Salzburg, Austria - October 8th-9th, 2013

On to Austria!  

We thought it would be super smart to take a night train from Switzerland to Salzburg thinking that it would save on time by traveling at night, and also save on a hotel room that we didn't need.  However - we were, One - clueless about what trains were even like, and Two - we didn't book any trains until we arrived at the train-station and it was always pretty confusing when we got there trying to figure out what train to take, etc.  We did however at least have all the train times mapped out before we left so we at least knew when we needed to get to each train station.  

The train we ended up taking left Switzerland around 9pm and arrived in Salzburg at 4am.  Before we got to Europe we were thinking that train stations were similar to airports with places to lounge, food to eat, etc. So arriving at 4am wouldn't be a huge deal because we could hang out at the station for a few hours until breakfast.  BUT when we got to Europe we realized that it was not like that at all! So we knew that arriving at 4am with no where to go would be super interesting.  Another thing - we didn't take a train with sleeper cart, and we had to share our cabin with an interesting Austrian lady who didn't speak any English! We knew when we sat down in the train that we had a LONG night ahead of us!

Trying to make ourselves comfortable - at least the seats folded down!

See those feet next to me? Yeah that was the lady who shared our space with us - and about an hour or so into the ride she was out cold and snoring louder than anyone I had ever heard!  Right then we knew we wouldn't be able to get any sleep so Al went around the train to see if he could find an empty cabin and LUCKILY he did so we were at least able to get a few hours of sleep. 

When we arrived at 4am it was a ghost town at the train station with no where for us to hang out so we had no choice but to walk the 20 mins to our hotel and hope that if they wouldn't let us check in, we could at least hang out in the lobby.  So we are walking in the dark with no clue where to go, we finally got to our hotel it's closed - like doors locked, lights off! I literally wanted to cry! I was so tired, it was cold and dark and we had no where to go! Al wiggled the doors and I just prayed that we could get in and luckily one of the workers was asleep on the couch in the lobby and woke up and let us in. I was sooo thankful.  And he even let us check in early and he didn't charge us for it - and booked our Sound of Music tour for us so we didn't have to worry about it!  On top of that, this hotel was our nicest of all of our Europe hotels so it felt like heaven walking into our fancy room at 5am exhausted! 

We decided to sleep for a few hours before getting started on our day.  When we woke up we went down to the free breakfast and it was amazing! Not like our other continental breakfasts - this one was super fancy with amazing food - Al was in heaven!

After we were refreshed and recovered from our crazy night we decided to go explore Salzburg all morning until our Sound of Music tour that afternoon.

Salzburg is such a charming place - the architecture is beautiful! It was so fun to walk around all morning, go into the shops and stop at Mozart's house for a little tour!

Huge pretzels everywhere - yum!

Loved all these amazing buildings and cathedrals 

We decided to go take a tour of the Hohensalzburg Castle (behind me up on the hill)

The views of Salzburg were incredible from up there!

SUCH a pretty place

Gigantic donut pretzle covered in sugar?! Don't mind if I do! 

The Sound of Music Tour!! 

When planning our itinerary for this trip Salzburg was a maybe, it was 8 hours in the opposite direction of the rest of our stops and there isn't a ton to do there, however - we both thought that The Sound of Music tour sounded so fun.  We asked a bunch of people about Salzburg and they all said the same thing...."Salzburg was not my favorite place, BUT the Sound of Music tour was one of the funnest things we did in Europe."  SO with that we didn't know what to do?! But ultimately we decided to chance it and smoosh it into our trip since we weren't that far away from Salzburg.  And yes - it was a crazy day and a half but totally worth it for this tour alone - we had so much fun! 

Our tour guide was seriously amazing.  I would upload videos of him to this blog if I wanted to take the time to figure out how so you could all see and hear him!  He was hilarious, so animated, gave the best info - he made the tour!

First stop - the house it was filmed at! 

Well - this is supposed to be the house even though only the backyard scenes were filmed here, we drove past the house that it was actually filmed at. 

The gazebo!

Driving to other scenes they pulled over to show us all of the Austrian "hills" - it really was so beautiful

Can I move in please?!

We went to the town of Mondee where the wedding was filmed, it is the cutest little town!

Chapel where the wedding was filmed

Had to get some cheese and apple strudel - yum

Beautiful, crisp fall day

We drove past other locations including the Abby and then ended back in Salzburg at the Mirabell Gardens where the Do-Re-Mi scenes were filmed (which happened to be right behind our hotel!)

Re-enacting all the scenes :)

Running through the arches they like did (we are retards)

The tour was seriously so much fun! The bus rides were hilarious - watching the movie, singalongs, treats and food - we could not stop laughing!

Loved our hotel - Hotel Bristol!

After the tour we wanted to try to fit in a tour of the amazing Salt Mines but we had no time so we just hung out in town that night, had dinner and went to bed - we were exhausted!

The next morning we woke up (kinda?!) and off to Venice, Italy!

