I'm back home. I had a perfect trip....everything went smoothly from my travel, hotels, tours...everything. Then I fly into Newark and my flight from Newark to San Francisco is 30 minutes delayed...then an hour...then two...then three...then three and a half hours later, we're airborne but our pilot says we are going to have a longer flight because air traffic control changed our flight path. Then I'm freezing on the plane and ask for a blanket but I don't get one because I'm not sitting in first class. What year is this? I'm pretty sure it's 2012 and not 1912. Then we land but there's no gate for us so we have to wait.
I had originally intended to hop on CalTrain as I was supposed to get in around 6:30 pm and head to south bay....but at this point it's after 10:00 and there is only one train an hour that heads to south bay...so luckily, my mom who had been tracking my flight knew to book me a shuttle. By the time I get home it is nearly midnight and 9 am Zurich time so I had been up for 27+ hours.
Getting home wasn't as smooth and it brought me back to the reality that my wonderful trip was over. And as I write this at 3:45 in the morning (clearly still jet-lagged) I couldn't have asked for a better time and find myself wondering when I'll go back.
Next and final post (for now): Highlights and video slideshow...
Friday, July 6, 2012
Austria: Salzburg
I will be the first to admit that the original appeal in visiting Salzburg was due to the fact that The Sound of Music was filmed here. A movie that has been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember. But, as things inevitably work out, I discovered that there's more to Salzburg than visiting old movie sets.
I only had one day in Salzburg and I knew I had a lot of ground to cover so I coffeed up, checked into my hotel, got my map and set out. I am definitely one of those people who tries to conceal the fact that I'm a tourist and for most of the time, do a pretty good job blending in. How do I know this? Because people approached me quite a few times on this trip speaking in German. However, this time, the frequent use of my map was a dead giveaway that I was a tourist.
If you recall from my Munich post, Munich gained power by monopolizing the salt industry. Well...Salzburg means, "Salt Castle" and It derives its name from the barges carrying salt on the Salzach River back in the 8th century. Munich got its salt from Salzburg. They do have a tour that allows you to visit the salt mines but unfortunately, I didn't have time for that.
I started by crossing the Mozart bridge into Mozartplatz. Salzburg is also the birthplace of Mozart so they have quite a few landmarks named after him. Then I made my way through the Residenzplatz, payed my respects in the Salzburg Cathedral, walked through the Domplatz, Kapitelplatz (btw, I think "platz" means "square") and basically continued to walk around all of old town until I made my way back to where I started.
I did notice that many of the bridges in these countries have "love locks" on them. This is a custom by which locks, or padlocks, are affixed to a bridge as a sign of a couple's everlasting love for one another. Apparently this tradition goes back quite a while but only really started popping up all over Europe in the early 2000's. I definitely enjoyed seeing all the love locks in the many cities that I visited.
Next stop: Santa Clara, California...home...definitely not ready to go back...
I only had one day in Salzburg and I knew I had a lot of ground to cover so I coffeed up, checked into my hotel, got my map and set out. I am definitely one of those people who tries to conceal the fact that I'm a tourist and for most of the time, do a pretty good job blending in. How do I know this? Because people approached me quite a few times on this trip speaking in German. However, this time, the frequent use of my map was a dead giveaway that I was a tourist.
If you recall from my Munich post, Munich gained power by monopolizing the salt industry. Well...Salzburg means, "Salt Castle" and It derives its name from the barges carrying salt on the Salzach River back in the 8th century. Munich got its salt from Salzburg. They do have a tour that allows you to visit the salt mines but unfortunately, I didn't have time for that.
I started by crossing the Mozart bridge into Mozartplatz. Salzburg is also the birthplace of Mozart so they have quite a few landmarks named after him. Then I made my way through the Residenzplatz, payed my respects in the Salzburg Cathedral, walked through the Domplatz, Kapitelplatz (btw, I think "platz" means "square") and basically continued to walk around all of old town until I made my way back to where I started.
I did notice that many of the bridges in these countries have "love locks" on them. This is a custom by which locks, or padlocks, are affixed to a bridge as a sign of a couple's everlasting love for one another. Apparently this tradition goes back quite a while but only really started popping up all over Europe in the early 2000's. I definitely enjoyed seeing all the love locks in the many cities that I visited.
Next stop: Santa Clara, California...home...definitely not ready to go back...
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