In case you have not read all the posts up until now, I should let you know that I am currently still on Easter vacation. I only had one midterm to write during my midterms week, then Easter vacation came the week after. Altogether this gave me about 2 weeks of time to travel. I started on the evening of 23 March and since visited Venice, Munich/Kaufbeuern, Salzburg, and Goslar (Harz Mountains). As I begin this post, I am on my way to Lausanne from Saturday-Monday, but plan to make a quick stop in Freiburg to spend the night with a friend studying abroad there. I will return to Vienna on late Monday night, 6 April. This week included travel to Salzburg, the Harz mountains in central Germany, and finally Lausanne/Geneva, Switzerland. Throughout this trip I am gradually broadening my view of Central Europe and the German-speaking world. This second week of travel included going to places further out (Salzburg, Harz mountains, Freiburg) from larger European cities (1,000,000+ population), which thus deepened and expanded my understanding of the European world from a different perspective.
30 March
I said good-bye to my cousin Anna, as she departed off to work and I headed off to take a trip to Salzburg. The weather in Salzburg was initially rainy when I arrived and the train station lies in a more industrial part of the city, giving me a less than favorable first impression. I headed to my hostel to catch up on some work and check-in, before heading out to begin seeing Salzburg.
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| Salzburg Fortress |
When I finally gathered enough gumption to brave the nasty, rainy weather, I began by heading up to Nonnnberg Abbey. Several scenes from the beginning of Sound of Music were filmed here and the abbey itself has existed since the early Middle Ages. About 21 nuns continue to live there and follow the Bendictine order of prayer and work. The simple, gothic-style church left a lasting impression on me with its smaller feel and focus in comparison with larger churches. The huge
Hohensalzburger Festung (Salzburg fortress) rather overwhelmed me with its massive size, which arose through several expansions from the 1000s through th 1600s. I walked around the fortress complex, one of the largest in Europe, and took a short tour of the princely rooms inside, where the bishops of Salzburg lived. These bishops controlled both the political and spiritual power in Salzburg and used their power to eliminate almost all other religious influences than Catholicism from the Salzburg state. Salzburg remained its own independent state until the early 1800s, when Austria annexed it. These bishops turned Salzburg into a baroque residential capital of the city-state over a period of about 200 years during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. I visited one of the main works from this time after finishing at the fortress. The place I visited was the
Salzburger Dom (St. Michael's Dome, the main church in Salzburg). I could see the heavy Italian style in the incredibly intricate ceilings and dome structure, quite similar to the Italian architecture in Venice. I wandered around the square outside the church a little more, grabbing a pretzel to start my supper, since Germany greatly increased my affection for soft pretzels. I then headed home for a good night's sleep at my hostel before beginning more adventures the next day.
31 March
I always determine that I am going to be out the door of my hostel, showered, and have eaten breakfast by or before 8 am. That rarely happens, if ever. I think I went out the door by about 9:30 am and then headed to the Salzburg museum, where I enjoyed spending a couple hours wandering through an exhibit called Mythos Salzburg. The exhibit talked about the beautiful landscape of the Salzburg basin, a place where fantasy and reality meet as many artists depict in their paintings. It then went on to explain how Salzburg evolved from its own country-state to a part of Austria and the tourist destination which it is today. I really enjoyed the museum and thought it was beautiful laid out, a display of simple exhibits with eye-catching variations in the design. The museum has a modern architecture, but is located in apartments of the old city palace, so that several rooms have carved ceilings from the old palace. I enjoyed a relaxed lunch at the 313-year old Café Tomaselli afterwards, where I ate a delicious ham and cheese omelette, found out that the bread placed in a basket on your table is NOT included in the price of your omelette, and discovered that a small slice of common Austrian Cremeschnitte cake contains enough heavy cream filling to knock you out for the rest of the day!
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| Carved ceiling in the Salzburg Museum |
I managed to overcome the soporific influences of the
Cremeschnitte torte and moved on take a peek into the Salzburg panorama museum. This museum contains a 360 degree painting with a view of the Salzburg basin, along with several other incredible landscape paintings by the same artists. I moved on from the museums to go visit Mozart's birthplace, where I found out that the Mozart's were a super cool family. Except for the fact that their daughter Nannerl was a
Wunderkind like her brother, but she could not travel and develop her career later in her life due to restraints placed on her by her gender. I then moved back northwards in the city of Salzburg to visit Mirabell gardens, where further scenes from
Sound of Music were filmed. I wanted to round out my afternoon and get more money out of my 48-hour Salzburg card by going up into the mountains with a cable car. Thus, I took a half hour bus ride out to the cable car, only to discover that it was closed due to bad weather. Despite this disappointment, I returned to Salzburg and took a lift up to the top of the
Mönchsberg (Monk's Mountain), where I got a final, rainy view of Salzburg and hiked around the old city wall for a bit. I rode back down the mountain and then headed back to my hostel to head out with the night train.
