My Verona

Today we hit the road and visited Verona, a city about a 45 minute drive from Padua. I didn’t know much about Verona except that it is the location for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette. I did a bit of research online before we left and learned that it offers extensive Roman ruins and architecture.

I found Verona to be an absolutely beautiful city, and took an instant liking to it, just as I did to Siena several years ago. There were quite a few people visiting there today, but we didn’t let that stop us from looking at beautiful churches and piazzas, and one of the best-kept amphitheaters in Italy. In fact it is the third largest amphitheater in Italy, following only behind Rome and Capua.

We stopped at a wine bar and had a glass of Valpolicella and a glass of Bardolino, both which were very good. The Veneto region is famous for nice wines that are not terribly expensive, such as the two we tried, as well as Proscecco and Soave. In fact, on the way back to Padua we stopped in the village of Soave, though we didn’t get out of our car. Soave was also a very pretty village on top of a hill.

We were going to take back roads to get home, but ran into a massive traffic hangup. Unfortunately, we also witnessed an accident in which a scooter was “whitelining” (driving between cars on the white line, apparently legal in Italy) and a woman did a u-turn and ran into him. We watched long enough to see that the man got up and was walking around, but it looked like he was not in great shape. Yuck. We then decided to return to Padua via the autostrada, which turned out to be a mistake. There was construction going on, and it took considerably longer to get home than it would have if we had just stayed on the regular highway.

We had dinner tonight at a restaurant that really catered to the local community. Neither the owner nor the waiter spoke a word of English. They didn’t have a menu, and the waiter told us what they offered, and with the help of a lot of hand gestures and my handy dandy dictionary, we were able to get somewhat of an idea of our choices. Let me just tell you that horse was once again prominently featured. Hmmm. I had rigatoni in a spicy tomato sauce, and Bill had spaghetti with duck ragu. The owner brought us out a little appetizer on the house which we thought was very nice. It included some sausage (probably horse but I don’t want to think about it), riso e biso, and tuna salad.

Tomorrow our tentative plan is to head east to Trieste, Italy and Pula, Croatia.

My Friend Flicka

We decided to spend today exploring the city we are staying in for the next few days, Padua.

We slept in a bit, then breakfasted at our hotel. We boarded our bus about 10 and went into the city center of Padua. We visited an amazing display of art, including a chapel built by a local Paduan in honor of his father back in the 1300s. It is purported to be one of the best displays of fresco art in Europe. To help preserve the art, we had to sit in a sterile environment for 15 minutes in order to regulate our heat and humidity prior to viewing the art. We visited several churches, including the basilicas of St. Anthony and St. Guistina. Most interesting to me was that the Basilican of St. Guistana housed the remains of the apostle St. Matthias and the gospel writer St. Luke (photo). Amazing.

When we got back late in the afternoon, after a short break, we drove our car to IKEA, the Swedish-based housewares store, which has a store located nearby. Having only seen the IKEA in Phoenix, I was amused to see an identical selection to Phoenix but with the signs all in Italian. I was in the market for a new pillow as the pillow on the bed in my hotel room reminds me of a concrete block.

Tonight Bill and I went to a restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel for dinner. We were looking for pasta somewhere close where we could walk. Our dinner was wonderful. Bill had bucatini, which is a hollow, long pasta, dressed with duck and asparagus. It was wonderful. I had tagliatelli with tomato, garlic and pecorino cheese that was also very good. We shared some red wine. Lots of red wine.

I have to reference my title. I love Italy. It is full of surprises. As I said, our restaurant tonight was wonderful. However, much to our surprise, the menu featured none other than horse. I’m serious. Horse as an appetizer. Horse pasta as a first course. Horse steak as a main course. Really, who would think that you would dine on My Friend Flicka?

Tomorrow I think we will drive to Verona.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Goodbye

We left Salzburg early on Tuesday, and I must say I was sad to leave. I really like that pretty, romantic Austrian city. But we had places to go, people to see. Well, no people really, but places definitely!

