From Venice, we took a train through the Alps and into Austria. Our friend, whom we had met in Australia, Olivia, was from there. She welcomed us with open arms and let us stay at her apartment in Innsbruck. It was great to see her again and she acted as our tour guide, taking us to the home of Swarovski Crystals, Crystal World, to the highest European bridge and on a hike in the Alps, where we enjoyed Weiss beer and traditional Austrian food. The next day, we got the genius idea of renting a car, which we figured would also double as a place to stay for the nights we had it. Our first day with our portable home, at the suggestion of Olivia, we decided to drive to Munich. When we got there, we realized that we had arrived during a huge gay pride parade, so the city was bustling and there was much beer to be had. After a day enjoying Munich-the Hoffbrau Haus, the parade and a flea market, we made our way back to Innsbruck to join Olivia and her friends at a graduation party. We spent the night dancing and were dubbed by one of her friends as "special edition Americans." We think it was a compliment...The next day we said our goodbyes to Olivia, packed up our car and headed to Salzberg.
SALZBERG
Salzberg was beautiful. We had no map or travel plans, so we parked the car and explored the city by foot. We had a little idea of what was in store-Mozart's birth place and Sound of Music landmarks. We found these things and much more. We stumbled upon castles like a bum stumbles upon cans at Autzen at the end of a big football game. When it came time for us to find a parking place to sleep for the night, we quickly realized that most cities don't encourage homelessness, so the spot next to a lake overlooking the city that we had dreamed about never materialized. Instead we settled on a well lit parking lot next to a park. It ended up working out pretty well, and the sun woke us up early enough to prevent passersby from seeing us and gave us time to see all of the buildings and Sound of Music sights that we had missed on the previous day. We decided to leave around noon for Vienna so that we could explore some of the Austrian country side. Right outside of Salzberg, we found a lake called Lake Mondsee where we pulled over for a swim and some relaxation. It was gorgeous with crystal clear water and a view of the Alps. After a picnic and some downtime, we were back on the road to Vienna
VIENNA
Now Innsbruck and Salzberg were small, rustic towns, so going into Vienna looking hagard from the lake, we assumed it would be similar. We were so wrong. We pulled in to a big city-and if Salzberg was difficult to find a place to park the car, Vienna was nearly impossible. We drove around looking for parking, only to be informed that there wasn't a place to buy a parking ticket, so even if we found a spot, we could be towed. We finally found a garage and decided to leave the car there until parking ws free. We walked around the city a little during the night but were tired from our sparse sleep in the car the previous night. So, we returned to the car to find a spot to sleep. This one was a little harder, so we ended up on a normal street. Maybe homeless with a car wasn't such a good idea...We returned our home on wheels to Hertz the next day and walked around the city looking at churches and the elaborate buildings. We left in the evening for Prague, but we haven't had our fill of Austria.
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