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| Room where Mozart was born |
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| Mirabell Gardens |
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| View of the Salzburg basin |
Now, everything had been running very smoothly in regards to travel for my trip so far. But unfortunately, things just had to go awry in Salzburg. I stepped onto my train, only to find out that the railroad track from Salzburg to Munich was closed due to a major storm. I ended up taking an alternative bus to Munich, provided by Deutsche Bahn, but I unfortunately missed my connection north to the Harz mountains. Deutsche Bahn paid for me to stay in a hotel for the night, which I finally found after asking around at about 5 hotels for available rooms.
1 April
I woke up early in the morning and took the earliest possible connection north to Braunschweig, from where I quickly caught a regional train over to Goslar. I arrived in town only to find out from the travel office that my hostel was located about 20 km out of Goslar, in an even smaller village called Hahnenklee. See, "Goslar-Hahnenklee" in the hostel's address didn't just me a town connected to Goslar. It meant a small village much farther away in the region of Goslar. I took a bus out to my hostel and was fortunately helped by a man in the bus and some staff at the local Ramada to find my hostel, which conveniently stood next door.
The weather had increasingly worsened during the day and Hahnenklee actually had several inches of snow by the time I arrived. Almost no activities remained open for me to do by the time I became settled in my hostel. I thus wandered around the beautiful, snow-covered town for a few minutes and stopped in at a pizza restaurant to grab a bite to eat. I felt really weird being a lone American girl in this very obscure place in the mountains. I ended up talking with my waiter after I finished and heard about his fascinating story ending up at a university in a nearby town, after growing up in Morrocco. An American and a Morroccan ending up meeting in a tiny mountain village in central Germany...what a coincidence.
2 April
I would guess
that you are probably wondering at this point why I decided to go visit a
small mountain range in central Germany. Well, this trip was really
the culmInating point of my German nerdity. I took a class in spring
2015 on Heinrich Heine, a well known 19-century German poet. My final
presentation for this class included doing a presentation on Heine's
book, Die Harzreise, which chronicles his journey through the
Harz mountains. He took this journey during a break from law school, as
he considered what he wanted to do next during his life. He travels
through several towns in the Harz during this journey, describing the
people and customs in each place. His book creates a travelogue of the
region during the time and simultaneously creates a powerful impression
of the forces of imagination and reality at odds in the deeply
superstitious Harz region and in his own life. The beauty described in
the book and the way Heine's personal struggles resonated with my own
made me want to make a pilgrimage of sorts to the region, in order to
visit the sites where Heine also visited.
I
originally intended to spend significant time hiking in the Harz, but
the weather greatly changed my intentions. After a relaxed breakfast at
my hostel (which had the most lovely, über-fluffy blankets and
pillows), I wandered out into the town of Hahnenklee to explore further
and go on a short hike through the woods. I suddenly realized how
greatly I had missed the snow in Vienna and reveled in every moment
exploring the graceful, magical, snow-covered Alpine wilderness. I
circled back around to tinge town at the end of my walk and visited
Hahnenklee's Stabkirche, an entirely wooden church built in the
early 1900's in the style of old Norwegian churches. A man there
explained the organ and the carillon to us, a bell-type instrument of
which only 40 exist in Germany. We even got to peek into the bell tower
of the church!
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| Entrance to my adorable hotel |
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| Gorgeous walk in the woods by Hahnenklee |
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| Loving the winter wonderland! |
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| Beautiful, wooden Stabkirche |
I hurried over to the bus stop after visiting the
Stabkirche, so I could catch a bus back into Goslar. I unfortunately had to spend the first couple hours of the afternoon figuring out my arrangements for the next day. I recently learned that Friday was Karfreitag, which meant that the buses into Goslar from Hahnenklee would not arrive in time for me to catch my early train. I thus figured I would need to stay the night in Goslar. Thankfully, McDonalds had Wifi, so I grabbed a cup of ice cream and looked up hostels in Goslar. The only hostel in town was offering rooms for 39 Euro a night, so I went down the street to check them out. Fortunately, the owner said I could book a room for only 19 Euros if I stayed in one of the bunk rooms and used only one of the beds. Yay!
Towards the middle of my journey, I even found a plaque dedicated to Heine's 1824 visit to Goslar.
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| Plaque dedicated to Heine |
I returned to the train station at the end of my walk and took a bus back to Hahnenklee to pick up my luggage. I had a mini heart attack when I found that the reception was closed and I could not find my key, especially since I wanted to get back to Goslar before dark. Fortunately, the owner's daughter came by and I gave my key to her. My cell phone had also run out of credit, so I could not contact the hotel phone number, making the daughter's presence a particularly fortunate occurrence. After handing over my key to her, I headed back into Goslar and paid for my room at the hostel. I felt uneasy being in a room in a great big house with only a few other people, but I eventually went to sleep after ensuring the door was securely locked. Nothing happened during the night and I remained safe.