We wanted some road behind us, so we left without breakfast and then stopped for breakfast once we were on the road, but still in Austria. We stopped at a highway rest stop where we could get gasoline and some breakfast at the same time. The restaurant was very cute, and looked like a Swiss chalet. Not your typical gas station stop. The waitress spoke no English, but we managed to get close to what we thought we ordered. The best part of the breakfast was that we made friends with the table sitting next to us. They were a party of three older men (probably retired) on their way to play golf in Slovenia. One of them very kindly came over and introduced himself. We talked a bit about golf and about travel. I asked him if he was a good golfer or if he was a hacker. Bill later suggested I not use slang when talking to people for whom English is a second or possibly third language. He pointed out that I might have inadvertently said something like, “Were you a member of the Nazi youth?”

The drive to Padua was extraordinarily interesting. We must have gone through a total of (and I swear I’m not exaggerating) 15 to 20 tunnels as we made our way through the Alps in Austria and the Dolomites in Italy. The longest was 6.4 kilometers (which is over three miles), followed closely by 5.8 kilometers, both in Austria. The tunnels in Austria were well-lit, large, clean, and LONG. Once we drove into Italy, things changed considerably. The tunnels are just large enough, and not well-lit. Scary, in fact.

Driving in Italy is different from driving anywhere we have driven so far. When we got close to the turnoff for Venice, all of the sudden the trucks in the right hand lane (and there were many) were stopped dead, and we were still going along in the left lane at 70 mph. We couldn’t quite figure that out. In the meantime, cars were trying to pass us at I can’t even imagine how many miles per hour. But we made it safely to Padua, I’m happy to report. This is where we will be for the next six nights.

Our hotel is very nice, just outside of town. There is a bus that we catch right across the street that takes us into the city center for one euro. This afternoon we took the bus into town and walked around a bit and got our senses for Padua. We went and visited the main Basilica, and saw the tomb of my favorite saint of all time: St. Anthony (Dear St. Anthony please come round; something’s lost and must be found). I needed to use the bathroom, and had my first Italian bathroom experience. I walked in and found a hole in the ground, and they wanted me to pay 20 cents for that. Sometime soon I will have to resort to that because I’m in Italy. But I just wasn’t ready yet and elected not to do it. I spotted a full-habited nun going in after me, and would have loved to see how she did it. Well, maybe not.

We had wine on the piazza outside of the duomo, and then as we were looking for the bus stop home, we saw a pizzaria, where we stopped for dinner. Our dinner included gnocchi and pizza. So, we had dinner at a beer garden yesterday and pizza in a pizza garden today. Funny how time flies. Tomorrow we will play by ear. We have to get up our nerve to get on the roads again!

Ear and Beer

Our intention today was to rise early and drive to Munich, spending the day touring the beautiful German city. Instead, we spent time in a doctor’s office in Salzburg. Yikes!

Because I didn’t want to worry my family, I have not mentioned on this blog that a couple of weeks back when we were still in Lourdes, my left ear became completely plugged up with wax to the point that I was entirely unable to hear out of it. I went to a pharmacy in Lourdes and did my best given my inability to speak French to communicate my symptoms to the pharmacist. She finally gave me an ear wash, which I have been faithfully using twice a day in an effort to treat myself. I have been entirely unsuccessful.

I decided that I could put up with my ear problem until we reached Rome, at which time I hoped that Bill’s nephew, who is a priest studying canon law in Rome, would set me up with an English-speaking Italian doctor.

Sometime during last night, I had an epiphany that it made no sense to be in the part of Europe where people speak the best English and not take advantage of that by visiting an English-speaking Austrian doctor. So this morning Bill and I walked to a nearby pharmacy, and the pharmacist gave me the name of an ENT doctor who was located right around the corner who, best of all, spoke English.

We made our way over to the doctor’s office. Now, all of you picture your favorite doctor’s office. It is probably in a nice building, and the office is probably pleasantly colored with lots of magazines and friendly art on the walls. You simply open the door and are greeted by a friendly receptionist.

Instead, we walked down a rather scary looking alley to a series of doors bearing doctors names. Once we located the office of the doctor with whom I was to speak, we walked in the door and saw a stairway. We walked up the stairway, trying not to notice the broken windows. We made it up to the fourth floor, and the door was locked, though the sign had said the hours were 8:30 to noon. We noticed there was a button with the doctor’s name on it, and we pressed the button. We were buzzed in. It was starting to feel like a drug deal.

