Hanging at Hellbrunn and Dinner with Friends.

I honestly tried to sum up Salzburg in my last post- but Hellbrunn is SO special it deserves it’s own page. Let’s review…after visiting Vienna, my hubby took a train back to Salzburg to fly to Montana for work duties.  My parents and I of course traveled to Croatia, and then a day or so to play in Salzburg before they flew home.  A perfect place to play is Hellbrunn Palace!  Yes, another palace- this time a summer palace only a couple of miles from inner-Salzburg.  It was the archibishop, Markus Sittikus’s summer palace he decided to throw together in 1613 to entertain guests during the summer days.  It’s special charm are the trick fountains that are run without electricity and could just spout off unexpectedly at any moment.  It was SO.MUCH.FUN.

Hellbrunn Place, & my lil prince approaching…

I have, of course, blogged about this palace prior, but it was covered in snow and also hosts a 2K cross-country ski loop! See here  and here.

Grandma and G-pa in the gardens near the palace.

First stop, near this pool and we all congregate for an explanation of how dinner might commence 17th century style.

Then, as guests congregate, Markus would turn on the fountains and spray everyone!? That is one way to win friends and influence people.

Please click on the first picture for a fun slide-show…

Close-up of the first fountain- so much Baroque.

Then, a little cave with more funky sculptures.

Back-door, ya walk along a little canal of spring water and there are different stages of figurines…

The wooden figurines depict occupations and some greek mythology- or something like that.

More figurines,they all move- without electricity, all water-driven.

Star-fountain as seen from inside the palace.

Inside one of the grottos, an icon of Hellbrunn is that face with the tongue sticking out.

As the water flows, the tongue sticks out further!

Inside another grotto, these dragon-figures swam around and the entire place was filled with bird sounds made from flowing water…

And another fountain. Pretty sure we all got wet in this one.

The village fountain was an incredible display of moving figurines, an entire village moving to music.

Close-up of the village figurines.

Eliot may have loved this palace most of all…

Inside the palace, kinda nice.

Inside the palace, the music room, with amazing acoustics (we tried it out, sounded like fools).

View from inside of the palace- last time we were here, this was covered in snow.

Last fountian. So worth the entry price.

Afterwards, we went out for dinner and for dessert, Salzburg Knockerl.

Salzburg Knockerl is a traditional dessert made of a lot of meringue and apricot filling on the bottom.

Servers in Dirndl’s- typical of Bavaria and Austria.

Guten Appetit!

Yours in trick fountains, Kim

Salzburg Sights Before We Depart…

If you take a week or two vacation to a far off place, you take the chance of experiencing rainy weather to spoil your sightseeing.  For awhile, I thought perhaps staying in Salzburg 4 months wasn’t enough to miss the poor weather!  Apparently we had the worst March weather in 30 years (lucky us).  Don’t quote me on that, since I can’t understand German newspaper, but that is what we heard.  Although spring seemed to be skipped, we managed to hit major sights, especially Kim and Eliot while Reed was away at work. Today,  I thought I would condense down to one post some of the major sights tourists hit when they come to Salzburg.  Frequently they are only here a day or two, so we feel pretty darn lucky to have lived here for 4 months!

One of the most beautiful sights is Mirabellgarten (1606), and also a major Sound of Music icon.

One of the most famous fountains seen during the ‘Do-Re-Mi’ scene.

Because everyone knows you can learn to sing by singing Do-Re-Mi (!?) but here are the rest of the Mirabell photos, if you are reading this via the email, you may want to click on the link to the actual blog,  otherwise I find the pictures  slow to load or quite so large.

You can enter Mirabell through the gate on the left.

popular view with Fortress in the background. Julie Andrews and the lot hopped up these steps, doing the Do-Re-Me thing.

Pegasus fountain (1913) the palace in the background.

Walking up to Mirabell, with that castle looming!

lots o’ paths to walk, big gardens in background…

photo wouldn’t be complete w/o a barage of tourists

2nd fountain-Each corner has a sculpture (1690), representing the four elements.

close up of one of them…

So, would this be fire, air earth or water?

