wade in the water

Besides Graceland there wasn't anything else in Memphis that Molly or I were dying to do. We'd done a little research during our trek from the Grand Canyon but as we were trying to spend as little as possible, we wanted to find a cheap and interesting place. My aunt had recommended we go to the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum but there was also the Civil Rights Museum which is in the same building that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. Decisions, decisions. Beale street was another option but that was going to be a drive-by. Neither of us cared that much to pay for parking and then walk in the scorching heat.

I think because of admission price we decided to head to the Underground Slave Museum which turned out to be a very good choice. However, as we never went to the Civil Rights Museum I can't say for sure that it was better. It took us a little while to find the museum and we were about to give up when we finally found it. There wasn't a distinct sign or anything to set it apart from the other homes in the the neighborhood but we somehow found it. Inside the back entrance was a collection of homemade trinkets and books relating to the Underground Railroad and Slavery. We purchased our ticket and was led into the front room whose walls were covered in quilts, pictures and prints. We were told to look around here and the other room while we wait for the "tour" to begin.

We ended up being the only ones on this tour so it was nice and personal. It began with our guide sitting with us and giving us a background on the house and its significance to slaves' escape during the 19th century. The house, owned by a white man whose name I can't remember, allowed passage of escape to numerous African-American slaves becoming a hero to many. He did own slaves himself but it was to maintain the image of fitting in with other white people so no one would become suspicious of his doings. Our guide was terrific. She told us stories, explained how they passed messages in quilts and songs, sang to us and made us feel quite at home. After the chat she took us down to the basement to show us the escape passage out of the house. They entered like anyone else would but then crawled through a teeny little hole in the basement and hid under the back porch until nightfall when it was safe to escape. All of the artifacts hanging up were fantastic and really added to the vibe of the museum. It was a great little non-commercial place I'd highly recommend to anyone in the Memphis area.

Afterwards we decided to drive by the Civil Rights Museum to see the iconic former hotel where King Jr. was assassinated and then do the driving tour of Beale St. The museum was nifty and they've worked to make it look frozen in the 1960s. Beale St. was a failure as it was barricaded off from driving down. Oh well, we did get a nice picture of it.

So that was the end of our day in Memphis. Before heading back to Mississippi and our wonderful hotel we stopped at the local AAA office to pick up Universal Orlando tickets with a small discount and decided to ask the attendant if she had any local food joint recommendations. She did, and it was a place only about a mile from the hotel so definitely not out of our way. It was a great recommendation and had an abundance of items you don't see on many New England menus. Fried catfish, fried green tomatoes...and plenty more. Now I'm not a big tomato person but the fried green ones were pretty tasty. And the catfish wasn't bad either.

the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes – marcel proust

Day 2 in Vienna was all about the palaces and the royalty of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Anne and I began the morning at Hofburg, the winter palace of the kings and queens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which ruled most of central Europe for hundreds of years until the dynasty's fall. The assasination of Franz Ferndidnand, which kick-started World War I, really did the Hapsburg family in. Anne, by living here in Vienna, knew all about the family and kept talking about them as if I knew exactly who Maria Theresa and Sisi were. Yeah, no idea. They're not in our history books.

Part of the admission price of Hofburg is the inclusion of the audio guide which would have been great had it not been abnormally crowded. The palace had run out of guides so we got pamphlets with all the same information in the guide instead. Though a good substitution, it really didn't work out well. Yes, in the beginning it was nice reading about all the artifacts they had to look at from the really cool porcelain collection, silverware, gold tables, chalices, etc...but the layout of the museum was so narrow, complicated and CROWDED that my attempt to follow along failed miserably. Anne had already been to Hofburg before so she didn't really care about the informational part. I did however, and since I don't like disorganization or crowds my patience started to thin. There was a lot to see and learn but it was just so hard.

The second section of the palace to see is the "Sissy" museum. From what I learned by asking Anne "who the hell was Sisi?" she is the Princess Diana of Austria. So famous, but never entirely the ruler in charge. And she was murdered so with life cut short, she's now immortalized in the Austrian culture. The Sisi Museum, to be truly honest, was a creepy and trippy. A dress she wore to a funeral was one of the highlights, glowing eerily in the dark. Narrow passageways, really low light, black walls and all of her posessions encased for eternal protection. Oh yeah, and people. Lots of people. All attempting to be herded through, but stuck in the worst traffic jam possible. Some people were listening to their audio guides, blocking the comb they were looking at from being seen by anyone else. Now the patience snapped. Anne really didn't like me complaining, but it was all I could do to not punch someone.

