...with the sounds of Gretchen, Erin, and other tourists in a little van, singing along to the sound of music soundtrack!
Yes, this morning we did the most touristy thing we've done so far. Here in Salzburg, where the Sound of Music is very big, we went with a small group on a drive around the city and surrounding lakes and moutains, seeing all the top TSOM sights...and singing along, if quietly, to the soundtrack. The other folks in the van were three women from Escondido, and a family from San Mateo, all using the Rick Steve's guidebook (and all on a first name basis with Rick, e.g. "Rick says this is the best tour", and so on.) Also, thanks to Rick and this tour, I can tell you all later what's true and not true about the movie. For example, the von Trapp family did not escape from here by hiking over the mountains to Switzerland, because Switzerland is a few hours drive away!
In any case, Salzburg is alpine, very medieval feeling, and at least today, extremely rainy. Mozart is everywhere....houses where he grew up, hawking postcards, and especially on these little round marzipan-chocolate balls. Last night we walked all around the old city, a bit lost but stumbling upon wondrous things along the way...a giant chessboard with pieces 2 feet tall that locals sit around and watch as people stand and play...a beautiful view of the alps from the mountain top fortress above the city...so many little things. Tonight I will drag Gretchen to yet another classical music concert, and tomorrow she is dragging me to a salt mine tour complete with traditional saltmining costumes that we have to don in order to slide down the chute to a subterranean river system. We'll see how that goes!
Yesterday during the drive here from the Danube valley, we stopped at Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp where the prisoners had to work in a quarry in addition to all of the other horrors of being in camp. Even writing about it right now makes my stomach knot up-I've honestly never felt such palpable evil as I did yesterday during the part of the tour when you walk through the gas chamber and crematorium rooms. As the survivors said on the informational film, there aren't words in any language to describe it.
We head to Bavaria and "Mad King Ludwig"'s castles tomorrow...
bye for now!
Erin
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5 comments:
What else does Gretchen have on her activities list?! I LIKE what she's pulling you into... salt mine, costumes and all!
Pictures would be nice - isn't that advanced blogging though?
Done with Ohio and starting to pack my Italian survival suitcase!
D
Uploading pictures IS advanced blogging, and only really unusually smart people can do it. Not really. But I'd bet it could be a pain if computer time is pricey. Hey Doug, I followed your link to your blog. Did you build the site yourself? Pretty impressive. How come you're sick of Hemmingway? Is he too arrogant? A reporter once asked him how he knew when something was finished. Supposedy Hemmingway tossed him a copy of his book (The Sun Also Rises..?) and dared him to find even ONE word that wasn't ABSOLUTELY neccessary. Arrogant? Well, at the very least, confident. He's not my favorite either, but as a writing student, I have to give him a lot of credit for his "athletic prose."
will give important salt mine update later tonight...i've been wanting to do pictures but it will be expensive...you all should know that it is my great love for you that is prompting me to pay .15 euro/minute even right now as I type :)
also, i'm glad my blog has provided a space for Bora and Doug to debate Hemingway :)
To be fair, I've only read Hemmingway's short stories in small doses. I think I have the same collection, and I certainly haven't made my way through it. I do like "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," though, or at least the part where the point of view shifts to the lion. Only a few writers could do that and get away with it, I think, though I believe that William Maxwell has a book called So Long See You Tomorrow where the POV shift to a dog...
What does this have to do with Erin's trip to Europe? Where Ernest did his whole expat thing there, though not in Italy or Austria.
Have I mentioned that I adore Flannery O'Connor?
Are you going to be an English major at Cal? That would be great--another lit nerd to correspond with.
hey you two -
get a chat room!
enjoying the eavesdropping, just couldn't resist the comment,
D
p.s. doug, she could really take over this blog if you get her started on flannery. ;-)
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