Innsbruck

If you can believe it, this isn't even the top. We took yet another cable car after this point.

Innsbruck

This is about 2/3s of the way up the mountain. Austria, like Switzerland, is a country that believes any place worth visiting deserves a bar. I'm sitting on the balcony of one.

Innsbruck

Innsbruck is stunning. Elese is standing at the base of the cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain. As you can tell from what Elese is wearing, the valley itself manages to stay quite warm while the Alps retain much of their snow layer.

Salzberg

Salzberg--it rained the entire time. This picture pretty much sums up the experience there.

Hallstatt

Directly across the lake from Hallstatt--much flatter terrain. There are year-round ice caves in the mountains right behind me.

Hallstatt

Here's Elese on one of our numerous hikes in the area. We actually went much higher, but there gives you a good idea of what the views were like. The church below is next to the 12th century chapel with skulls that I mentioned earlier, and surrounded by beautifully maintained, contemporary gravesites. The whole skull thing came about as a practicality--the graveyard was too small to accomodate new bodies. After twelve years, you were dug up and added to the collection in the chapel. These days (the population is much smaller), you need to specifically request in your will do be placed there.

Innsbruck-Zurich-Bern-Grindelwald

Elese and I arrived in Innsbruck early on Thursday and spent the afternoon in the "Nordpark." I'm not sure the term park does the area justice; it's essentially the entire mountain range above the town. Innsbruck's main claim to fame is that it has hosted 2 winter Olympics, and it's easy to see why the area was selected. The town, divided by a river, is surrounded by towering peaks with extensive ski lifts, dozens of runs, and two cable car lines. The people there are cosmopolitan, friendly, and fit-looking. We explored the churches and main square, then walked along the river to the start of the cable car.

I wasn't entirely enthusiastic about taking the cable car (it was expensive--about $30), but we had an afternoon to kill and not much else to see. It was not at all what I expected. We took a car straight up the side of the mountain, then transferred (twice) to huge gondolas to make the rest of the ascent. Total travel time: about an hour. Total elevation change: 6000 feet. The last car dumps you directly on top of the mountain, overlooking Innsbruck on one side and dozens of mountains on the other. There was still serious snow--several feet--but the weather was warm enough for a bit of exploring. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Innsbruck to Bern (our next planned destination) is about 6 hours. I prefer 2-3 hour journeys between towns, or an overnight train--everything else feels like you're wasting a day. To break up the trip, Elese and I stopped for a little sightseeing in Zurich. We planned to visit the Kunsthaus Museum, but it's currently under construction and has only a portion of its collection on display. Instead, we wandered the both sides of the canal and walked down to the lake at the southern end of town.

Zurich--and Switzerland in general--is incredibly clean. The buildings shine, the streets glisten, and someone clearly puts a lot of work into the landscaping. The water in both the lake and canal was pristine. When was the last time you could see the bottom of an urban waterway? You can in Zurich. There were swans and ducks playing at the shore, along with lots of locals. Zurich looks like a very civilized and pleasant place to live. (As a side note, I've felt a sense of kinship with the Swiss the last few days. They like things neat and orderly; there's a place and a rule for everything.)

Bern is a quick 50 minute commuter rail ride from Zurich. Elese's friend and former roommate Sun-Hee has lived in the town for the last two years with her husband Martin (who is Swiss). We planned for a day here, but no trains leave for Spain until Monday night. I'm happy to have the chance to relax for a few days. I'll save my observations on Bern for the next post.

Sun-Hee and Martin drove us around the Thunsee to Grindelwald, in the Jungfrau region of the Berner Oberland. I've pulled all of those names out of my guidebook; basically Grindelwald is up on the Jungfrau mountain in what is arguably the most scenic part of Switzerland (the entire Swiss population vowed to fight to the death to save the Berner Oberland in WWII). The Jungfrau area has the highest glaciers in Europe, and you can hike right onto them from Grindelwald. We didn't do that. I feel rather inadequate in the Alps; hiking here is a serious business. The town is definitely a bit touristy, but it's cute and surrounded by extremely dramatic scenery. I wouldn't recommend it as a primary destination, but it's a great day trip.