The apartments of Hofburg were much better than the earlier sections. Though still being herded through the room, the walkways were wider and at least there was light and space around me. Breathing came easier. Anne then needed to go to class so she told me how to get to Schonbrunn, the summer palace and agreed to meet there in a couple of hours with Lauren so we could do more Christmas Market shopping. There was one right there at Schonbrunn to explore.

Schonbrunn was similar to Hofburg, but gave a much better history of the family and who lived where and when, and it was mainly apartments and rooms within the palace instead of artifacts or creepy dedication special areas. There was a thing called the Sisi Pass though where you could see more of the palace than the basic pass. It may have been worth it, but I soaked in enough in what I did see. I got a real audio guide this time and it just helped so much better. It was a little less crowded and the crowd control was better so overall, I enjoyed this palace so much more. Hofburg was just like a bad nightmare, though it's probably wonderful in other circumstances.

Schonbrunn also has extensive grounds to explore. I only walked through the center part right behind the palace, all the way up the hill to the Gloriette. It was closed so we couldn't go in it or on top, but it was still great to see. The large fountain at the base of the hill was also pretty neat.

view from back of palace of gardens

back of palace

Gloriette up on the hill

I met Anne and Lauren after I finished my tour and we spent time in the Christmas Market. I had a delicious Baked Potato with a garlic sauce for dinner and then Anne and I split a chocolate waffle and caramel crepe for dessert. Great decision making on our part. We then returned to the Rathaus Market since it was so big a second time around was definitely needed. Here, I thoroughly embarassed myself in front of 2 Viennans by exclaiming to them by accident how cute one of the reindeer I was obsessed with was. I thought Anne was standing right next to me but she was on the other side of the booth. Woops. They probably just thought "crazy tourist..." But I got all my reindeer that night so it more than made up for it.

the beginning of the end

Anne and I get to Vienna late and we travel to her dorm via a series of subway and tram cars. The best part of the trek was a kebab place called "Sultan Imbiss" and their logo is the Sultan from Aladdin. Amazing.

At the dorm we settle in, I get to catch up on lack of internet capabilities and to bed we finally go. We decide Anne and I will share her twin bed because the floor is tile and I'd rather not sleep on it. In the morning, Anne puts her foot down and says she had a bad night sleeping and I will have to endure the floor for the next couple of nights. I slept fine in the bed, well as fine as it ever is with 2 people in a twin, but whatever...

Since Vienna is where Anne had been living the last few months, I didn't spend any time beforehand looking at things to do. I glanced at it, didn't like the high admission charges on everything, and decided Anne will tell me what is good and worthy to see. I also didn't want to plan too much cuz my sightseeing was dependent on Anne's schedule since we were going to go places together. We departed the train at Stephensplatz, the downtown of Vienna. Strolling through this popular, ritzy shopping district what hit me immediately was all the architecture and high-end designs on statues and around buildings. It's all very consistent and beautiful. The detail in the carvings, the gold highlights; it's magnificent.

We first went to the Kindermuseum (Art Museum). Except for the museums in Paris where my pass was accepted, I'd avoided art museums for the most part because they had the pricier admission fees and if I didn't know of anything inside, I didn't want to spend the money. I may have missed out some, but I was on budget. This one was really neat and quite large. In the Lourve I'd spent most of my time in the non-painting galleries so for the Kindermuseum I was going to start with the paintings. Anne wanted to see the sculptures so we split up and designated a rendevous time and location.

I don't remember any specific names of paintings but I was definitely impressed with all of them. There seemed to be a great mix of styles too; the Baroque and Venetian stood out in particular. There was a couple I really liked especially for the level of detail. The tiniest strokes had to have been used; the paintings looked like photographs they were so accurate.

one of my faves, but i can't remember the name

One in particular was a still life of flowers and the petals had teeny tiny water droplets.

if you zoom you can see the water droplets

After the museum we met up with Lauren and wandered through the Christmas Market between the art museum, and its twin, the history museum, across the way. Now that it was early December, the Christmas Markets were just everywhere, especially here in Vienna. It seemed like any place with people was bound to have a market. On the way back to Stephensplatz we passed the library whose archtecture design really impressed me. All the buildings did. If they weren't all built at the same time then they were just really good about making all the buildings similar and matching.

