Originally, the plan was for Juli and me to drive to
western Germany and Bonn for Friday and Saturday and leave with Jami and Kason
for Salzburg Sunday after church. But we
actually did some research and learned that Bonn was a 5-hour drive away. Ugh – driving. And Juli wanted to spend as much time with
Kason and Jami as she could. So, we re-did our plans and decided that Juli and
I would take the train to Salzburg Friday and return on Saturday, we would spend
all Sunday in Vilseck, and then with Jami and Kason visit nearby Amberg on
Monday. Good plan. We left by train just after lunch for
Nuremberg where we caught a high speed rail to Munich. We literally RAN to catch the final train to
Salzberg and arrived right around 5:00 in the evening. We had to walk to our hotel, carting our
luggage, but were very pleased with the accommodations once we got there.
this is our hotel. Below is our room.
We literally spent just 24 hours in Salzberg
but, while we were there, we saw the Mirabel Gardens,
took a tram up to the
fortress (that is the building at the top of the photo)
we visited the house where Mozart lived, saw lots of churches,
ate at another gluten-free
restaurant, and, of course, shopped.
this is a famous street of shops - been around for centuries.
well, maybe not this shop - hee hee
We
caught the train Saturday evening. I am
not at all an expert on European train service but I believe we were booked on
the more local trains for our return journey.
I know that our tickets were quite a bit cheaper. And, the first train was definitely more
crowded. We were fortunate to have a
seat but many had to stand. We also took
a more direct route but to less known cities (no Munich or Nuremberg this
trip). So, here we are – two women who
know NO German – traveling like the locals.
It was only due to several guardian angels that we made it back to
Vilseck that night. The first ones were
two older men who sat across the aisle from us and who I noticed had loaded bicycles
onboard. After about two hours of
traveling, I finally decided to ask them about some crops I had noticed growing
between Nuremberg and Munich the day before.
They looked like this.
So, I
asked if they spoke English and, wow, they spoke perfect English and they informed
me that it was hops (for making beer).
We then chatted about other things until it was time for Juli and I to
get off. We would have de-boarded at the
wrong stop had it not been for these fellows.
Whew. A group of college-age
folks also got off with us. One heavily bearded guy had spent the entire
journey from Salzberg talking non-stop to his seat mate. He was kind of annoying. But one of his buddies was kind enough to
tell Juli and me that the gate had been changed for our next train – which we
were all waiting to catch. Whew again –
we would not have known of the change had it not been for him. We chose a different car from Mr. Talks-a-lot
and the next leg was very pleasant. The
cars were like the ones on Harry Potter.
Juli and I ate our dinner (purchased at a grocery store next to the
train station in Salzberg) and then the train made a stop. All of a sudden, our car was very quiet. Juli got up to look around and we were the
only ones on board. The two biking guys
had told us that you had to be sure you were on the correct car because as the
train went along, some cars were un-hitched to go another route. Apparently, that is what was going on so we
made a mad dash (conductor encouraging us on) to get on the right car. Thankfully, Juli was listening to a
prompting. We pulled into our second to
last stop at about 9:00 in the evening and had about an hour to wait until the
last train to Vilseck arrived. And, we
got to share that time with several very young, very drunk soldiers. But, there was one older soldier, the “designated
driver”, with whom I struck up a conversation.
He was extremely kind and looked out for us. He did have his hands full keeping his
charges in line. They were “happy drunks”
(In fact, we became “Grandma Jeanne” and “Aunt Juli” to one of them) but they still
had done stupid things all night that ultimately brought two sets of German
police officers to the station and the MPs to meet them in Vilseck. I thanked my Heavenly Father that night that
we were brought safely back.
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