The reception area was extremely small and gray, and we were able to peer right into the little room where the doctor would do all his procedures. But, to be fair, the receptionist was very kind, and upon hearing of my problem, told me the doctor would see me at “half past 11.” So Bill and I killed some time until I could go back. Bill was especially hilarious by noting that he hoped this doctor didn’t study under Dr. Mengele. Funny man.

We checked back at 11:15, and the receptionist sent us to the waiting room. The waiting room is just off of the reception area, but is entirely separate. You go through a closed metal door and find yourself in a room that is no bigger than my dining room. It has no windows. Chairs line the walls. There were just a few people sitting in the room.

At precisely 11:30, the receptionist called me into the doctor’s office. The doctor couldn’t have been nicer and in about 20 minutes or so, I was good to go. When I opened the door to the waiting room to get Bill, he was sitting there all alone, except for two nuns, sitting right beside him. These nuns were straight out of The Sound of Music. They had the full habits and their hands were hidden in their habits, undoubtedly fingering their rosaries. I had another one of my giggling fits.

Our middle son had indicated that we needed to visit a particular beer garden called the Augustiner before we said our goodbye to Salzburg. After seeing the doctor, we walked over to the Augustiner. It didn’t open until 3, so we ate lunch elsewhere and went back. We are so glad we got a chance to see it. The Augustiner is a wonderful, extremely large beer garden that looks just like it is out of a movie set. Bill and I each had a beer and watched the people enjoy the weather and the locally-made brew. The process to get your beer is interesting. You can either do it yourself or be served. Doing it yourself is less expensive. You pay for your beer, and then you pick out your mug from a rack holding hundreds of mugs. You wash it out and give it to the man who fills the mug with beer from a wooden keg. There are a series of kiosks with all different kinds of food to enjoy with your beer, including white radishes that are spiral cut so they look almost like paper. It was such a relief to celebrate now that I can hear again.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Italy. We are both looking forward to being in the country we love so much. We will spend the next six nights in Padova in the Veneto region of Italy. From there we will visit Venice, Verona, Trieste, Pula (in Croatia), Modena, Bologna, and who knows where else! And we can eat some pizza. Yay!

Sunday in Salzburg

If Salzburg on Saturday is a day for strolling, on Sunday morning the people of Salzburg bring out their bicycles. I’m talking about children to old people and everyone in between. We got a fairly early start because we wanted to eat some breakfast before we went to 10 o’clock Mass at the Salzburg Cathedral.

Salzburg is a city of music. Not only is Mozart their favorite son, there is a world-renown music school located here. We learned from our guidebook that the Sunday High Mass at the Salzburg Cathedral was a musical masterpiece. So after eating our breakfast and drinking our coffee (and watching two little boys ride their bikes around the plaza, deftly dodging pedestrians, while their parents drank their own coffee), we walked over to the church.

The church is a gorgeous example of Baroque architecture, with magnificent paintings and an astounding dome. Not only was Mozart baptized at this church, he played organ there for two years. There are actually four large pipe organs, and it would be unbelievable to hear them played at the same time. Today only one organ was played, but beautifully.

In addition to the organ, there were two trombones and two trumpets. There was also a wonderful children’s choir, consisting of about 120 children, boys and girls, from probably about age 5 to teenagers. We got there very early because we wanted to get a seat right under the dome where the acoustics are the best. As a result, we had the opportunity to hear the children practice before the Mass. Wow. They were amazing.

The Mass was gorgeous. The procession in at the beginning started from a door in front of the altar, and the participants proceeded all the way down the side aisle and then up the middle aisle to the altar. It consisted of five priests and a bishop, and 14 acolytes (both boys and girls). They processed in to a Latin hymn sung by the wonderful children’s choir.

Not understanding German, I was entirely lost during the homily, so I watched the children. While they might sing like angels, I was amused to see that during the homily, they behaved just like normal children – poking, giggling, fidgeting, scratching their ears with their music, whispering.

