During December, Al & Joyce came to visit us for 2 weeks. They came a few days before school ended, so they could check out the school and tour Prague a bit, and then the Friday we got out of school, we made a last minute decision to leave asap for Salzburg! (We had already planned to do this, just that we were going to leave later..) This turned out to be more difficult than we thought as the car rental didn’t go as planned and ended up taking hours to find a car. And then by the time we took off on our “5 hour” road trip, it was 7p and of course it took 6 hours. So we go to our very cute little boutique hotel we had booked and found out it was not a 24 hour reception desk. There was a note on the door with a phone number for a taxi company that apparently was holding our hotel keys and would come by and drop it off for us. Whaaaa???!!! A little bizarre, yes?? So Al tries calling. Does not go through. Al asks some random boys on the street how to call the number. Does not go through. We drive around Salzburg at 130am trying to find this taxi company/another place to stay/someone to help or guide us. Eventually we found this lovely concierge at another hotel, who helped us get through to the taxi company (apparently when the taxi company is busy on a Friday night, their phone line is continusly busy on the 1 phone they have,) and demanded to talk to the person who had our key. Anyhoo… after all this, we headed back to the hotel at 300a to wait for the taxi with key to arrive. Sat there for about 10 minutes until another guest was going into the hotel and Mike sneaked in after him. Our room keys were taped to the inside of the front door. Done! So after an exhausting day, we still had enough adrenaline to have a bit of a night cap and drop into bed at 400a.
By the way, did I mention the entire time Al & Joyce were here it was hovering just above -20 degrees celcius?? The entire time.
So after “the adventure” of our road trip, we had a great time in Salzburg starting with a walk, then warming up and getting lunch at Mozart’s café, visiting the castle with hot bevvies, going inside for hot coffee, walking through the Christmas markets with hot wine, (notice the trend??) having dinner and then high-tailing it back to the hotel, cause we were SO cold. I have never been so cold, as I was this winter. Salzburg was really great, but I will need to go back there because it was way too cold to do the Sound of Music tour (which I really would LOVE to do). However, I don’t think Al really would have put up with Joyce and I singing the Sound of Music soundtrack the entire tour either. The road trip singing was probably enough. ;)
After the day in Salzburg, another night and hotel breakfast, we were off to Cesky Krumlov, a small heritage town in the Czech Republic. It was so quaint and had so much character. (I find most of the places in the CR to have loads of character. Mostly due to the fantastically old building and how they try to keep most things original instead of building new things.) We spent our time in Cesky wandering the town (easy to do. Its very small.), shopping, eating and drinking great beer at Eggenberg brewery, making friends with a local potter, visiting the local castle, (there is usually a bear “guarding” the castle in the old moat area, however it was too cold. Even for the bear.), eating at a genuinely authentic Czech restaurant recommended to us by our new potter friend, and just enjoying each other’s company.
We headed back to Prague on the Monday, taking the scenic route. As that is where our GPS took us. And if I learned anything on the road part of this road trip, it is to always follow the GPS.
Loves. Leah
additional photo cred goes to Al & Joyce
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