Elese's comments:
My stomach is growling for the raclette that Sun and Martin are cooking up for us right now so my comments will be brief. [Raclette is a fondue-like meal: everyone has a personal raclette cheese-heating pan that's placed under a shared grill. Once the portion of cheese is melted it's poured over boiled potatos or steamed veggies. Yum.] P.S. from Alicia: we just finished the meal; it's delicious. It's a very traditional meal in Switzerland, over 500 years old. We added in pickles and onions, and spiced the cheese with paprika, which is the most popular spice in Switzerland, according to Martin,

Highlights:
- The Swiss: I also share Alicia's kinship with the orderliness of Swiss life. Lots of rules but they all seem to have logical reasons supporting them. Sun & Martin have a good thing going on here in Bern.

- The Alps: Alicia & I had a great time in the Nordpark in Innsbruck running around in the snow & drinking a beer & enjoying the views. The train ride from Innsbruck to Zurich was breathtaking as was today's visit to Grindelwald.

- The beer: Every city has their own local beer, and it's all light & tasty.

- The cheese: Austrian cheese was so-so but it's really starting to pick up in Switzerland. I have four kinds of lcoal cheese from the supermarket's cheese counter waiting in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.

- Traveling with Alicia: It's great having a chance to spend so much time together. We are both rather nerdy about being sure we see the sights in each town, so we're a good pair.

I can't wait for some warm weather (and a tan) in Spain.

Elese

On the way to Hallstatt

This is the ferry dock to Hallstatt, which you can see directly across the lake. The train station is directly up the hill, behind where I'm standing to take this picture. As you can tell, Hallstatt is very small and perched right on the side of the alps.

Hallstatt-Salzberg

Hallstatt has definitely made my top ten list for the trip. It´s 1500 feet up in the Alps, southeast of Salzberg. The tiny town (over 1000 years old) has been a vacation spot for Austria royalty for the last 500 years. It´s nestled at the edge of the Hallstatter See, surrounded by mountains, and is reached by ferry. Elese and I spent the first day climbing up to the salt mines above the town, strolling the main (and only) street, and enjoying the local beer at a small bar under a large umbrella (aptly named the umbrella bar). Tourism appears to pick up in June--the town was nearly empty, with only a handful of foreigners.

We rented bikes on Tuesday (or rather were given a set for free at a local hotel) and pedalled around the lake to Obertraun, a slightly larger town known for its snow caves. The scenery is breathtaking--snowcapped mountains, fields of wildflowers, lush greenery everywhere you look. We detoured through the mountains on a hiking trail that overlooked the entire valley. I can´t wait to see how the pictures turn out.

Hallstatt has a small, 12-century chapel that holds the leg bones and skulls of roughly 1200 local inhabitants. The skulls are beautifully painted with flowers and leaves, and each labeled with the date of death and person´s name. It sounds a bit macabre, but really wasn´t--the overall feeling is one of realism about death, respect, and even love for the people that were placed there. As Elese put it, it was the best euro we´ve spent yet.

I´m not seeing Salzberg under the best of conditions. It has poured today, and the temperature is down around 40 degrees. I can definitely tell that this would be a fine place to visit in the summer, but there are few indoor activities. Everything our guidebook recommends involves being outdoors. We did tour the fortress on the top of the hill to get our daily dose of culture (a decidedly ho-hum experience), and endured a few hours in the rain to stroll the town and some gardens. I´m looking forward to a rousing game of uno and more local beer tonight. We´re off to Innsbrook tomorrow, which thankfully does have a few things to see indoors.

Kunsthaus, Vienna

This is the Kunsthaus in Vienna (or possibly the Hundertwasser Haus; I saw both and didn't makes notes as to which was which. Both are designed by the same person and are fairly similar in appearance.) Looking back, I realize I never mentioned seeing this in the blog. I was one of the most interesting structures I've seen, almost at the level of Gaudi in terms of innovative design.

