Now that I am waaayyyyy overdue for this post (seriously, who waits this long), I can hardly remember all the things we did in Austria. I am currently listening to my Sound of Music soundtrack (yes, I own it and listen to it frequently, don't judge).
So as you may remember from this post, I was having some stress during my time in Spain. The idea of meeting up with my aunt, uncle and other cousins was most welcome. We flew from Barcelona to Zurich, Switzerland, where we were picked up and motored toward the Austrian countryside. The moment we got in the car, I felt most of the stress of the past week melting away. My aunt, a meticulous, fantastic, well-prepared travel planner, had taken over our trip from there and I was so relieved. I felt like I could relax and truly "vacation" without stress. We wound ourselves into Austria and encountered truly breathtaking views. We stopped in Innsbruck, Austria to walk around. It is such a cute little ski town, with gorgeous houses, flowers spilling out of every window box, and a calm and peaceful feel. From there, we drove through tunnels and bridges and mountains, and finally arrived at our destination the Sheraton Schloss Fuschl, Salzburg, Austria. Words can't describe the beauty of this place. Nestled between mountains and a gorgeous lake, we arrived around dinner time, tired after a long day of traveling. I instantly felt refreshed and renewed. The air was so clean, cool and the views were breathtaking. We ended up a baller 2-story room with a balcony looking over the gorgeous, blue-green, glacier fed lake. We freshened up and located the hotel's casual osteria (casual dining). We ordered pasta carbonara and spaghetti bolognese pasta (you can't take the Italian out of us, even in Austria), and proceeded to stuff ourselves silly with food. It was so delicious, I can't even describe it. After pigging out beyond belief, we decided to take a swim (awesome to put on a bathing suit after inhaling pounds of pasta) in the indoor pool and various spa facilities. This ritual would further be referenced as the "Bloat and Float", which we proceeded to do every night we were there. There was a pool, hot tub, cold water reflexology pools for your feet, experience showers that had hot and cold water shoot at you from various angles and at different speeds and strength, and there was a lot of shrieking from us (the loud Americans) as we "experienced" these showers. There was also a steam room, salt room, relaxation room with lounge chairs, a dry sauna and another foot pool. Running back and forth between the different amenities and avoiding the nudie euros (eek) trying to enjoy the experience, who probably wished we would go away and stop shrieking, made for quite the adventure. The next day we were up early for the gourmet breakfast buffet with every possible breakfast food you could think of. Yum. Then we ventured into old town Salzburg, wandered around the old squares in Salzburg, Mozart lived there and there are tributes to him all over town. Salzburg is a beautiful, old, European town, with beautiful buildings, a calm presence and a very European feel. It reminded me of a greener Florence, with lush mountains in the distance, and bridges over a peaceful river flowing through town. The water was a gorgeous icy blue-green color, apparently from all the salt (Salz=salt). All of this old town exploring was leading up to one of my favorite parts of the trip: Going on the Sound of Music Tour!!!!
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