The pontiff is everywhere..

Coincidence would have it that we are currently in Regensburg, Germany which is where the current pope Benedict XVI is from. We are traveling by train later this morning to Vienna, where the pope is currently making a visit. Weird.

Royal Socks

Bye bye Troy, hello Wolfgang

On Monday morning we said goodbye to Troy in Vienna at 4AM. We then went back to bed and slept a little longer, then got on our train to Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart. Actually, we've been on a bit of a Mozart pilgrimage on our European odyssey. Mozart was very successful in Prague, where Don Giovanni debuted and the Marriage of Figaro was very successful. We all know about Mozart in Vienna (Troy and Stefan went to one of Mozart's apartments in Vienna while Bernie was birding), and Salzburg is all about Mozart. In Salzburg, we went to see the Magic Flute performed by marionettes and then to see Mozart piano concertos in the Mirabel palace the very next night! The Belorussian pianist performed both concertos from memory.

Oh, we forgot to mention that Troy and Stefan went to the catacombs under the Stephansdom in Vienna where they saw piles upon piles of black-death infested bones and the important organs of the Habsburgs

Salzburg was filled buckets of 45 degree (F) rain, and we haven't seen the sun since we left Vienna.

Never to fear, tomorrow evening we travel to Amsterdam where we will leave for sunny Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday morning. I don't think we have mentioned it yet, but one of the primary reasons we are flying to South Africa is so that we can drive to Namibia to visit Stefan's great aunt Dorle who lives in Tsumeb.

Martin No. 2

On Sunday, Bernie went off another Martin he had never met before--this one was a birdwatcher from the BirdingPal website. We spent the day in idyllic countryside near the border with Hungary and Slovakia (its capital city Bratislava is on a hill and was in sight for most of the day).
Martin says this is the westernmost part of the east--of the steppes of central asia--and we saw some great falcons and eagles. But the only bird I got a picture of was this pigeon near where we stopped to each a lunch of wild mushroom salad.

Martin No. 1

After days of castles and museums we decided it was finally time to meet a real Czech. Well, too late for that, since we were already in Austria! So, we settled for an Austrian--and asked Bernie's sister Anne to arrange a meeting with her friend Martin. Martin went to graduate school at Michigan State with Anne, Anne's husband Gustavo and lots of other people we know thru Anne and Gustavo.

Anyway, Martin is a great guy and got on his bike and rode downtown (Vienna) to show these three american strangers around. He thought we should go to a traditional place and eat some heavy food, so he took us to the 12 Apostelkeller which has these brick-arched basements that go down several levels below the sidewalks, and it makes you wonder why the city hasn't caved in yet!

I wonder if Martin is a vegetarian--he encouraged Troy to get Schnitzel and us to get the Houseplatter of porkbelly, bloodsausage, ham, liverwurst, meatdumpling, saukerkraut and a hotdog, but then Martin just got some light cheesenoodle for himself! Then he said we had to have the prunedumpling for dessert, and then he took us to an ice cream place, and he didn't have any of this himself!

Maybe it's just his sense of humor?

We have seen the rest of Europe since our last post!

Well not really, just more of Vienna and then Salzburg and then Regensburg, Germany. We can't possibly write about all of it at once, so here are some nice pictures for you to enjoy!

Sticker Shock...

Ouch! Vienna is expensive! Every museum costs 10 euro, and when we checked our bank account to see how much we were charged for the three one-week transit passes, the total came to $57!! Oh well, we will skip the $5, 300ml Coca Cola and drink beer instead, it's cheaper than mineral water.
It rained all day so we decided to make it a museum day, but not before Stefan and Bernie went to the US consulate to drop off their passports to get extra pages put in. They will pick them up tomorrow morning before heading to Schoenbrunn.
We went to the Schatzkammer (crown jewels, royal socks, etc), and the Kunsthistorisches museums today. We were exhausted and went straight home afterwards to eat leftover Bratwurst with pretzels and Radlermass, then naps.

Welcome to Vienna!!!!!

OMG we just got to Vienna
and they have all these touts in period dress (like this guy) in front of the Stephansdom (cathedral) and all over. They're trying to sell you tickets to a classic music performance or something I guess, we never wanted to get too close. We passed a couple dozen and then we were in front of the Staatsoper and this wench out of Amadeus was yelling "Hey you, come over here! Want to go the opera!" and when we didn't even look at her she goes, "Hey gays! Oh sorry I mean Hey guys!" :-( Hah-hah very mature Stefan said.

Good thing Troy didn't hear her he would have had a choice rejoinder ready! but actually just now he said, since I didn't hear her, she must have been referring just to the two of you! Sorry, I don't think so Troy. :-)


But not to worry we are happy in Vienna we have this great apartment with a view of the cathedral on the 7th floor of an office building, and Stefan just cooked us this lovely dinner! He was complaining all thru Czech Republic that he never got to eat any vegetables, so he decided to cook this healthful meal!