Heading West with Grandma

The final all-school church service started at 8:10 a.m. on Friday.  Here are the youngest students from the Basic School singing a song.  :-)  

The students up front are the oldest ones in the Basic School, who are graduating on to a gymnasium (secondary school) next year.  All the students went back to school after church to receive their end-of-year reports, grades, etc. before heading home for summer vacation!!  :-)  

Some of the Basic School IX class (like 8th graders in the U.S.), who gave me a flower as a thank-you for teaching their class a few times this year.  All the students dressed up for the last day of school activities.  A few of these girls will be at our school next year!!  :-)

Tim and I also went back to school to wrap things up for the year before heading out on our trip with Grandma Olson to Austria and Germany!  It was wonderful to have the use of the church vehicle, arranged by Pastor Ferenčik!  There will be too much for one blog post, so I'll try to get it split into two parts, one today and one tomorrow ..................

PART 1 - BRATISLAVA AND SALZBURG

Our first stop was Bratislava, on the far west edge of Slovakia, about a 3 hour drive from Liptovsky Mikuláš.  Tim dropped us off at the Bratislava Castle and went to park the car.  It was really windy up on the hill on the castle grounds!   

Overlooking the Danube River from the castle walls, with the "UFO Bridge" in the background.  

At the gates to the Bratislava Castle.  Huge!!  

Waiting for our chauffeur to fetch the car after our castle visit!   :-)  

Next we took a trolley car tour of old town Bratislava.  We rode in the little red vehicle in the background, and earphones provided commentary in English during the tour.  

Our trolley actually drove down this very alley-way / narrow street during our tour!!  There were only inches to spare on each side.  

The old Bratislava city hall and clock tower, on the main town square in old town.

St. Michael's Gate - the only remaining original gate to the city.  

This is the old Opera House - at the end of a long pedestrian area with many embassies, fancy restaurants & stores, etc.  

Sitting on a bench overlooking the Danube at the end of our first day of travels!  

We ended up staying in a flat on the outskirts of town, far up on a hill with beautiful views of the surrounding area.  Our landlady's daughter's boyfriend insisted we stay at his flat overnight since he would be gone visiting his parents - how sweet!!  Lenka and Stano stopped by to make sure everything was O.K., and we just locked up and left the key in the morning on our way to our next stop --- Salzburg, Austria!  

The fields full of wind turbines between Bratislava and Vienna reminded us of Iowa!  This area is obviously very windy too, and it produces lots of wind energy.  

This pic goes out especially to Lute, since the Melk Abbey was one of his favorite places on our Christmas time travels!  This just shows some perspective of how huge it is, from the vantage point of the highway.  

This is the small village of Ulrichshögl, outside of Ainring, Germany, just beyond Salzburg.   Yes, it's quite rural, quaint, and lovely!!  Our Gasthaus is on the left, and the breakfast area is the glassed-in bottom story.  

Gasthaus Ulrichshögl, our "home" for 3 nights of touring Salzburg and Bavaria!  It was neat to stay at a smaller, family-run establishment out in the countryside instead of in a regular hotel in town.  But it's a good thing Pastor Ferenčik loaned us his Garmin for the trip so we could find our way to this tiny, remote village location!!    

For our first afternoon in the Salzburg area, we went to the Hellbrunn Palace, which was built out in the country for the aristocracy to go escape the city's summer heat.  

Hellbrunn is most famous for its water gardens, full of beautiful pools and fountains.  

However, the creator of the water gardens had a great sense of humor, and there are also many "trick" fountains that spray water on unsuspecting guests!!   Our first demonstration was of this dinner table which soaked everyone except the host at the head of the table!  

There were so many pretty pools and fountains, grottos, waterfalls, streams, many of which provided unexpected sprays of water on people touring the gardens.  Thankfully, the tour guide was pretty kind to us, and we didn't get very wet!  

Look carefully at the antlers ---- which are spraying water out on everyone!  

This was a really neat town scene with figures moving and an organ playing, all through water power.  It was about 15 feet high and twice that wide.  And at the end of the music, the children in front were warned to look closely at the cannons in front --- but as they were peering intently, water squirted them from back behind the audience!!  LOL!!  

Next we toured the palace itself, which wasn't as impressive as the water gardens, but still interesting to see.  

This domed room off the main ballroom was a music room with amazing acoustics.   The audio-guide said it was specially built to amplify the soft sounds of musical instruments of the period, so I couldn't resist singing a little to check it out.   :-)   Wow!!  

The story was told that a visitor passing through on a journey commented to the king that the hill above the palace would make an impressive place for a house.  When the visitor passed back through on his return trip a month later, the house above the roofline was completed.  The king had huge teams of workmen constructing it day and night, so it was finished in just one month to impress the traveler!!  

The driveway for carriages approaching the Hellbrunn Palace - you can just imagine the scene with all the aristocracy coming to parties here in the summertime!!  

Next stop:  the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg.  We wanted to book our tour for the next day, so we checked out these famous palace gardens.  Thankfully, no trick fountains were here, but maybe Mother Nature had a sense of humor because it was raining - HA!  

The roses were spectacular on the palace grounds, which are a public park - gorgeous! 

More pictures from the Mirabell Gardens, which were used in the filming of "The Sound  of Music" - the "Do-Re-Mi" scenes with the children singing and running around!  

Yes, the children and Julie Andrews ran up these steps singing the notes of the scale!  

This one goes out to the Groth family - Uncle Ulrich, Aunt Ruth and the cousins - it is the nameplate on the church in Ulrichshögl, where we stayed.  :-)  

One of the typical Bavarian houses with flowers on the wooden balconies and climbing roses on the side of the house, and the St. Ulrich church on the highest part of the hill.  