It was also a nightmare to get to. Vienna is much bigger than the tourist maps lead you to believe--distances get distinctly longer at the edges of town. If you make it to Vienna, this is worth a visit, but take a bus.

Munich-Vienna

I arrived in Munich around nine a.m. on Friday morning. In some ways, Munich reminded me a bit of Budapest--quite modern, lots of shopping, a high degree of integration between old and new architecture. I had three hours to kill before Elese arrived, so I spent the morning wandering the streets, riding the elevator to the top of the Frauenkirche to see the view, and visiting the treasury. Munich´s treasury is modeled after the one in Vienna, and is actually a bit better in my opinion. Vienna has a lot of extremely valuable and important pieces (a large piece of the original cross and the spear that pierced Christ´s side, for example), but Munich has a ton of glitzy, shiny, dazzling jewelry. On the bling scale, I´d give it a 10.

Elese arrived safely, if a bit groggy. She´s been a real trooper the past few days. I gave myself three days to sit around and get over the jet lag; she hit the ground running. She reports that she turned the corner on Sunday evening and is starting to feel more adjusted. We spent the afternoon in the Alte Pinakothek, one of the world´s great museums. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of heavy hitters--the quality of art is so high, it´s a bit hard to process. On my next visit I hope to visit the other 2 Pinakotheks, both of which are supposed to be great.

I need to keep reminding myself to not go to a town with too many preconceptions about it. I expected to love Vienna, and had very mixed feelings about it. It´s very expensive, not particularly friendly, and has a very strange way of organizing its art. From what we saw, the art collection in the area is massive. It´s spread through the city in dozens of museums, not necessarily by subject, artist, or era. I was really interested in seeing Klimt, but wasn´t up to the challenge of going to 3 different museums in different parts of town that all charge ten euros.

What I did see: The Kunsthistorisches Museum. It was awesome. In addition to having a central hall decorated by Klimt, it has over 200 wonderful paintings by a wide variety of artists. It´s worth going to Vienna just to see this museum. Some of my favorites:
Raffael´s Madonna in the Meadow (this was one of Elese´s favorites too)

















Caravaggio´s David and Goliath










Guido Cagnacci´s Death of Cleopatra

We both also loved the Leopold Museum, which I think is devoted to Austrian art of the last 150 years (we focused on the temporary exhibit, and just got a quick look at the permanent collection). Elese raised a good point about my dislike about "modern art"--I really need to define the term better. I generally just take issue with post-WWII art, not works prior to that period. We saw a large exhibit of pre-WWII modern art (well over 100 pieces) on the various representations of nudity and sexuality by Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Kokoschka, which was fascinating, as I´m sure you can imagine. The museum was well designed and the lighting was awesome (lighting is a major problem in European museums, the majority of which were designed before the invention of electric lights). I actually think the Leopold salvaged Vienna for me--I was leaning towards not liking it at all.

Traveling with someone is definitely a change, but it´s a good one. I enjoy having someone to share my experiences with. We´ve done a good job so far of taking breaks from each other and recognizing when we have differenty priorities (I visited the Vienna treasury while Elese went to one of the modern art museums, for example). We´re now in Hallstatt, which is a major change of pace from the big cities. More on that soon...

For a new perspective, here are some of Elese´s comments. She´ll be adding to future posts.

I'm jealous of Alicia's blog so I'm going to post short comments to her posts. Quick thoughts while sitting in the Umbrella Bar in Hallstatt (Salzkammergut):

- Where are all the tourists? There are no Americans anywhere. I can't decide if that's good or bad: It's pleasantly uncrowded but there aren't many options for meeting fun people & hearing their traveling adventures.

- I am unable to digest large quantities of religious art.

- Alicia is the most organized person I've ever traveled with.

- I love the Alps.

Elese