Venice

I left Salzburg for Venice. I've always wanted to go to Venice so I was very excited. Venice lived up to all of my expectations.

Venice is a very confusing city so I highly recommend printing a map and the instructions to your hotel before you arrive. I did not do this. I had the instructions to me hotel on my phone. I arrived in Venice after 6pm and got the boat from the train station to the stop closest to my hotel.

At that point my phone's battery died. I knew the address and name of the hotel; however, no one I asked could tell me where to go. After wondering around very lost a kind American came up to me and asked if I needed help. It turns out that I did not have the street name but the region of Venice. Venice is divided into sections (San Marco etc) and the houses are given a unique number. He did know exactly where my hotel was but we were able to find it.

I spent the next day with my new friend. We went to a couple of museums, including one that had built many of Di Vinci's inventions (some worked as intended). We also went to the only park (by the train station).

Saw the graveyard from afar (it's its own island).

The Rialto Bridge where there are many stores.

San Marco Basilica and many other churches.

And many canals.

He left the following day so I was alone for the rest of my time in Venice. On my second day, I continued getting lost (although I was getting better at navigating and as long as you keep walking generally in one direction you'll eventually find a square or the grand canal. Venice isn't that big so you can't really get that lost.)

I went to an exhibit inside a church with a bunch of old musical instruments. In the evening I bought a hand made mask and the owner demonstrated for myself and another couple how he makes the masks.

The following day I went on a walking tour. I'd highly recommend it as you learn a lot more about the city. The city floods every year with flooding starting in October. The flooding occurs with the high tide and in San Marco Piazza (the lowest point) the water will sometimes be above knee level. Nothing of importance is put on the bottom floor of the houses and the doors all have these metal sheets that can be put in during flood.

In the event of a sudden flood, apparently a siren goes off. The flooding is so frequent you can see algae growing.

Venice looks like it doesn't have any trees but most people have their garden at the back of the house by the canal.

For a long time there were no bridges and everything was boat access. You see a lot of small bridges that go to only one house. These were put in because originally that house could only be accessed by water.

For many years, Venice had a window tax. The more windows you had, the more you were taxed. To combat this, many people filled in some of their windows with bricks.

Since Venice is built on a marsh, Venice is also sinking and falling apart. You can tell that you are on the original land if there are trees (more earth), otherwise you never know if you are on a natural or man-made island. When a buildings cracking you find some interesting patchwork.

The are also buildings that are starting to lean because half of it is on solid ground.

That night I went to an excellent concert in a church. They played music by Vivaldi and Mozart. On my final day, I continued navigating the streets of Venice and went on a gondola ride.

Venice was absolutely incredible. Leaving Venice and my short trip to Vienna coming up next.

Salzburg

My next destination was Salzburg, where "The Sound of Music" was filmed and set.

My first day I went to Hellbrunn. The inside of the palace isn't very interesting. Each of the rooms have a theme and are named accordingly, such as fish.



There are a couple of rooms that have beautiful wall paintings.



Outside, however, is quite beautiful. You starting the tour going through the trick fountains. The tour guide seemed to take great joy in getting us wet. The gardens and fountains were set up so that water would suddenly come out of the ground or walls were you are walking. In one area, there was a table with secret fountains in the chairs. (The chair were the Archbishop sat of course did not have a fountain.)



If it's not too hot, there is a nice park to walk around after seeing the fountains and palace.



You can also walk to a theatre that was made out of the stone.





On my second day, I went on the Sound of Music tour. Unfortunately, many of the filming locations are closed to the public or no longer exist. Apparently, for many years people where sneaking onto private property to see the gazebo where "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" is song so the film crew donated a smaller version to the city which can be found by Hellbrunn.



Definitely worth seeing are the street where Maria sings "Confidence" and the gardens when the children sing "Do-Re-Mi".



I went to the fortress in the heart of Salzburg. I also walked a little way up one of the mountains to point where there was a beautiful view of the city.



Now, in a lot of places you see them selling traditional clothing. Surprisingly, I saw a fair number of people wearing the traditional clothing. One night when I was eating dinner, at a table nearby there was a woman wearing the dress while all of her friends had "normal" clothing. This seems to be quite ordinary.



