of ancient antiquities through to renaissance and baroque European art. The Habsburgs stockpiled treasures not only from their own era but from works Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, and the displays are jaw dropping and extensive. It’s hard not to walk through a room full of Ancient Greek pottery then a room full of ancient Egyptian sarcophagi and wonder “WHY IS THIS HERE?”

One level up is the quaintly named “Picture Gallery” which is basically a who’s who of European painters from the 16th and 17th century. We’ve met these old friends before in France and Rome (Degas, Durer, Rubens, Raphael) but our favourite works were possibly the six Pieter Brueghel works on display which had a refreshing and distinctive style unlike the rest of the gallery.

Just outside was some sort of Vegan food festival. Marthese spun around in a daze as if in some sort of wonderful dream. We grabbed some food to sustain us for our next dose of culture – The Leipzig Orchestra performing works from Schubert and Bruckner at the Musikverein, which boasts the bests acoustics of any Austrian venue and is ranked amongst the top 10 in the world. While our cheap seats were located directly behind the stage and our view was predominantly of the timpani player’s butt, we also caught exciting glimpses of the conductors wild conducting. It sounded beautiful.

A quick viewing of St Stephen’s at night and a great Austrian sausage to cap off Vegan day wrapped up another great evening.

Also spotted today – this robot built from gaming consoles. I don’t even know how this happened,  but I am in love.

Yesterday I forgot to mention one of the highlights of the zoo – a fully recreated rainforest complete with absurdly humid climate and a dark cave you can walk through that has BATS flying all around it. Nothing between you and the bats, you just see their outline zipping past you as you rush hurriedly to the exit. Terrifying and amazing.

Despite some patchy weather, we managed to do Rick Steves’ audio walking tour of Vienna and the Cathedral of St Stephen’s. The full half day tour took us to multiple sights around the city and spent a considerable amount of time in the Cathedral, a fascinating building with a rich and tangible history. The tour ended at the Hofburg, the past and current seat of Austrian power.

Lunch was in a small alley that Rick covered in his tour and a traditional Beisl (basically a pub) that served traditional Austrian food. An amazing find in the middle of the city, it was reasonably priced and delicious. I had a boiled steak served in broth with a huge potato dumpling on the side, and Marthese had an extremely flavoursome ravioli.

Afterwards we returned to the Hofburg to check out the Sisi Museum and the Kaiserapartments. The Sisi museum section was overcrowded and frustrating – there is interesting content here, about how Franz Joseph’s rebelious and tragic young bride went from being a woman of little public note to a figure of mass commercialisation and fame. But the quality content is buried under overlong audio guides and claustrophobic displays of her clothing and portraits. The Kaiserapartments, the second half of the museum, fair better as they are more spacious and the audio guides are more succinct. These are the apartments of the emporers, notably Franz Joseph, and where they lived and worked when they weren’t at their summer residence in Schonbrunn. Oh, and there was also a whole level of plates and cutlery that Marthese and I kinda zipped through, eyes glazed over. We might be getting jaded from so much Europe!

For a change of pace, we decided to see some art at the Albertina, a converted palace now an art gallery. The Albertina also had its own set of royal apartments, which were a pleasure to walk around without the crowd. The art was the highlight here though, as Marthese and I were both blown away by the temporary exhibition of works by Austrian artist Eduard Angeli – stunning works. There was also a very interesting photography exhibition exploring the relationships of performers with the camera/photography which was much better than the wing of the gallery celebrating a narcissistic jerk artist whose name I’ve forgotten. The main attractions here are on the upper floor – an extensive gallery ranging from Monet to Picasso with extensive works from both, as well as Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, Bacon and a bunch of other huge names. Super impressive and modestly presented.

Vienna is remarkable, but overwhelming, and we’re spoilt for choice.

Hallstatt kicked us out of town by sending the sun out to make us regret every complaint we might have had. Bastard.

Yesterday we arrived in our excellent apartment in Vienna. We’ll be very comfortable here for the next 5 days, with lots of space to cook and lounge and a close proximity to the sights in town.

We went for an afternoon stroll through the beautiful museum quarter where we stopped in for a drink, before wandering the city centre for a bit, eating and drinking at a Mexican restaurant for a change of pace, and then one final drink at a quaint little bar on our street. We’re already loving the variety Vienna has to offer, after the slightly trapped feeling of Hallstattt.

The next day we made our way to Schloss Schonbrunn, former Imperial palace and centre of power for the Habsburgs and the Austrian Empire. While no photos were allowed inside, the guided audio tour was refreshingly good, and we learnt about the key palace tenants including Empress Maria-Theresa and Emporer Franz Joseph – both fascinating characters from different eras of the empire. The palace grounds featured some lovely parkland and a labyrinth that was an absolute blast to navigate, we got completely lost! Further up the hill is the Gloriette where you can see the entire palace from on high, as well as a great view of Vienna.

