I got back from Paris on sunday night and was expecting to meet my parents and Rachel around 10 the next morning. American Airlines, however, had other plans. Their flight was canceled so they had to fly through London which included a 6 hour layover. I spent the day buying lotion and nasal strips and organizing all of my pictures from France and Italy into a little slideshow.
They finally pulled up to the house around 5. I went with them to their hotel and then we went back to the house where my fabulous host sister, Corinne, had prepared a raclette dinner for us. I showed them my pictures and when my dad fell asleep during the middle of my presentation, we knew it was time for them to go. Here I am with Corinne, Rachel, and my dad. Guess who just woke up from a nice nap?
The next morning I met the fam at their hotel for breakfast. It was super nice except I had several near panic attacks every time the waitress came to our table because I was afraid they would kick me out since I wasn't actually staying in the hotel and I was currently cleaning out their supply of mini croissants.
We decided to take a tour of St. Gallen in the afternoon and do some shopping beforehand. On our way into the city, we passed this eating establishment.
I have to say that anytime I think of my home country, my thoughts instantly go to rocket ships and bald eagles and football players running over Mt. Rushmore. This is Amurica!
The city tour we showed up for was in English but since we were the only four English speakers on the tour, the tourguide would conduct the tour in English while the German speakers looked at whatever we were learning about and then we would switch. The first time she tried this system with us, she told us to "go over there" to look at something while he spoke in German but we had no idea what we were supposed to be looking for. We just walked around the street and Rachel and I talked about Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion until the tourguide was finished and actually explained what were looking at.
Our tour included the Cathedral, the famous St. Gallen Abbey Library, and the Textile Museum. We got some mileage out of this sofa in the Textile Museum.
After our tour we did some more shopping and later enjoyed a delicious Swiss dinner. Here's their hotel room in St. Gallen. It was pretty bombastic. There was fresh fruit everyday and apples in the hallway that I shamelessly swiped for myself.
I don't think there's one St. Gallen resident that is not familiar with Miami University since my parents and sister were there considering the sheer amount of Miami related attire they brought with them and wore everywhere.
The next day, a drowned rat named Me showed up at my parent's hotel ready to drive to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Southern Germany. We piled into our rented Mercedes (a Napoli family first) and set off. For whatever reason, my dad and sister thought it would be a good idea to set our GPS to the Star Wars setting which included Yoda reciting all of the directions. Hearing "Take the second exit of the roundabout, you must" and "Driven well you have, in one quarter of a mile" was cute for maybe about the first 2 roundabouts. If they're looking for a plot for this new Star Wars movie that's coming out in 3 years, look no further than me riding in that car since I was ready to strangle Yoda and melt our GPS with a light saber by the time we reached Germany.
It was rainy and misty and cold when we pulled in. Everyone else there was dressed as if we were touring basecamp 3 of Mt. Everest instead of a castle so i felt more than a little unprepared in my jeans and trench coat. I was also not ready for the trek up the mountain where the castle was. We reached the top and waited for our tour. While we were waiting, I tried to go the bathroom but there was a woman standing directly in front of/on the door to the men's room. It seemed like she was in charge of a group of children and keept yelling from her position in front of the bathroom, so much so that I was too frightened to ask her to move. I've determined that there are three types of the German language; High German, Swiss German, and Scary German.
Rachel and I though that waiting to go into Neuschwanstein would be the perfect spot to begin our series of "Not Impressed" pictures. For those of you who are not familiar with the magic and sheer sass that is U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney, then here's a picture of her when she won a silver medal for the women's vault this past summer.
Rachel and I decided that, like McKayla Maroney winning something as paltry as an Olympic silver medal, we too would be "not impressed" with some of Europe's greatest treasures.
Like Neuschwanstein.
Most famous castle in the world and inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle in Disneyland? Not impressed.
We finally were admitted to the castle where we learned all about King Ludwig II, who we maturely and affectionately referred to as "Crazy Ludwig". Only about 1/3 of the actual rooms are finished, including a rock cave with colored lights that was adjacent to the dressing room obviously, so the tour itself wasn't that long. The interiors were beautiful and unique and kind of spooky considering the level of crazy we were dealing with as far as King Ludwig was concerned. Even though it was foggy, it was fantastic to look out of the windows at all of the mist and scraggly mountains.
Here we are after touring the castle.
That night, we spent the night in Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany. It was here where we encountered one of the major differences between Europe and America. When my sister and I walked into the room we were sharing, we saw that there were two twin beds pushed together and supported by a double size mattress frame. At the site of this Rachel immediately told me "You can sleep on the floor". After thinking through the problem more logically, she later suggested that I push two chairs together and sleep on that. Since I was actually interested in sleeping that night, my dad went to the front desk where they told him that there were no rooms with 2 separate beds. I ended up pulling one of the two mattresses onto the floor but it was a running issue throughout the trip that the American and European definitions of 2 beds weren't always the same. We had a grand time though sitting around in the hotel robes and gossiping and discussing the Real Housewives of New York.