I did not go into the museums but you can see where Mozart was born and where he lived.



Salzburg is a lovely city with beautiful scenery.

Next up, Venice.

Fussen

My next destination was the small town of Füssen. I was going specifically to see the the castle Neuschwanstein, which was used as inspiration for the Disney logo. It turns out that the area has lots of other interesting sites (including several castles commissioned by the same king.) I went on a guided tour of several locations near Füssen.

Neuschwanstein is a beautiful castle perched on a hill. King Ludwig II didn't cut any corners with the construction (even when he did not have the money to pay for the construction and had to take out loans.) However, he died before the castle was completed. It turned out to be a very good long term investment for the area with thousands of tourists visiting.



We also visited the other castle he had built: Linderhof. It was partially modeled after Versailles and includes a hall of mirrors. Outside there is an artificial grotto.

Our next destination was Weiskircke, the Church in the meadow. It was an absolutely stunning church and it's huge.



There is a tiny town beside it but it's mostly just fields. It's been a common pilgrimage site since its construction.



Our last stop was Oberammergau, a town known for its frescoes and religious wood carvings.



I had a great time on the tour (there were five other people and our tour guide) and would definitely recommend all of the castles.

Lucerne

After the Black Forest, I went to Lucerne in Switzerland. Something to note about Switzerland. They like to be different so it's a different currency (Swiss Frank) and a different plug (the prongs are smaller). Lucerne is a really beautiful city with lots of churches, some very pretty bridges, part of the old wall, an amazing lion monument, and many expensive Swiss watch stores.

The lion monument is especially impressive because it was carved out of the rock.



You can take a boat and then the world's steepest cog railway up to Mount Pilatus. From there you can go on a half hour walk to the highest point (2128 m).



It's really beautiful but also very cold (less than 10C) which was very different from Lucerne (upper 20s).



However, it's a good idea yo check the weather before hand. It was very foggy so I didn't get to see that much.







You take a gondola down land then bus back to the centre. It was a very steep descent.



I spent the rest of my time in Lucerne in the city centre. More posts soon.

Amsterdam

So it looks like the automatic scheduling didn't work and I didn't have access to my blog for a few days so I didn't notice. Well, here the post is now.

Amsterdam is another city full of canals. It's a much busier city than Bruges. Supposedly, the city was planned out with concentric canals; however, with over 1500 bridges, it's still pretty easy to get lost.



It's quite a pretty city considering its size with lists of things to see and do.



My main reason for going to Amsterdam was to go to the Anne Frank House. Warning, there are very long lines bus if you plan several days in advance you can buy tickets online for a specific day and time. I definitely recommend it, especially if you've read her diary.



There are a lot of museums including the Dutch national museum (Rijksmuseum) and the Van Gogh museum.



Something that I expect is often missed is an ordinary looking canal house in the red light district. There are so typical rooms...



And a three story Catholic church. The church was built during the Reformation when Catholics were unable to practice in public.



The houses in Amsterdam are small with very steep staircases. This was the staircase in my hostel.



After Amsterdam I visited a friend in the Black Forest in southern Germany. l forgot to take pictures I my phone. There were lots of hills and forests. We went to a couple of old cities and even walked into Switzerland one day.

Next up Switzerland.

Bruges

So after France I went to Bruges (or possibly Brugge, depending on the language). It's a medieval town in northwest Belgium. The architecture it's quite lovely. There are also a lot of canals. Important sights include the belfry tower and the Church of Our Lady which holds the only sculpture by Michelangelo which left Italy while he was alive.

The market square.



When in Belgium, one must try Belgium fries. Belgian fries are fried twice so they are extra crispy and are often served with some sauce.



One must also try Belgium waffles and chocolate. Many of the streets smell like chocolate because there are so many chocolate stores.



They know what they're doing in Belgium.



There isn't too much to see in Bruges but I'd still recommended going for a few days.

Tomorrow last post about Amsterdam. It's already written and I'm hoping I did it correctly so that it automatically posts.