To my readers who are non-Catholic, I offer my apologies. I just have to explain one more thing to my Catholic family and friends. For the past few days, we have been experiencing Austria and Germany, where the people are organized and precise. I’ve come to expect that. So it was with much surprise that I witnessed their reception of the Eucharist. As I started up the aisle, very assertive Austrians were suddenly overtaking me. I couldn’t imagine why they were passing me. Bill whispered to me that there were two communion rails before which people lined up to receive the host. But there was no organized procession to the rail. Seriously folks. It was each man and woman for him and herself. People were coming from the back, the sides, from all over. And about the time that we were finally nearing the rail, they let loose the children’s choir. All bets were off at that point. As Bill said, those kids can fit into little spaces and they certainly did so. I seriously felt like I was trying to get into a rock concert or a soccer match. The worst thing was that when I got back to my seat, I wanted to whisper to Bill that in all my years as a Catholic I had never seen anything like that, but I got a case of the giggles such as you can only get in church. I had tears running down my cheeks from laughing. It was really one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and I’m afraid not much of a spiritual experience.

After church we stopped at one of Salzburg’s famous frankfurter stands. Weenie stands, really. Austrians don’t eat their wieners on a bun. Instead, they eat their wiener and their bread separately. It apparently took American ingenuity to figure out that you can cut the bun in half and stick the weenie into the bun. But it was wonderful.

We came home and changed clothes (the Austrian dress up for church; I even saw a woman wearing white gloves). We got into our car and drove up to Berchtesgaden, a gorgeous alpine town about 30 miles from Salzburg, in Germany. It was made famous because it was one of Hitler’s favorite places and he built a house there where much of his war planning took place. The house is now a restaurant, but it was unfortunately closed because of technical problems. We were able to visit the bunkers that were built near there to house German troops, and the Nazi Documentation Museum, which gave many graphic and interesting details of World War II, how Hitler came to power, and how the war developed. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot. It was interesting to hear it from the German perspective. We drove high into the Alps, as you can see from the photo.

We came home and rested a bit, and then went out for a bit to eat. We enjoyed schnitzel and a brew, and Bill drank a beer the size of a small garbage can. He was very happy.

The Hills Are Alive

Well, I admit it. The Sound of Music tour is a highlight of my European adventure. I have a good idea of who all is reading my blog, and I know just which ones of you are tittering right now. I don’t care. It was fun. It was interesting. And we got to see some of the most amazing scenery imaginable.

The tour bus is filled with Americans, and what you heard is true: you do sing along. But what the heck? It is The Sound of Music, which is one of the best musicals of all time. In addition to seeing the sights where much of the movie was shot, we also got a little tour of the city of Salzburg and a history lesson. Here is a photo of Bill and I standing in front of the lake in which Maria and the children fell. In the background you see the house that was used for the terrace shots.

The drive up into the lake area was simply beautiful. In that area we saw the field where Maria twirlingly sings the opening song. We visited the church where Maria marries the baron. I had always imagined that church to be massive, and was surprised that it really isn’t as big as some other churches we have seen. But it is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. And as long as this is time for true confessions, I will admit that as we sang Edelweiss, I cried. It made me think of all the times I sang this song to my oldest granddaughter when she was a baby, and it made me miss her (hello Miss AGM), and all of my family and friends.

Since we took an early tour, we were back in Salzburg by 1:30. We walked around a bit, then had lunch at a gasthof near the Salzburg Cathedral. We ate some typical German fare (wienerschnitzel and bratwurst) and drank a couple of beers. We finished off with an amazing apfelstrudel.

After lunch we walked around the city a bit. Salzburg is a city made for strolling. It was full of people holding hands and eating ice cream cones. We watched some folk dances. We saw many people very dressed up, perhaps going to a wedding. I’m talking long dresses and tails. We also saw women in dirndls and old men wearing alpine jackets and those adorable pointy hats. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect.

Here is another photo taken this morning from our room window.

Extras:

- For my walking friends: In all, thus far on this trip we are probably averaging 12,000 steps a day. Even days when we drive, we still manage to get as many as 9,000 or 10,000 steps. I think our big day was 22,000, and it’s typical to get between 15,000 and 18,000.

- For my dad: We stopped at a grocery store a little bit ago and I picked up some landjager. I wish I could share it with you.