Eliot breaks out into song…”Do, a deer, a female deer.”

other entrance, another S of M venue.

One last fountain.

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Salzburg has the most incredible Old Town with gorgeous architecture.  A handful of times the weather was nice enough for Eliot and I to bike downtown, so here is a small summary of different Old Town sites.

First, a square called “Residenceplatz,” incredible fountain and the Glockenspiel in the background.

Glockenspiel, or carillon.

With its many bells, it plays a song twice a day.

Incredible fountain at Residenceplatz with Eliot in front to show it’s massiveness!

The other border is “Alte Residenz,” (Palace) the horse and carriage, a popular tourist attraction.

Other view of residenceplatz, with the Salzburg Cathedral in the background. Let’s go there next…

The DOM, or Salzburg Cathedral.

Eliot and the incredible sculpture in front of the DOM.

Inside the DOM…Eliot admiring the view. It twas impressive!

Kapitelplatz, another view of the cathedral on the right.

Another entrance to DOM platz, you see the Sphaera sculpture.

Some funky weather vane near Mozartplatz. Which sadly, is not pictured.

Yes, another sculpture in the background. But this time a Fortress as well!

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There is so much more to see in Salzburg.  I didn’t feature Mozartplatz, where you can find the birthplace of Mozart and it’s museum.    Another, more peaceful cemetery at St. Sebastian’s Church (Sebastianskirche & Friedhof), and of course there are my previous posts on St. Peter’s Cemetery, Museum der Moderne (includes Salzburg at night), Toy Museum,  Getreidegasse for shopping,  or Hellbrunn Palace (coming up next!).

There are so many incredible sculptures, most are quite old.  However, contemporary sculptures are abundant as well, like this almost sensual Mozart tribute.

Markus Lupertz’s tribute to Mozart

Kim and Eliot usually spent Thursday mornings buying produce and meats at the large market near Mirabell.  We indulged in our weekly sausages every Thursday at noon!

Schranne, or Market around St. Andrew’s Church, a Thursday tradition.

One particular Thursday, we biked over the river to meet Reed for lunch instead.

A view of the lovely Salzach River along our bike route.

Along our route, a view of this incredible hotel up on Monchberg hill.

River Salzach and view of Kapuzinerberg Hill.

Kapuzinerberg is another incredible sight, see here.

And finally, lunch on the river as a family! Please note, Reed drinking water, and I just had to order a small ‘Radler.’  Radler is a traditional beer where they mix lemonade with beer.  I was firmly opposed to such things in beer, until I tried it and found it to be extremely refreshing!  Can’t knock it til you try it, as they say…

Finally, warm enough to sit outside before Reed heads back to work.

Lastly, a whirlwind post about Salzburg wouldn’t be complete without mention of our wonderful landlords whom Eliot adored. Here. they are in traditional garb (Lederhosen and the dress is called a Dirndl).

Josef and Elisabeth, incredible sincere and kind people made our 4 months just lovely!

Unfortunately, this post is ridiculously delayed, in actuality, we have returned to the states!  But, we have so many fun photos, I will continue to blog on the remaining adventures with and without a toddler.  Up next, Hellbrunn Palace in the summer…quite a treat.

Yours in Salzburg Sights, Kim

Moving on to Motovun

After spending four days in Croatia with my parents and toddler, I have done my best to condense this down to three posts.  This, my last on Croatia, is about the incredible old village of Motovun on the penisula of Istria, Croatia.   Nestled in the vineyards and mountains of western Croatia, Motovun sits upon a small peak.  Let’s begin with the fine view of Motovun from afar…

As you drive near,  Motovun emerges out of the hills before you!

I love the vineyards in the foreground.  This whole area is wine country.

THIS JUST IN- turns out, Mario Andretti was born here!  His parents were Italian, as were many of the residents of Motovun back then.

Note the large city wall, and the buildings on the far right.  See the last buildings on the right? We parked there and walked up the old cobblestone to the church at the top.