Switzerland - October 5th-7th, 2013

Our next stop was amazing Switzerland!  We took a train from Paris to Interlaken and got in at about 11pm.  We had no idea what to expect so rolling in close to midnight in the dark was pretty funny.  There was no train station with workers to help out - it was more like a bus stop and we had no clue how to get to our hotel.  Across the street from the stop was a bar so we went over there and some local guys were walking out and they were super nice and helpful, and luckily spoke English! :) Our hotel was just up the road a little ways so it was fun to walk through town on our way there and window shop!

The first shop we came up to was a Swiss chocolate shop - yum!

We stayed at the best little hotel that my aunt recommended to us - clean, modern rooms, helpful owners, free breakfast and right in the middle of town.  This is the view from our hotel window of all the lush, green backyards with the Alps surrounding, too bad it was foggy most of our time there! 

We started off the day with a bus ride up to some waterfalls and an amazing view of the Alps.  I felt like I was in a storybook - the scenery was incredible!

Obsessed with all the wooden houses and colored shutters - and don't mind the waterfall coming down the mountain, no big deal :)

Our first stop was the Trummelback Falls - they are amazing waterfalls inside a mountain!  

You take an elevator to the top and walk down through caves exploring all of the different falls

Fall in Switzerland!

After the falls we took a bus up to get on a gondola that would take us up to Schilthorn which is an amazing lookout spot for the Alps (also the filming spot for one of the 007 movies) - you stop in little mountain towns along the way up that are so cute, tiny and amazing.

Us with a huge group of Chinese tourists - fun times :)

Aaannnnddddd here is the amazing view of the Alps - not!  We were so bummed with how foggy it was.  We knew we were taking a chance since it was foggy in town but usually higher up it clears so we were hoping it would be clear, but it wasn't :( Oh well - the glass gondola ride up, above Interlaken, and through the towns was worth it! 

On our way down we stopped in Lauterbrunnen - the CUTEST little village. I was dying!

We had fondue for lunch with amazing Swiss cheese

We made it back down to town and decided to go check out the amazing Lake Brienz - we took a little boat tour and it was so beautiful.

Isn't Al cute?!

I have never seen such amazing water in my life - the color was incredible!

Passing by the cutest little towns

Hello gorgeous!  The scenery isn't bad either :)

Can you even believe this place? I was in heaven the entire time!

Loved being there in the fall

That night we just walked around Interlaken

Went into a lot of fun shops

Checked out a super fancy hotel, Al fits right in! - maybe we'll stay there next time :)

Swiss hot chocolate - yummmmm

The next morning we woke up bright and early to catch the 6am train up to the Jungfrau, aka the Top of Europe (also know as the Swiss Alps!)

The Jungfrau is more than just seeing the Alps - there are different exhibits, a museum, dining, ice caves and more. It was quite the experience!

Ice caves!

The amazing Swiss Alps!!

From the pictures it just looks like any other mountain - but it really was so amazing - and luckily no fog!

Lou just chillin' at the highest point in Europe

The train ride up there was too dark to see much, but the ride down was so beautiful! I have never seen anything like it.  The fog added so much beauty, the mountains were incredible, and we would stop in the most darling towns on the way down. 

I would gladly move right into the train and stay forever

So many amazing mountain villages

Amazing resort town - we would die to come back here again sometime and spend a night or two here, in the middle of the mountains and ski or hike.

Our cute little hotel behind Al

That night we headed out of Interlaken and to Lucerne

But not without stopping for some chocolate to go!

We loooved traveling by train - we could just relax and enjoy the beauty

Storybook Land I tell ya

We made a pit stop in Zurich for about an hour or two - it was pouring rain but that didn't stop us from exploring, however it did stop us from taking pictures so I have no proof we were there except our stories! The train station there was NUTS, so many crazy weirdos that made us way nervous about the city, but once we walked into the town it was truly amazing. I am so sad it was pouring rain because it looked incredible.

Lucerne! 

This place really did feel like a Fairy Tale

Can you just image that bridge in a Disney movie or something?!

We went to the higher end of town to explore an old cathedral and here is the view of Lucerne from the top

That night we ate dinner at a local pub, went into shops and just explored the town.

We were crazy and decided to take an "overnight" train to Salzburg, Austria for the next day and a half.  That train ride was one the best memories of the trip - to be continued in the next post!

Overall Switzerland was AMAZING - we would both for sure want to go back in a heart beat.  We would love to go in the summer even though tourism there would be crazy in the summer, it would just be so fun so hike, bike, etc.  We had so many funny times in Interlaken - from literally RUNNING 2 miles with all our luggage to try to make our train - people would dying laughing at us sprinting across town.  Funny experience at a local restaurant where no one spoke English and we had no clue what to do.  Going to McDonald's - gross I know! McD's while your in Europe?! But food in Interlaken was crazy expensive and the only thing we could understand on the menus was fondue - and you can only eat so much cheese without getting sick!  Hopefully we make it back one day!