St. Michael's church was on the way, and one of Anne's recommedations, so we stopped inside. Anne told me this was one of her favorite organs she'd seen, and it was pretty cool.

Next was St. Peter's, a church one of my best friends had been to before and decided it was where she wanted to get married. I liked it, but it wasn't jaw-droppingly awesome for me. The pews and pulpit were of note and the dove in the dome was really interesting too. Moreso when I saw it in the dome of Karlskirche later on in my visit.

Aman Hof was another church we wandered into. It had a very simple exterior, blending in with the surrounding buildings. The interior was plain but the pulpit impressed me.

Last but not least was St. Stephen's in the heart of Stephensplatz. The Notre Dame of Vienna, this gorgoeus cathedral, though partially under scaffolding, held so much potential for my enjoyment. The church has 2 unsymmetrical towers which I hadn't seen before and it had a very gothic exterior. I don't know about inside since I didn't see much of it.

I guess I'm partially to blame for being so cheap and not wanting to pay for the audio guide, but it's kind of dumb for the biggest church in Vienna to require an audio guide to visit and explore 75% of the place. The rest of the public area was limited and you couldn't see much of anything. Not to mention the masses of people and the lack of crowd control. If you know me, I don't like disorganization and I don't like crowds of people so I hated this.

vienna staatsoper

We left quickly and walked through all the shopping, and all the intense decorations, to a very famous Wienerschnitzel restaurant. The wienerschnitzel was really good and putting lemon juice on it was even better. The best part was the magical potato salad served with it. Definitely a meal worth the price.

its like Target took over

The rest of the evening was devoted to Christmas Markets. I think these markets must have originated in Vienna; or maybe because Vienna seemed to be a more classy, ritzy city they have more money to put into the markets, but each market seemed to get beter. The selection was better with a lot more variety than others. And its where I found my moose/reindeer. Between the ornaments or just decorative pieces for your Christmas filled household, each reindeer I found got cuter and cuter. They were irresistible; and it took 2 more days of reasoning and decision making to decide I wanted to buy them all. They now sit on my desk looking cute as ever.

The second of the markets we went to my first night there was the Rathaus Christmas Market in front of City Hall. Lit up and decorated to the hilt, City Hall was gorgeous and the Christmas atmosphere was wonderful. The windows of the hall were converted to an advent calendar so some days had revealed messages and others were still covered. Though it was getting cold it was a great night overall and even knowing that I had to sleep on the floor with a fake pillow that night didn't smother the mood.

what will this day be like? i wonder...

Before I continue with my tour of Salzburg, I just want to talk about our hostel for a few. Anne and I got a private room, which was amazing and it had full size bunkbeds so we each got a very large bed to ourselves. We spent the evening chatting and planning the next day, making sure we'd hit all The Sound of Music points we hadn't yet seen. There were plenty and some had to be visited at specific times; and with me being the planner I am, planning was to be done. And after we caught up with life for the most part, to bed we went.

For breakfast, our hostel didn't offer any free stuff, but had 2 options for purchasing breakfast: 1) a coffee, bowl of cereal, roll and 2) unlimited. I was cheap and refused to pay. Anne had to eat so she got the unlimited. We both ended up eating. She just kept getting food and I ate half of it. Wonderful! And the best part was at the end when we took 6 extra rolls for later and Anne thought I was crazy for wanting to get more. We had room to stash them!

Ok...now back to my Sound of Music/Salzburg tour...first stop of the day was the Mirabell gardens once again. It was lightly cloudy, but not rainy and uber-gray so I wanted to get some more pictures, and as it was early in the day few people were around. We then went to the Mozart Wohnhaus, Mozart's residence when he wasn't traveling Europe as an adult. This museum was similar to the one visited the night before but had more history about Mozart's composition rather than his family. There was some about his parents, but the focus was on his acheivements. Next door to the museum is the Holy Trinity Church, where Mozart first played piano when he was a very young boy. It was small and empty, but nice. A very nice piece of musical history.