We were also quite giddy because the next day was the Sound of Music Tour! For those of you who don't know, my mom's family is primarily Austrian so all of us have been raised on a steady and healthy diet of the Sound of Music ever since my mom and her siblings were small children. Also, many of us sing or play musical instruments so we have an appreciation for the Von Trapp family's use of music as a means of family bonding. So while the movie is America's gem, it hold a special place in the hearts of the Glaid family, along with the Ten Commandments and the elevator game. Rachel began whining about how she didn't know what to wear the next day. I had an epiphany and pointed to the window...
"Hmmmm this could work for perhaps a pair of leiderhosen...."
"...and then I don't feel, so baaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAaaaaaaad!"
Once Rachel finished making an entire line of playclothes for children age 5-16, we set off with Yoda to Salzburg, Austria. With all of the riding in the car, I developed a Pavlovian habit of falling asleep anytime we drove somewhere for longer than 20 minutes. Even though I slept fine during the night, every time I got in the car, I was konked out. Occasionally, I would be jerked awake by Yoda telling my Dad to "Use the force" and "don't go to the left for it is the Dark Side". Needless to say, I groggily remember our entrance to Salzburg.
Once we had dropped off our stuff in the hotel, we were picked up by a van and taken to the tour bus for the Official Sound of Music Tour. We were disappointed that the bus was not painted with images of the Sound of Music characters, but our sarcastic and enthusiastic tour guide made up for it. Our bus was mostly comprised of other Americans. According to our tour guide, the movie was first released in Austria 16 YEARS AGO even though it was in American movie theaters in 1964. Even in Switzerland, people were highly confused as to why I was spending 4 hours of my life on a tour of locations for an American movie they had never heard of before.
The tour began and the tour guide announced that there would be a trivia question. Rachel and I thought we had this in the bag until he asked us what mountain Julie andrews was signing on at the beginning of the movie. Who would remember that??? I always fast forwarded through any scene that took place in Mother Superior's office or when the adults talked for long periods of time, so I had absolutely no clue as did no one else on the bus.
What was nice about the tour was that it featured not just the locations from the movie, but also famous sites of Salzburg as well. Also, my parents were very into the audience participation aspect of the tour.
Our first stop was to the lake where this happend.
For the movie, they used this lake and the back of that house behind me for all of the backyard scenes, and a different house for the front. So in the scene when the Captain is talking to Maria, they filmed him at this hose and filmed her at a different one and then put it together for the film. Crazyyyy.
We stopped at several other spots including the gazebo where 16 Going on 17 takes place.
We also drove past the street where the front of the hose that they used in the movie. I had a momentary spasm on the bus when I spotted a nun walking down the street by the house and I did not hesitate from yelling to the whole bus, "LOOK! A NUN!" I wonder if that was her first day as a governess....
Another zinger from the tour was when Rachel and I were walking onto the tour bus and the tour guide exclaimed "Oh look it's the honeymoon couple!" Rachel and I just looked at each other, cringed, and I began heaving while she explained that we were siblings, not married. He tried justifying his statement by telling us that "you just look so happy". I don't think that it's unusual to look the happiest you'll ever be in your entire life when you're on the official Sound of Music Tour.
Our trip took us to the beautiful town of Mondsee where they filmed the wedding. Along the way we listened to the Sound of Music CD and the group of Americans in the front of the bus who had, before boarding the bus for Mondsee bought several bottles of 2.85 euro champagne from the driver (as the woman who bought all of it eloquently stated, "it's so cheap because we bought it in bulk!), began a rousing rendition of "Do Re Mi". Here are some of the gorgeous views. And a picture of me either sneezing of being offended by something.
The top of that mountain is where they filmed "Do Re Mi".
Once in Mondsee, we toured the church and then sat down for some "crisp apple strudel". I took one for the team during this vacation and tried apple strudel in almost every place we visited. I think the one in Mondsee was my favorite because it was served with a warm vanilla sause (which was basically hot vanilla pudding) and the level of crispness matched the expectations set by Julie Andrews in "My Favorite Things".
After the tour, we visited the Mirabell Gardens in the city center of Salzburg. This is where they filmed some of the other famous sequences from "Do Re Mi". Rachel and I had a field day.
We also found this poster for some creepy puppet theater and then my mom and I got stuck in a tour group. Good one.
That night we had a filling Austrian dinner and when we returned to our hotel at 10, what did Rachel and I find playing on the TV???? I had heard an urban legend that there is a television channel in Salzburg that plays the Sound of Music 24/7 so I thought we had struck gold when Rachel turned on the TV. Unfortunately, if was just the hotel channel and they only played the movie once a a day at 8 pm but it was better than nothing.
The next day we took a trip to the famous Austrian Ice Caves. This is apparently the largest ice cave in the world (I didn't know there was even a contest for this) and it covers about 40 kilometers. In order to get to the cave, however, we had to do some serious walking.
