The hills are alive with Hannah and Lynn!

When you've just had the most wonderful weekend where do you begin???! I guess at the beginning:D. It was seriously one of the most beautiful trip I have ever been on...Austria and Switzerland are definitely places that people should put on their "must see" lists. Hannah and I both say that we would plan a trip to Europe just for Austria (Switzerland too except it's so expensive you would run out of money fast!). Well we left on Thursday on the night train and arrived in Salzburg the next day right in the morning. The first thing we did was buy a Salzburg card...the best thing we could have done. For 29 euros the city was at our finger tips for 48 hours, 100% free! We were taking a bus out to Mount Untersburg when I of course jumped the gun and said we were there (this seems to be a common theme for me doesn't it Deanne:D...you think that if we were going to a mountain I would wait until I saw a mountain...well my brain doesn't work that way)...getting off at what turned out to be the Arch-bishops' castle with trick fountains...beautiful gardens! The trick fountains were to keep guests on their toes...if they fell asleep at the table he would push a button that triggered water to come out of the seat of chairs. It was a good mistake that I made getting off there in the end! We then took a cable car up Mount Untensberg...the highest mountain in the area...and went hiking through the snow to the very top! We even got to see paragliders jump off the side of the mountain!







We toured the rest of the day and went back to the hostel early to get a good sleep. We were actually right by the river so we went for a walk and it turned out to be the most beautiful sunset!






And now the most exciting part.........guess before you read on.......what, to me, would be the most exciting thing in the world to do in Salzburg??? Even if it cost us both way too much past our budget but we couldn't pass up b/c it was too exciting??? THE SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow I have never felt like such a tourist in my entire life but seriously wonderful! I got to actually see all the places that were in the movie! I got to sing with all other sound of music lovers, and even act out scenes at certain places (like the gazebo and the green tunnel that maria sings "I have confidence" down while swinging her guitar). A really nice part of the tour (which lasted 4 hours) was that they took us outside of the city to what they call the "hill and lake region" of the area...which we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't taken the tour. That is b/c the church they got married at was so far out there. But we didn't get to go to the meadow land where Maria does the opening scene but that's ok b/c Hannah and I have a picture of it anyway from when we were on top of the snowing mountain! The rest of the afternoon we waled around and did things that we got for free...of course Mozart's house was included. Isn't it funny that I am more excited about a Hollywood film then I am about one of the greatest composers in the world? haha well I am not alone b/c the sound of music tours get a lot more visitors then Mozart...what has this world come to!? Really it is very sad.



We even took a boat tour b/c it was for free...talk about boring...they drove us down the river that goes down the middle of the city to show us and talk about buildings that we cannot see b/c the river banks are in the way...the city has become way too touristic! The most fun part of that was that they swung us around and around at the end...I don't think that they would get any visitors otherwise!

We met some very nice Americans in the hostel so we went for a drink with them that night on the rooftop terrace. It appears as if Americans are who I meet the most of while traveling...but that suits me fine b/c usually they are very nice and easy to talk to and wonderfully enough it appears as if they are all Christians.

(Singing "I have confidence" in the green tunnel).
(beautiful isn't it! This park is where they do a lot of their singing...the steps at the bottom are the ones they sing up!)
vanTrapp's backyard where they fall out of the boat!
(this amused us for way too long;D)

The next morning Hannah and I got up early to catch our trian to Lucerne, Switzerland. We had 1 hour to kill so we went and amused ourselves in a playground...Austrians sure know how to make kids have fun...I think we would have missed our train we were having so much fun riding trains, jumping on rubber mats, swinging around in boats....wat leuk! But we caught our train and sat in pure luxury for the next 6 hours! They divide the seats up into compartments of 6 seats so we got a whole compartment to ourselves that was non-smoking! At first another American sat with us b/c he heard that we were speaking english but he got off earlier. We proceeded to drive through beautiful mountains! B/c we spread ourselves out nobody else came in so we took the time to take a Sunday nap. I might as well mention, since some of you may be wondering, that we did not make it to a church but we did come prepared and had a nice devotion together and read a sermon that my minister sent me. I am very glad that I was able to spend Easter weekend with Hannah b/c I am usually surrounded by non-Christians all week and therefore this way we could discuss and had wonderful talks. When we got to Lucerne we decided to take it very easy so we went to our hotel (an old jail!!!! we slept in a jail cell!!!!!!), ate dinner and then went and sat on a hill (actually in a forbidden area...opppss...but it was the only way we could get away from all the tourists!), watched the sunset, and talked the rest of the night. We again went to bed really early b/c we wanted t catch the sunrise the next morning. Lucerne is on a lake surrounded by mountains so it was veru nice to see! We decided that this day we wanted to get away from the tourists (which we were also:D hehe) so we bought food for the day, stocked up on water, and took a boat across the lake to hike through the mountains. This I cannot describe...it was just too perfect...I can only show it through pictures which do not even begin to capture the beauty.






...way too early in the morning but absolutely beautiful!

....hard climb in the crazy hot sun (I got very sunburnt....yikes!...but adrenaline was high and we just kept going and going and going until we could go no more b/c past a certain point we couldn't catch a boat back.







The train ride back was very interesting with me being woken up a couple times by a variety of things (one of them being that I was sitting on a moving train (not good for me who is finding that motion sickness is a huge problem!) in a seat that reclined but not enough to be comfortable)...but also b/c they happen to put a bar on the train. Now that would be ok if people knew how to be responsible but of course they do not. At one point two men began fist fighting yelling "You touch my girl"..."I did not touch your girl" so on so forth...in very broken english b/c that was the only language that they kind of understood from each other....there was also the time when I woke up b/c people were staring at me while I was sleeping b/c the train was taking forever to let them out...they had no where else to look so I guess they thought they might as well watch the sleeping people...awkward.

The weather was in the 20s all weekend so we couldn't of asked for a better weekend to go. I think I went a little overboard with the pictures and details but I figure I might as well...keeps you happy mommy and it's all I can do since I wasn't home with you this Easter:D.