Holy Trinity Church

We then wandered over the river again, and with the better weather, and it being early instead of late in the day, the river was brighter and quite pretty. The Fortresshonhensalzburg sat high and mighty on the hillside and it was gorgeous in the early morning light.

Taking a similar path as the evening before, we wandered through the Residenzplatz again. It was easier to see this as the area where Maria splashes in the fountain during I Have Confidence but all the Christmas huts, people and the covered fountain didn't help. I admired the arches between the Residenzplatz and the plaza in front of the Domkirche, cause you know, Maria walks through them.

As with Innsbruck, Anne and I bought the Salzburg card, good for admission to almost all the attractions in Salzburg, most which are Sound of Music attractions. Though it took more effort than in Innsbruck to make sure we went to enough places where the admission totals would exceed the cost of the card, we made it worth the price and overall the cards make buying tickets smoother in general as well. A neat little place included in the card we decided to stop in was the Panorama Museum. Its simple inside, just a giant panorama painting of the city of Salzburg. There are a couple other Salzburg history items, but the center of the single room is the panorama, which from the outside looks like a giant cylinder. There's a door you enter through and the painting is enormous but fantabulous! A perfect 360 degree view of Salzburg as seen from the top of the Fortress. I loved it so much and a poster of the painting was only $10 so I got my souvenir!

bus stop!

Next, we explored the plaza on the other side of the church where Maria boarded the bus to the VonTrapps and we boaded the tram to the Fortress. The fortress is a castle, one of the largest medieval ones in Europe, that sits atop a large hill. Included in the admission to the fortress is a required audio tour where they take you through all the open to the public rooms and overlooks. It was really spectacular and the audio guide was very helpful. From one side, we had the perfect view of the Untersberg, the mountain which I hadn't seen the day before due to the bad weather. It is Maria's mountain, the mountain which she was brought up on, and the mountain where they filmed the final scene of the movie with the family hiking into "Switzerland." One of the factual errors of the movie, if you hiked over the Untersberg you'd really hike into Germany and come into contact with Hitler's "Eagle's Nest."

Schloss Leopoldskron from the Fortress

Salzburg and the Untersberg in all its glory

From the other side of the fortress, the view we'd just seen in the Panorama museum stood before me. It was gorgeous and really cool to see how nothing had really changed about this old city. If I compare my picture I took with my camera to the poster I now have hanging on my wall, I bet little would be different.

The Executioner's House - no one wants to be his neighbor

After the fortress tour ended, we took the hike down the steep slope leading from the castle and it's really amazing looking back up at the fortress how delicately balanced and built it is on top of the hill. The walkway we end up on is the one that leads to Nonnberg Abbey, so off we went to the church that started it all.

Recognizable because of its red onion dome, Nonnberg Abbey was founded way back in 714 and is the Abbey where Maria VonTrapp was a former novice, and where the movie was able to shoot a few exterior scenes. The production originally wanted to film inside the Abbey as well, but the Mother Abbess wouldn't allow it. Instead they built interiors in the Salzburg movie studio and shot those scenes on rainy days during production. The exterior gate and inner garden were used for shooting though. And it was fangirl heaven to be at the gate where Julie Andrews says "when God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window" right before she begins singing I Have Confidence.

We entered the inner garden from a separate entrance than the movie gate, so I was initially confused, but when we got to the door to the church and I turned to the left and saw the gate, I knew we were in the right place. The biggest dissapointment for me, which is quite pathetic if you really think about it, is that the bell rope they attached for the movie, and the nuns asked to leave up, wasn't there anymore. I was really looking forward to pulling the rope. But maybe too many fans had that same wish and broke it. I pretended to pull it anyway cause I'm a dork and was completely geeking out. Anne probably wished she didn't come with me.

Inside, the sanctuary was small and very dark and the coolest bit was that under the altar stairs you could see a basement room with candles lit. Eerie for sure. Back outside, I gawked at the gate some more, took even more pictures and then took a look out over the city from this side. It was then I realized how through editing the movie made it look like Nonnberg overlooked the downtown section of the city, not the other side of the hill. Very interesting, indeed. 

geeking out with the gate