It was completely misty that day so we boarded a gondola in complete fog and then broke through the clouds to this! It was grand. We then had to walk to the entrance of the cave.
I also found this weird door in the side of the mountain. No one was home.
Before we started our tour, the guide began lighting lanterns and passing them out to every third person in line. He made the biggest mistake of his life and handed me a lantern. I immediately swung around and forced it onto my dad with a jilted "Here!". I guess an ice cave isn't the worst place to be shouldered with the responsibility of fire since if I burned myself, I could have just hopped onto a glacier and rolled around for a while. But I wasn't willing to risk it. Aside from that minor terror, the ice caves were absolutely stunning. The sheer scale of the rock and the amount of frozen water was unimaginable. It was a crowd pleaser. When we left, we took some pictures in front of the mountains but it was so bright up there that we all look blinded.
After our casual tour of the ice caves, we spent the rest of the day during Salzburg. We visited the famous Salzburg fortress which is home to the scariest place on earth, the Salzburg Marionette Museum. In all honesty, it was actually a really well done exhibit (design snob, whatever) but there were some honestly horrifying creations as well. Like this wall of dead puppets.
My poor parents got stuck with two of the most unexpressive and unemotional children ever.
That night we had dinner in a beer hall. There was a kind of food court, a beer fountain area, a wall of steins, and then several large rooms where people could eat. It was tasty and unique but after hiking through those caves, all I wanted to do was lay on my bed and watch the Sound of Music. Which is exactly what I did.
The next day, we were scheduled to travel to Innsbruck but on the way, we made a stop at the Eagle's Nest. The Eagle's Nest is a mountain peak where Hitler had a building constructed in 1938. I guess it was used to host dinner parties and for storage of precious art objects the Nazis wanted to keep safe but now it's just a restaurant. In order to reach the top of the mountain, we had to take a bus and then Hitler's famous golden elevator.
While we were waiting for the bus, Rachel and I noticed a rather motley crew of people waiting around too. We were trying to be as inconspicuous as possible but then Rachel pointed out that one of the men in the group looked like Elvis Presley. I looked for myself and, sure enough, there was a real life Elvis impersonator waiting to get on the bus to go to the EAgle's nest with us. He was wearing a black suit (an obvious choice for taking a trip to the top of a mountain), Elvis-style aviators, and his hair was slicked into a greasy pompadour. The only chink in the chain was that he spoke English with a heavy German accent. The other Americans in our group also took notice of him and began asking him questions. As we all boarded the bus, they kept saying "Elvis has left the building!" Which makes no sense since we were getting onto a bus. He seemed perfectly nice and invited the other Americans to come see his show sometime. It was then when I took a moment to reflect on how obscure my life is; I was on a bus to Adolph Hitler's mountain fortress with an Elvis impersonator.
As mentioned, we rode to the top of the mountain in a golden elevator. You weren't supposed to take pictures.
Rachel and I had had our share of walking and nature so you can imagine we were thrilled when we got to the Eagle's Nest and all you could see was fog. It was hard to even see 10 feet in front of you. With some serious snark, I told my parents I could have just as well stared at a piece of paper for an hour and a half and seen the same thing. Here I am being legitimately not impressed.
And here we are whining!
Suddenly though, every now and then the clouds would move and the mountains would appear out of nowhere. It was absolutely breathtaking. And then the mist would come back and Rachel and I would whine some more.
After the Eagle's Nest, we drove into Innsbruck. We had a pretty relaxing evening with just some shopping and some dinner. The next day, we visited the Swarovski Crystal Worlds. I thought it would be like a factory tour but it was more like a museum and then a really big Swarovski store. We saw some beautiful and unique exhibits.
Here's a mouse.
The exhibits each were done by a different artist of designer. This particular one was supposed to feature 55 million crystals. Rachel and I counted 0.
Not impressed.
There was also a sculpture park and Rachel and I took full advantage.
I'm sure the artists would have loved to have met us.
After we left, we headed back to Innsbruck. My parents were interested in seeing some of the Olympic sites from the 1964 and 1976 winter Olympics. We visited the ski jump where they also had the Olympic torches. The ski jump had the double feature of being extremely high but also with a clear view of a cemetery below where the jump ended. Around the base of the torches were plaques that listed all of the medalists from the two games. Since McKayla Maroney is a summer olympian and a silver medalist, Rachel and I were not impressed for her.
That night we had a relaxing dinner at the hotel and spent the rest of the night watching the first Harry Potter movie in German. It's amazing; even though I KNOW Hermione can't speak German, it really looks like she is when it sounds like it's coming out of her moth. However, Wingardeum Leviosa, like a smile, is the same in every language.
It was our last day! We had a three hour drive to Zurich and then my parents and sister would fly back to Pittsburgh the next day. We spent the day shopping and eating in Zurich before it was time for me to go back to St. Gallen. My mom, of course, asked us all about our favorite moments and we gave my dad and Rachel some well deserved snaps for their driving and navigating respectably. All in all, it was a great time and I hope this means more European vacations in the future!