Although my plans turned out differently than I expected, I am incredibly thankful that I got to walk in the steps of Heine and make my own journey to the Harz. In his book, Heine sort of stumbles onto Goslar, just like I "stumbled onto" Hahnenklee through foolishly booking a hostel 20 km out of town. The whole adventure was a little hairy, but I loved experiencing a piece of the magic of the Harz. I am incredibly thankful to Jesus for His protection and for working out the timing of people in the whole journey who helped direct me. Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing about this journey (except for the delay in Munich) and I hope that one day I can come back to the Harz, to stay in a lovely little village called Hahnenklee and to walk further in Heine's footsteps in the surrounding mountains and towns.
3 April
After my adventure in the Harz, I had planned to go down to Lausanne, Switzerland. I spent the night with my friend, Maggie, in Freiburg, which she currently studies abroad for a semester. Maggie was a lovely host, as she took me on a walking tour around the lovely city of Freiburg. The city constantly shows signs of nature, such as little gutters on the sides of the streets which channel the river through the city. One street even has massive strung between the buildings when then bloom and make the street filled with nature during the summertime. We saw some beautiful views of the whole city by walking up a nearby mountain on top of which was built an overlook tower. I appreciated getting to talk with Maggie about our experiences so far, which both included improving our German and experiencing the wonder of Europe!
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| Beautiful view of Freiburg |
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| Maggie and I |
4 April
I left Freiburg early in the morning on Saturday and headed down to Lausanne by train, arriving slightly after 10 am in the morning. I had previously made plans to stay with the mom of a woman from my church. My friend, Joyce, has worked as a missionary in Switzerland for 32 years, so she knows the area quite well. Joyce met me at the train station and we bought tickets to visit the Cailler chocolate factory and the small mountain town of Gruyere. After a quick lunch at her apartment, we headed out on the train to Broq, the village where the chocolate factory is located. We realized upon arriving to the factory, that the Saturday before Easter is one of the busiest days of the year for the factory. We thus waited nearly two hours before our tour of the factory started. I really enjoyed the tours, which walked you through an exhibit using props, lights, and an audioguide to tell an abridged history of chocolate. We then could hear bits of stories of people who work in the manufacturing of chocolate, from harvesting cacao beans to business people in Cailler's headquarters. The tour finally showed us an actual machine manufacturing the chocolate and then taught us the right way to test-taste chocolate!
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| Manufacturing chocolate at the factory |
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| Blocks of cocoa butter |
Joyce and I tried catching a train up to Gruyere, but missed it by a couple minutes. We waited around until the next train and then made our way up through the mountains to Gruyere. Upon arriving at the train station, Joyce mentioned that we needed to climb a small mountain path up to the actual village. She asked a man at the station about which path to use and so we made our way into the adorable town of Gruyere, using a stone path winding up the hill. Joyce showed me Gruyere's gate and different shops and restaurants which she previously visited. We poked our heads in a small restaurant and Joyce decided to introduce me to Swiss cheese fondue. She explained the whole entire Swiss cheese culture to me amongst other topics, while we enjoyed yummy Swiss bread dipped into melted cheese. A truly lovely dinner! We had to brave the rainy weather outside afterwards and made our way out of Gruyere, using another way down the hill. We became slightly confused as the way wound directly beside the house of a farmer and through a cow pasture, but eventually found our way (using the light of Joyce's iPhone!). Tired and worn out from an incredible day, I crawled into bed and slept very soundly until the next morning.
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| Main street in Gruyere |
5 April
Joyce and I went to her church for Easter Sunday, which her church celebrated by hosting several other local congregations at her church. I appreciated her pastor's message on the hope which Jesus offers us and how Jesus knocks on the doors of our hearts, calling us to respond to Him and follow Him. A beautiful reminder on Resurrection Sunday morning.
We enjoyed lunch with Joyce's friend, Loredana, who befriended Joyce's daughter, Lana, several years ago. Joyce made a delicious lunch with meat wrapped in bacon that had a whipped cream topping with it! We ate in three courses with appetizer, main dish, and dessert...I felt very European :-). After cleaning up from lunch, Joyce and I headed over to Montreux, a small town farther along the coast of Lake Geneva. Montreux exists in a microclimate, which means that it becomes warmer than other towns in Switzerland. For instance, palm trees can actually grow there, even though you can see snow on the mountains surrounding Montreux. This creates a beautiful setting containing a sharp juxtaposition between two different climates. Joyce and I wandered along the absolutely gorgeous lakeside and then visited Chateau de Chillon, a beautifully preserved castle from the Middle Ages. We made our way back to Joyce's apartment after the beautiful day in Montreux and enjoyed a late dinner.
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| Montreux's subclimate - palm trees and snowy mountains! |
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| Sublime Montreux |
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| Chateau de Chillon |
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