Siblings in the Czech Republic

For our final leg of our journey, we left beautiful Austria and headed into the Czech Republic via a hired van without air conditioning.  Thankfully, we had a pit stop half way into the five hour journey in Cesky Krumlov.  This is a small town overflowing in Renaissance and baroque buildings. People were renting kayaks and spending the hot afternoon floating down the Vltava river that runs through the town.  With our limited time, we explored the narrow lanes and made our way to the Cesky Krumlov Castle.

Cesky Krumlov may now be the most pretty place in Europe, in my opinion. 

A small town surrounded by rolling hills.

This is the castle, high above town. 

 After a nice lunch and a stroll, it was back into the hot van and onto Prague. Shea and I had been there in the winter. Arthur has been there a dozen times (he was actually there the week before we showed up in Vienna). It is a city that is forever charming with it's world class beer, cobbled lanes, extraordinary historic buildings, and quirky sites.

Main Square. 

The astronomical clock that I have yet to see go off.  Maybe next time...

 We walked up to the Castle (and then we walked a super long way around the castle) but the lines were too long to go into the Cathedral.  Instead, we explored the interior parts and admired the buildings.  The boys all became enthralled with the gargoyles. And what better way to view a gargoyle that's high up on the buildings? Use the zoom lens and take a picture!  There were over 20 pictures of gargoyles for me to go through by the end of the day.  Here are some of the more interesting ones!

Man with No Hands.

Barfing Lady.

Flying Fish.

The views from the castle are spectacular!

 When it was time to leave, we again, took the long way. We did stumble onto this beauty though. Behold, a Roomba for your yard.

This little beauty will cut your grass while you watch with beer in hand!

Then it was time to drink. Arthur is really good at drinking four beers at once.

 Ange and Dave convinced the rest of us to take a segway tour. I was really against it at first. Everyone looks stupid on a segway.  They don't go that fast. How comfortable can the ride be on cobble stones?

I am so glad Ange convinced us. I don't care how stupid you look on one, they are amazing! I will always do a segway tour, if one is available.

Dave getting the hang of the segway. Out of the five of us, guess who wiped out and cut up his leg? This guy!

Arthur was a bit hesitant at first too. Like me, he has been converted to the segway ways!

It takes about 2 minutes to get the hang of these machines.  Then you are hooked!

I still believe no one looks cool on a segway.  

Beautiful Prague. Our guide took us to a bunch of great photo op spots.  

We segwayed up the the Castle and took off our helmets for this beauty shot. 

Ange was so happy! The only downside of the segway is after the tour, you are stuck walking like a chump.  

After all that work standing on a machine that moves you from place to place, it was time for a drink. This was our tally of beers at Lokal.  

We did walk to the Jewish Museum.  In an old synagogue is the list of all the Jewish people who lost their lives during WWII.  It's quite somber to see the names on all available wall space. 

Arthur found this restaurant for us. Amos!

Another beautiful shot of Prague.

The Charles Bridge.

This is a statue of two men peeing. Dave had to get in on the action. 

Shea had to out-do Dave by pulling his shirt through his fly hole and pretend to pee. 

We also visited Prague's narrowest street. It has street lights outside of it to let you know if you can walk through or if people are coming from the other direction. 

After all this fun, who would ever want to go home?  Well, unfortunately, we did.  Arthur left for Canada with his family a few days later. Ange and Dumb Dave came back to London for a few more days before they flew back home to see Arthur again.  Shea and I rested after all the family travelling we had been doing since June.

It was a wonderful experience to travel with Ange and Arthur and not have to fight for space in the minivan or listen to Too Hot To Handle on cassette.  We don't often find ourselves in the same room (or country) so it was fantastic to take advantage of our time together and drink our way through a few countries in Europe while seeing some spectacular stuff.

Siblings in Salzburg!

After an uneventful train ride (btw, if you are ever in Vienna's main train station, it is worthwhile to pay to use the toilet), and another Austrian lunch, we were ready to explore Salzburg!  We even met up with Shea.

Ange and Dumb Dave were the only ones who had not been to this beautiful city. It is one of my favourite places to visit. What's not to love: mountains in the distance, beautiful buildings, walkable streets, yummy food, beer and, the best: a connection to The Sound of Music!

One of the first things we stumbled on was a fountain from this magical movie. Ange and I used to watch this movie a lot growing up. It was a given that we were "Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o... yodeling"!

A few of my favourite things.