Just around the corner is the Zoo, which tripadvisor describes as one of the best in all Europe. While we’re biased and would never rate it higher than Taronga, we had a lovely afternoon visiting animal friends such as panda bears, elephants, penguins and other cute little critters.

Oh, almost forgot one of the day’s highlights! In a basement on the palace grounds you can take a seat and have a coffee and some apple strudel while watching an expert assemble the dish. Marthese was incredibly impressed with his pastry tossing technique. It was a lovely way to break up the day with a little cooking show!

Ok, it’s an exaggerated title for a dumb joke. Hallstatt is an absolutely gorgeous tiny town built into the side of a mountain on a pristine Austrian lake. It’s truly breathtaking.

It’s also full of tourists, predominantly from China, with nary a local to be found outside of a souvenir stand, so we’re feeling a little let down after our incredibly authentic and peaceful experience in Salzburg.

Marthese and I took a little stroll through town this morning and as you can see from the pictures, it really is quite special.

After Tez decided to have a quiet day reading in the hotel, I donned my headphones, hit play on a nerdy podcast and took a long hike up the mountain. Gorgeous, but as you can see from my face below, I was miserable without Marthese.

Next stop was a fenicular ride up to a salt mine that afforded stunning views of the lake and villages below. Halllstatt has had an active salt mine for almost 7 thousand years (yep, they’ve been digging out of that one mountain since the Bronze Age!) and it is apparently the oldest salt mine in the world. I took a tour into the mine that was quite cool indeed, and included films projected on underground rock faces and lakes, a 3 thousand year old wooden stairway, and taking a few slides down 60m to break up the seriousness.

Last stop was the Catholic Church back in town and the Beinhaus, a charnel house stacked with decorated bones and skulls full of remains exhumed since 1600. Not as epic as the Capuchin variety we encountered in Rome, but suitably impressive.

Hopefully a nice dinner tonight if we can find a good place. We haven’t had the best luck here….

(also having some internet bad luck and some of our best photos didn’t upload. Trust us, real pretty.)

Miserable without Marthese

Fact check: Edelweiss is not a traditional Austrian folk song, but written specifically for the American musical, The Sound of Music.

Fact check: The mountain the Von Trapp family are seen fleeing over at the end of the film was not on the border of Austria and Switzerland, but Austria and Bavaria, which would have delivered the Von Trapps straight into the arms of Hitler, waiting patiently in his Eagle’s Nest. In real life, the family just caught a train over the border.

Fact check: Austrians don’t really care about the Sound of Music. It’s just fodder for the American and Japanese tourists.

And apparently, us. We joined a minibus of 4 lovely Americans and a peculiar, repetitive and occasionally incomprehensible local tour guide for a Salzburg tour of Sound of Music sites.

While the tour was lacking in as much hill frolicking as we’d have liked, it did take us on quite a fun tour of Salzburg and the surrounds. A park where scenes from the film were shot, the famous gazebo, the Von Trapp house exterior, the church from the wedding – we got our fill of film locations, and while they almost never corresponded with the real lives of the Von Trapps, the locations chosen by the Hollywood producers were all quite gorgeous.

We stopped by a number of stunning lakes, and even chilled out and had a beer with our new friends – a very fun time. Unexpectedly, I also went for a little toboggan ride down a gorgeous hill which was an absolute thrill.

Lunch back in town at the Modern Art museum afforded us another incredible view, and a visit to the Salzburg Museum was insightful and a pleasant respite from the heat. A wonderfully considered and presented museum that provides a unique look at the complexities of Salzburg’s history and culture. Highly interactive and engaging, an easy recommendation.

Salzburg – you’re gorgeous. We’re gonna miss you.

Our accommodation is a gorgeous 3 bedroom guesthouse just outside the Salzburg heart, we feel like we’re in the countryside. We took a walk around the garden before our hearty Austrian breakfast (boiled egg, bread, assortment of meats and yoghurt) and purchased the useful Salzburg Card that will give us museum and bus entries for the next 2 days.

A bus into town delivered us to our first stop, Mozart’s house of birth, where he spent his early years. This excellent museum provided a glimpse into not only the young artist’s life, but life in 18th century Salzburg broadly.

Then it was Rick Steves audioguide time, diving into his Salzburg old town walking tour. We’ve missed Rick’s voice and tragic dad humour. The walk got us acquainted with the old town and took us to some of the key sites including the Salzburg Cathedral and the multiple plazas that make up the old town. It felt extremely Italian, and that was clearly the intent.