Tim and I took a walk around the village before bedtime the first night - the Bavarian style houses were so pretty!  And enormous!  We were told that it took a lot of labor to run the German family farms, so they had LOTS of kids to help on the farm.  The farmhouses were typically really huge, to house families of 11, 12, or 13 kids!!  

When we had first arrived in the village, Garmin was taking us one way, but signs told us parking for the Gasthaus was a different direction, leading out of town.  So we ignored the signs and found our lodging.  But later that night on our walk, we discovered an additional private hotel parking lot - in a cow pasture about a half kilometer away - HAHAHA!!  

We walked up past the church and discovered the house and business of a tombstone maker.  And beautiful views on the other side of the hill.  

We watched the sunset from the church yard, from which the views were almost 360°

The room was cute - there was a door between our room and Grandma's - and a door from each room led into the bathroom, which was nice.  

Meals at the gasthaus provided a magnificent view!  

The view from the breakfast room / restaurant window.  You can even see the Hohensalzburg Castle in the distance - it's on the right side, alone on a hill beneath the level of the mountains.   Oh, and cows grazing in the meadow too!!  ;-)

 I checked online for an English speaking worship service for Sunday morning, and I found one that was combined Lutheran and Presbyterian --- that sounded perfect!!  :-)  We trusted Garmin yet again, or we never would have even found the place, down narrow and remote residential streets.  The service was in the chapel of what seemed to be a church-related home for the elderly, though the congregation was mostly very young.  It is difficult to even begin to describe what an amazing service it was.  There was a baptism for a baby girl who was the firstborn of a Nigerian couple, and many friends and relatives were there, all dressed in absolutely gorgeous and elaborate native clothing, with women in long wrap-dresses and headdresses in bright and sparkling fabrics, and men in tunics and pants of similar fabrics.  The congregation was largely made up of ex-pats from many counties and cultures, obviously with English as the common language.  There was a LOT of music - all wonderful - including two solos by an American woman who has lived in Salzburg for 20 years singing professionally in operas, with symphonies, etc.  WOW!!!!  That gal could SING!!  The sermon was inspiring - relating the baptism of the child to how we all live out our lives as a model to babies and children - as they observe us, what are our lives, actions, and words showing the next generation about our faith and about our loving God??  Then, communion was shared by forming a circle, except there were WAY more people there than usual, so we had to form two concentric circles.  It was cool!  We also got to join in singing many familiar hymns and praise songs.  All in all, we were very blessed in many ways by our time of worship with this congregation.  God is so good!!  

Sunday, day #2 in Salzburg continued as we waited for our tour bus after church and ate a quick lunch of brats / hot dogs from a street vendor.  A group of musicians was playing and singing on the church steps behind us, with an enthusiastic audience!  

Yes, we took Grandma on "The Original Sound of Music Tour" which I found online.  It was just as described - very fun, cheesy, and delightful for fans of the movie!!  There were even sing-alongs on the bus.   :-)  

We drove by for a closer view of the Hohensalzburg Castle, high above old Salzburg.

Our first stop off the bus was where the canoe scene took place, when all the children and Maria tipped over into the lake!  We heard lots of stories about the making of the movie that were really interesting - like the water was really cold that day, so the children refused to do more than two 'takes' of the dunking in the lake!!   :-) 

We also heard that the terrace and lake scenes behind the von Trapp family home were filmed here, but the back of the house was actually filmed elsewhere.....

The house scenes were all of this house, so it was complicated filming looking out at the terrace and lake from the other house, but looking back at the house and balcony of this house.   Yeah, they even showed us film clips of the movie on the bus so it would make sense.  Crazy movie directors!!  

The pathway where the "I Have Confidence" song was sung.    :-)  

The bus tour headed back to Hellbrunn Palace, but we entered by this gate because this is the location where a famous item from the movie was moved......

And here it is - the glass pavilion used in the "16 Going on 17" song.  But our favorite scene was the "Somewhere in my youth, or childhood....." song!    So romantic!!    :-)   

This is the real church where the real Maria and Captain von Trapp were married, at the convent, but it wasn't used at all in the movie.  

This is the church at Monsee, out in the lake district outside of Salzburg, inside which was filmed the wedding scene.  They didn't show the outside though!  

This is the aisle Julie Andrews walked down for the movie wedding!  

The organ in the back of the church.   The filming took place from scaffolding high up in the back, so they could see the wedding dress and train from afar.

Our tour guide Naomi was terrific.  Shortly after this picture was taken though, I don't think she was really happy with me, since it seemed like EVERYONE else on the packed tour bus wanted a picture with her too!!   LOL!!!

The tour finished up back at the Mirabell Gardens, which we had visited the day before, but we went back to get a picture in front of the Pegasus Fountain, where more of the "Do-Re-Mi" filming took place.  

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped to eat at a small-town local restaurant.  I went in to check it out first, and asked if they had an English menu.  The waiter just shook his head and got the bartender, who spoke some English.  I repeated my question, and he replied, "No, we only have Bavarian food here!"  :-)     I assured him we definitely wanted to eat Bavarian food - that's why we were here - but we wanted to read what to order!!   He said he could help us, and the food was fabulous - one of the best meals we've eaten anywhere!!  Alas I can't remember what it was called.   :-(

Outside our gasthaus in Ulrichschögl

We took another evening walk to show Grandma the town around the gasthaus, and this time the church doors were open!  There must have been a wedding this weekend.  

The altar was really pretty, especially for such a tiny country church.  

And that wraps up the first three days of our travel - to Bratislava on Friday - to our hotel in the southeast corner of Germany (Bavaria) from which we were able to visit Salzburg on Saturday and Sunday.   Hopefully I'll take you to Munich and Vienna with us tomorrow!!   

Grüß Gott!!   (God greet you!!)