The next big Salzburg attraction to see was a graveyard!  Yep, it actually looks like a well-designed garden with a bunch of gravestones scattered throughout.

Each plot is an elaborately designed garden.  No weeds.

While walking, we noticed these windows on the side of the cliff. What the heck it that?

Those windows turned out to be the Catacombs of St. Peter's Graveyard. We also learned that we were in St. Peter's Graveyard.  Inside the catacombs was the burial place for Mozart's sister, a few chapels that date back to 700 and some great views of Salzburg.

Look at the view. This is my artistic shot.

A very old alter. And what looks like two cat eyes peering out from behind the cross?

After hiking up uneven stairs, and ducking to avoid hitting our heads on the roof, Arthur decided it was time for a drink.  He really was a terrible influence on his younger sisters.

At least he was enjoying himself!

The next morning Ange and I ditched the boys to do the ultimate Salzburg tour: The Sound of Music Tour!!! It is kind of funny because this movie is NOT big in Europe, and especially Salzburg.

On the tour, we learned a lot about the filming of the movie.  Interesting fact: They used two separate houses to create the Von Trapp home.  The first house we saw was used for it's backyard and the lake it sits on.  This would be the spot for that epic scene where Maria and the children fall out of the row boat into the water. Another interesting fact: the youngest little girl could not swim. After the first shot, she refused to get into the boat again.

This is the house that was used to film the scenes on the lake and in the backyard garden area.  

You can just see the gate that was in the film under the arch.  

The next big attraction on this tour was to see the gazebo where Liesl sang Sixteen Going on Seventeen.  It is also where Maria first kisses the Captain.  Interesting fact: the actor playing Liesl broke her ankle while dancing in the gazebo. In the film, her ankle is bandaged but hidden with makeup.

"I have confidence in sunshine. I have confidence in rain."

We were unable to get close to the second home that was used for all the exterior shots of the Von Trapp home. This is the best shot out of the 50 that I took from the bus.

Yep, it's just through those trees. 

Ohh, a Fischerfest! Sounds fun. Or slightly annoying... Probably loud and full of rye. 

The next stop was the church that Maria marries the Captain.  I have no interesting fact for this place.

The interior.  "How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?"

The church was actually quite creepy once you started looking around. There were all these cherub statues everywhere that were haunting. 

"How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?"

The town of Mondsee is where the church is located and it was adorable. There were lakes everywhere as well. It might be worth renting a car and driving around one day...

It was time to head back to Salzburg to visit one last sight: the Pegasus statue from Do Re Mi.

After a great morning, Ange and I met the boys and we rode the funicular up to Hohensalzburg Castle.

Selfie from the castle.

Ange was not Von Trapped out yet when visiting the Marionette Museum in the castle. 

Hey, that place looks familiar! I think it was used in a movie about a singing family that had to flee the Nazis. But it was only used for the backyard and lake shots. 

While exploring the castle, some of us made it through the exhibits faster than others...

But that gave us a chance to take pictures of each other!

Sibling picture for mom. 

I think this is the first picture of us that is not a selfie for 2016. Thanks Ange!

The boys without one beer in hand. How did that happen?

After the castle, it was actually time for beer and lunch at Salzburg's best attractions: the Augustiner (the monastery beer hall). Three of us had been there so we thought we could find our way easily. Nope! We walked up hills. We walked down hills. We walked upstairs. We walked downstairs that were beside the hill that we just walked up.  It was also very hot!

At least with all that walking, I was able to get a nice shot of the city.

We did eventually make it after asking for directions.  The beer gardens were packed so we had to sit indoors. Thankfully, our old friend Jesus and some corporate logos were nearby to keep us company!

To get a drink, grab a stein off the wall, take it to the bar where it will get filled. Drink. Repeat. 

I would like to say those steins are not all ours...

But Jesus was above us so I shouldn't lie. Ange tried to keep up with Arthur. 

We also ate some delicious food. There was chicken, sausage, potatoes, pretzels, desserts. And beer.

The next day Arthur and I woke up early to explore Mirabell Gardens before it was time to move on to our next destination.  I was there to see more Sound of Music attractions without a crowd.

The Pegasus statue without a ton of tourists. 

This staircase was part of Do Re Mi.

These gnomes were also used in the movie.  They were actually really interesting to see. 

I would conclude that Salzburg was an astounding success for the Fischer siblings. We saw, we drank, we laughed and we made some memories.  With it being one of my favourite places to visit, it was great to explore with Arthur and Ange. Hopefully, they also enjoyed it and I wasn't dragging them around...