Austria!

Sorry, I’ve been a bit lazy since I’ve been back, but I’m still going to write all about my holiday anyway! It’s gonna be pretty long, even if none of you actually want to read it, but just for my future reference, so I can remember all about it!

Day 1 – Sunday 16^th July
This involved a 7 hour drive from Osnabruck to Buxheim, a little village near Ingolstadt (north of Munich), where we visited one of my mums old friends, Claudia. We stayed in their house 10 years ago, but I was only 8, and all I could remember was the bathroom. I’m not kidding, it’s twice the size of my bedroom and has the biggest bath I’ve ever seen in the middle of it. It was the nicest house I’ve ever been in. ‘Huge’ would be a good word to describe it. Anyway, we got there at about 3pm and spent the rest of the day lazing about before visiting Eichstätt in the evening, where we had (apparently) the best ice cream in southern Germany.

Day 2 – Monday 17^th July
This day was quite a lazy one, for me anyway, because mum spent a lot of time chatting with her friend. It did include about 2 hours of me teaching her how to use her new digital camera though, which she still can’t work properly.

In the evening, I went to my first proper concert ever. Every year in Ingolstadt, Audi sponsors ‘summer concerts’. We had great seats and enjoyed listening the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Christian Tetzlaff.

Day 3 – Tuesday 18^th July
Me and mum went to Ingolstadt to look around. We ended up spending half of the day strolling around the Klenzepark, because it was so pretty. Firstly, we found the Secret Garden and sat by the fountain surrounded with pretty flowers (and also quite a few wasps, who were also enjoying the sun and the water) but then we moved to a kind of wooden gazebo thing on a pond with lilies on it and looked at the flowers and watched the fish swimming around in the water. I saw the biggest carp I had ever seen in my life in that pond, and it wasn’t even a massive pond. We enjoyed just being there in the quiet and in the shade, with the bright sun shining on everything else around us. I’m gutted that we didn’t take the camera, because it really was beautiful.

Day 4 – Wednesday 19^th July
I complained earlier this summer, that I hadn’t seen enough of Germany, even though I’ve lived here all my life. Well, that’s certainly not true anymore. On Wednesday we drove to Heidlberg, which (if any of you know any German geography) you will know is quite a distance!! Claudia had to go to a special clinic there, so me and mum went with them to look around the city while they were in the hospital. It’s a very nice city, I enjoyed it. We had a spot of lunch in one of the thousand cafés and then visited the castle. It was a steep trek, and tiring, but overall it was as very enjoyable day.

Day 5 – Thursday 20^th July
We said goodbye to Ingolstadt and drove about 1 ½ hours down to Munich. There we stayed with some friends that mum lived with when she was in Hamburg in the 70s. They live in a large flat, which is right at the top of the block, so they have quite a nice terrace, full of flowers. We nearly got eaten by their dog, Aneas, upon arrival, who was a little excited to say the least. As we’d been to Munich before, and seen all the famous buildings, we decided to be a little more cultured and visit the Pinakothek der Moderne, which, along with some rather interesting furniture, architecture and other objects, houses paintings by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. I don't always enjoy modern art, but was pleasantly surprised here. But had to shut myslef up quite quickly when I blurted out :'Look at that! It's rubbish! Why would anyone put something like that in a museum, let alone paint the stupid thi- ooh, it's a Picasso... ahem, lets go. Not so loud Becky, not so loud.'

We then just spent the evening with the family. Over this time living with German families, I came to realise two things: firstly, that Germans like eating bread, meat and cheese A LOT; and secondly, I struggle to string a sentence together completely in German, but I understood nearly all of their conversations!

Day 6 – Friday 21^st July
So, now it was time for Austria. About 1 ½ hours got us to the little village of Itter, near Wörgl. We just rested and enjoyed the hotel that day.

Day 7 – Saturday 22^nd July
We drove back into Germany, just over the boarder, to Berchtesgaden, where Hitler had his house in the Alps. We went on boat in the Königsee, which is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s the highest lake in all of Europe and was simply fantastic. At one point they stopped the boat and a man played a tune on a trumpet, so that we could hear the echo. I’ve never heard anything like it. That must have echoed for miles. We had lunch there, before walking a little further to another little lake where we had a visit from some very friendly ducklings before getting back on the boat to go to the other end of the lake.

If you look closely, you can see the Eaglesnest, Hitlers house on the top. One is zoomed in, the other is zoomed out… (ok, I know it is really small, the computer was being annoying and I can't make it any bigger!)

Day 8 – Sunday 23^rdJuly
I’ll tell you this in case you ever decide to go: Sunday is a great day to go to Salzburg. Most of the shops are closed so there are hardly any crowds. It’s a lovely city. We were entertained by a man playing music on glasses, visited Mozarts birth house, wandered around and then visited the famous castle, which was definitely worth it. You go right to the top of the tallest tower, and you can see for miles around. This was mums favourite bit of the holiday – everywhere you went there was music playing, which made a great atmosphere.

Day 9 – Monday 24^th July
This day was very tiring, but totally worth it. In the morning we went to Kitzbühel, which is famous for skiing, where we rather amazingly met the same people that we met on the boat on the Königsee – what a small world! Then we went on… It wasthe most awesome display of water I have ever seen in my life. Words and pictures don’t do it justice; you have to see it with your own eyes to be able to take in the size and power of it all. It’s called the Krimmler wasserfälle and is in three main stages. The whole thing falls 400m at took us 1 ½ hours to walk up the steep, zig-zagging paths to the top. I think the best word to describe it is just ‘wow’. Nothing else could demonstrate what it’s like. I'm going to put the pictures in a different post to make it easier - it's stressing me out putting the pictures in with all this writing.

Day 10 – Tuesday 25^th July
Back to Salzburg. I had a wonderful time on the sound of music tour! Afterwards, we visited Mozarts house and the Residenz Palace. In the courtyard, a stage had been set up and there were people practising, so we managed to get ourselves a free opera!

Day 11 – Wednesday 26^thJuly
I was SO tired from all the walking and travelling and being in the heat that we had the whole day off – I slept for half of it and then enjoyed reading a book called Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani.

Day 12 – Thursday 27^th July
This day we went to Innsbruck. We climbed the tower, saw the Olympic ski jump and the famous golden roof, went inside the Dom ST Jakob and the Palace. It was quite a nice place and we enjoyed it, especially the Palace, but to be honest, that’s all there is to see! In the afternoon, we went to the Swarovski museum. Mum really liked it because she was fascinated by all the colours and stuff, but I found it a little boring. A little weird in places too. We visited a little town called Rattenberg on the way home, where we had a much needed ice cream.

Day 13 – Friday 28^th July
All holiday, we’d been surprised by the lack of English people. It was quite nice as they were nowhere to be seen. Until we went to Söll, that is. I swear there weren’t even any Austrians there! It was a nice little town though. Mum bought a little Swarovski ornament and then we went on to look around Kufstein. We’d originally been planning to get the lift up the mountain (Hohe Salve) next to our hotel and walk down it, but after the climbing up and down the mountain on Monday, we decided against it, as we were just too tired, and mum had a long drive the next day.

Day 14 – Saturday 29^th July
Home time! I was feeling pretty dead after the 9 hour drive… but we made it nonetheless!