Parked here (beautiful cemetery!) Note the church at the top, pics below….

The church is the Parish Church of St. Stephen (Sveti Stjepan) circa early 17th century.

Walked around here- gorgeous views from the top!

Eliot and Grandma starting out in that little cemetary

A rare shot- this is me, shooting photos for the family blog….

Kim spots a good place for grub.

Eliot and Grandma STILL walking, this is a really amazing old city gate.

Iconic church of Motovun

AND NOW THE VIEWS FROM THE TOP……

View from one side of town- see the end of the line? That is the cemetery where we started.

Wine country….

Long way downnnnnn

Yours truly at the top

All that walking works up an appetite.

So to make a long story short, Eliot collapsed in the stroller on the bumpy road down to the car. So as he slept, we decided to drive to another town, Novigrad for shopping and dinner!  Life is SO good when your child naps.

Novigrad is another coastal town. Apparently speedo-optional.

Sorry, couldn’t resist…I will say they have a lot of shopping here.  The kind of clothes shopping you might see in TJ Max or Ross…but the good thing is, you can barter the down to the price you care to pay.  I love that.

Anyhow, life with a toddler means you have to ride the tourist train….the PINK tourist train. Well, whatever.

Kill me now, but he is SO happy!

We had GREAT food, but the problem is, you have to ask a local where to go, because some of it can be mediocre tourist food.

A lovely part of Istria, is it has Italian influences, so you get a Croatian/Italian blend.

Yours in Croatian wines from atop medieval towns…Kim

Croatia continued: Trekking in Rovinj

Forgive me if I am using the term ‘trekking’ loosely…this was simply a day hike around the lovely city of Rovinj, Croatia.    Our hotel was in Rovinj and we were able to do our day-trips from there- so if you are ever considering a visit to Croatia, I hope this can give you an idea of what it is like to stay near Rovinj.  It is a small historic town that is very popular with the British and German tourists.  Our hotel was an old Eastern-Bloc hotel remodeled with superb service and breakfast included and FULL of German-speaking and British tourists!  They treated our toddler like royalty which  made for a great experience.  Check out the Park Hotel Rovinj if you are interested, here.

I have neglected to provide a quick review of the Country, so allow me to use wikipedia to do just that. Rovinj is located on the most western part of the landmass on the coast, only a 4,5 hour drive from Salzburg.

Croatia, previously part of Yugoslavia, now a horse-shoe shaped country.  See all those islands?  They are supposed to be spectacular.

Our hotel is perfectly adjacent to the start of town, so the Mize’s began their day along the shore…

Grandpa and Eliot starting out the day!

In an attempt to shorten the blogs, here is my newest attempt at a slideshow for those interested in Rovinj…CLICK ON A PIC FOR A FULL SLIDESHOW….

The old city gate, here is where we entered.

Common alley along the old streets

typical croatian alley

cool little alley

Now, onto the climb towards the church.

Ok, so this is Rovinj, and we walked to the church at the top of the hill….and Kim climbed the bell tower for the remaining pics…

View as we climbed towards the church…

Inside the church, who knew Croatia was baroque?

Climbing the bell tower of the old church…as I climbed and allowed others to pass by, I heard 3 languages: “thank-you, Grazia, Bitte.”

View 1 from the Bell Tower

View 2- the Northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea

View 3, our hotel is on the left across the water.

here it is!

View of town.

Dad left early to meet some of his work buddies, so Mom, Eliot and I continued our day scouting out the town.

We find the market!

Truffle oil, a croatian specialty.

my kiddo with his Smarties treat (they are like M n M’s without the artificial colors!)

When Dad returned, we went for a bike ride along this HUGE park in Rovinj, with absolutely incredible coast line.    This IS one of the main reasons tourists choose Croatia…

View from the top of this huge rock on the coast.

Honestly, topless sunbather pictures were omitted, and we turned around at the nudist camp.

More typical rocky coast line of Croatia

We are still biking, and see this island, with it’s own hotel!

Yours in Croatian Coastlines,
Kim