- For my friends interested in energy conservation: When you step into our hotel room, in order to make the lights and air conditioner work, you put your room card in a slot that turns on the electricity. You leave the card in the slot, because when you remove the card, everything automatically turns off. Clever, huh?

- For my eccentric friends: By the elevator door, there is a big machine that polishes your shoes while you wait for the elevator to arrive. The Germans don’t like wasting time!

Au Voir France, Guten Tag Germany

We looked at France in our rear view mirrors today as we took off fairly early for Salzburg. We were ready to move on.

We enjoyed France, and think it is a beautiful country with wonderful food. But we are also enjoying the distinct difference between the French and the Germans and Austrians. Frankly, the most noticeable difference is that the people here seem to actually be happy we are visiting. I promise you, I really don’t expect that the French had any obligation to speak English. After all, I was a guest in their country and it’s my own darn fault that I don’t speak French. But I tried, I really tried. And they just seemed annoyed with me. No, that’s not right. Not annoyed, just indifferent to my helplessness.

In contrast, the Germans and Austrians are delighted to have us as guests in their country. The very second that they hear us speak English, they speak to us in perfect English. In fact, yesterday I used my rudimentary German (I studied it for four years in high school and one semester in college a LONG time ago) to ask the waitress about the bathroom, and she seemed confused. She finally figured out what it was I was looking for, and told me in English where it was located. I laughed as I walked down the stairs, figuring that she was at that moment asking my husband why I was trying to speak in really awful German when she spoke perfectly good English.

Perhaps I enjoy the Germans and Austrians because they, and their language, seem so familiar to me. My grandparents were Swiss, and they always spoke German to each other and to their friends. Well, they spoke Swiss German which, as I understand it (and my father will correct me if I’m wrong) is a dialect of German. If is not exactly the same, it is very similar. So the sounds and the sights and the foods and the way the people look and act are all very familiar to me and make me happy.

We drove very hard today so that we could get into Salzburg kind of early. We only stopped a couple of times to get gas (at 50 Euros a pop) and once to have some breakfast. We needed to use the bathroom in the restaurant and saw that there was a 50 Euro cent charge. Bill didn’t have the right change, and wondered aloud if there would be a person by the bathroom taking the money so that he could get change. I told him to go check, knowing full well that the system would be entirely automated because hiring a human to take the money would be too inefficient for the Germans. Of course, I was right. However, the machine gave him change as well as a ticket. He suggested I take the ticket and see if I could use it to also get in on the same 50 cents. Of course, I knew that wouldn’t work because they would have that figured out as well, which was true. But the funniest part was that when you flushed the toilet, the toilet seat was automated to go around and be washed, rinsed, and dried after each use. The bathroom, needless to say, was spotless! So very different from bathrooms in France, and I haven’t even gotten yet to Italy where I am liable to run into many bathrooms that don’t have anything more than a hole in the ground.

The hotel we will be staying in for the next four nights is absolutely lovely – a real splurge on our part. We have been staying in hotels that are perfectly satisfactory, but far from lovely. Our room is big, our beds are soft, and we have a bathtub! Best of all, the view from our 12th floor window is absolutely astounding, as you can see from this photo. We are looking at the Alps, with the beautiful buildings of Salzburg nestled at the bottom and crawling up the sides of the hills.

Salzburg is beautiful, and dedicated to all things Mozart. I’m talking Mozart candy, Mozart statues, Mozart birthplace, Mozart music, Mozart coffee cups, Mozart postcards. You get the picture. The architecture is as pretty as anything I’ve seen thus far in my travels to Europe. It’s just a pretty, pretty town. The buildings are pastel and have intricate statuary and curlycues and the gardens are green and full of color.

We are both tired and didn’t do a lot of exploring tonight. We will do that tomorrow. We just walked into the city center and had dinner at a beer garden. I even had a beer, and I don’t drink beer. But when in Rome…… We also plan on going back, perhaps by train, to Munich to sightsee a bit. It’s about an hour and a half back. Bill is tired of driving. While the Germany highways are fun, they are also stressful, with constantly watching in your rearview mirror to make sure you aren’t going to be holding anyone up. I’m telling you, some of those folks fly.

Tomorrow we are taking the Sound of Music tour. Go ahead. Laugh. I can’t wait.