By lunchtime Marthese and I were positively energised by the city, so took the steep walk up to the epic fortress overlooking it. While the museums inside were a bit sloppy, they certainly captured the imagination with displays of weaponry, blacksmiths and random examples of everyday life in an outstanding setting. But the highlight of the fortress was easily the lookout. While designed for use in wartime, the fortress lookout now provides a breathtaking 360 degree view of the city of Salzburg and the surrounding mountains and valleys. Honestly one of the most gorgeous sights of the trip so far. I have no idea how each city keeps topping the next.

Our last stop was across the river, in the house where Mozart spent his teenage and adult years before moving to Vienna. More cool relics and instruments from Mozart’s life on display, and an excellent audio tour with lots of great music to keep you interested and engaged. Much better than the dry audio tours we’ve experienced up until this point.

We picked up some salads and sandwiches for a quiet dinner after this exhausting day in the 28 degree heat, but we’re very much looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures which may or may not include singing along to a certain musical about sentient hills.

We’ve fallen behind on our blog, partly cause our time has been action packed, partly cause I caught a bit of a cold (feeling better now though). So I’m just gonna squish this in – expect a list of happenings rather than my garbled musings.

Our next day in Dusseldorf started at K21, a cool modern art museum where you can walk on a spider webby net thing hanging at the top of the building – nothing but net between you and the floor four stories below. It was thrilling and more than a little scary when the net shook and your footing felt precarious.

Despite being sick, Wiebke insisted on taking us out again and Julian drove us and baby Clemens to Kaiserswerth, the site of an old palace and a beautiful, sleepy town on the Rhine. Then back to their house for a lovely eggplant parma prepared by Julian while watching the disappointing state election results and learning how their political system works (even after the votes are in, parties can spend weeks forming coalitions to govern). Our time with Wiebke, Julian and Clemens has been some of the best this entire trip and we hope to see them all again before Clemens grows up too much (given his gene pool, he may be taller than us soon)!

The next day we caught the train to the small town of Menden where Marthese did her student exchange when she was 15, with Wiebke’s family. While I slept my illness away, Marthese, Connnie, Matthias, and their lovely dog Leo went for a hike in the nearby woods. We all went for dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant and then a drive up the mountain for a great view of the area, which is known as Sauerland. The Ostermanns are incredibly generous hosts and we will miss them too.

The following day Marthese showed me around town, taking her old route that she used to walk everyday on her way to school, and ducking into the fancy local church. Menden might be a small town, but it is bustling and seemingly on the grow.

After a  generous lift back to Düsseldorf from Matthias, and one more favour from Julian and Wiebke letting us crash on their couch, we caught an early morning train from Düsseldorf to Salzburg.

And that’s us up to speed! The Steinerhoff Guesthaus is gorgeous, and we are so looking forward to spending three nights here.

Marthese here. Yesterday we arrived in Duesseldorf at about 6pm, after having spent the previous 9 hours commuting from the other side of the country (on another FlixBus). We arrived tired and hungry, and didn’t feel particularly cheered by the slightly dodgy area we are staying in.

That all changed as soon as we got on a tram to visit Wiebke, who I first met as part of an exchange program 15 years ago – making her one of my oldest friends. We were warmly welcomed by Wiebke, her lovely partner Julian, and their very handsome three month old son Clemens. Wiebke and Julian were keen for us to enjoy the uncharaceristically warm Duesseldorf weather, so they took us out for a meal and a great catch up, followed by an introduction to one of Duesseldorfs famous beers. (Elias was immediately a fan!) All of this while juggling a three month old – impressive!

This morning, Elias and I took a stroll to another hipster area – Flingern – where we enjoyed coffees and some people/dog watching. After lunch, we met up with Wiebke and Julian and another friend from the exchange program, Marleen. We spent an absolutely delightful afternoon wandering around the harbour and the old town, tasting more beers, laughing, and learning about some Duesseldorf traditions. Apparently in one of the breweries, unless you put your beer coaster on top of your beer, you will receive endless top ups!

On our last day in Dresden the skies opened up and the city said goodbye by giving us the most gorgeous day of our trip so far. Instead of spending the day chasing the museums we’ve missed in town, we took off our jackets and took a long lovely stroll up and down the river bank.

Lunch at a brewery high on a hill, beer and cake at a quaint cafe by the river, today was all about relaxing and saying goodbye to Dresden. Oh and also doing a load of laundry.

We will miss Dresden, but this time tomorrow we’ll be having dinner with Marthese’s friend Wiebke and meeting her partner and baby boy! So we’re looking forward to that.

Until next time, readers. Auf Wiedershan.