Europe

Salzburg

Posted by Mark Sullivan on September 26, 2022

Posted in: Austria. Leave a Comment

I got a little lost just wandering through the town and climbed up a hill and got this lovely view

Three years ago our friends Mary Beth and Sven took some other mutual friends to Oktoberfest in Munich. Everyone had a blast, and the pictures and stories made us want to go someday ourselves. It helps a lot that Sven is a native Bavarian, and his brother Ralph lives in Munich, so they know how to make arrangements and do it all right.

Oktoberfest was canceled the past two years because of COVID. So earlier this year, when it looked like the festivities were back on, we decided to make the pilgrimage, along with Mary Beth and Sven and a couple other mutual friends. Jim and I decided to turn the adventure into a 2-1/2 week tour of Bavaria.

We caught a flight from New York to Frankfurt, and then a connection to Salzburg, Austria, a good starting point for our journey across Bavaria, since the town where Sven grew up is pretty much a suburb of Salzburg, just over the German border.

Jim had never been to Salzburg, and it had been 38 years for me. I have the fondest memories of hiking here with friends back then and obsessively singing songs from the “Sound of Music,” which was set and filmed in and around this beautiful town.

The town is just as lovely as ever. As an added bonus we got a little sneak preview of Oktoberfest because Salzburg’s own Oktoberfest started the day after we arrived. Based on everything we know, this was a very tame version of the big event in Munich. But it was fun to watch the crowds gather in their lederhosen (the guys) and dirndls (the girls), fill up the tents, and get down to the serious business of drinking beer and celebrating German culture.

We arrived in Salzburg the day their mini-Oktoberfest was starting. We’re going way off-diet in Munich for the big one so we demurred here.

Morning on the street right in front of our hotel

The city is surrounded by hills and mountains, all alive with the sound of music…

This fabulous trail ran for miles along the Salzach River southeast of Salzburg. Jim walked or ran on it every day.

Salzburg and the Salzach River from the castle

Mark at Sotille’s Bar and Café, our favorite pre-dinner stop

Stockholm

Posted by Mark Sullivan on August 24, 2022

Posted in: Europe, Sweden. Leave a Comment

Always a lovely vista of architecture and the sea

I’m not sure what exactly these guys were up to, but they were pretty serious about it

Great food in Stockholm

The last stop on our eight-week summer escape was in Stockholm, where we spent three days before catching our flight back home. I think Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It’s a city of islands and waterways chock full of great architecture, public art, and museums galore.

We did a pretty good job of playing tourist here. We visited important churches and a couple museums. I even took a tour of City Hall. And of course we found ample time to sit in parks and read and people watch.

We also reveled in our ability to find great food here. Stockholm lived up to our general experience in Scandinavia — that the food is exceptional, especially in the capitals. With one exception: Norway. Looking back, we had little of the stunning fare in Norway that we find in Stockholm or Copenhagen or Helsinki. There were no food pics on our blog post from Oslo.

So that wraps up a great summer adventure for us. Now we get a month at home in New York before we take off again for Germany, where we will experience Oktoberfest and spend a couple weeks traveling around Bavaria. See you there!

A stunning architectural detail

Cool public art

Jim checks out the cool public art

Shideh recommended this amazing tapas place. Diet starts tomorrow!

At the Moderna Museet I saw a placard on the wall for a painting of a Greek entablature by Roy Lichtenstein. But there was no painting. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until I looked way up because, of course, it’s where it would belong on a Greek temple.

This is almost a stereotype, but Jim was pretty thrilled with his beautiful plate of Swedish meatballs and lingonberries

Even the coffee is beautiful

Return to Edsåsdalen

Posted by Jim St. George on August 23, 2022

Posted in: Europe, Sweden. Leave a Comment

Mark & I with Lars & Shideh at the Tännforsen waterfalls, the biggest in Sweden

Five years ago, almost to the day, we visited our friends Lars and Shideh in their house in the Swedish mountains. They built the house as a winter vacation home so they could ski but discovered they love it year-round so now it’s their primary residence. We loved our stop five years ago (just as we loved visiting them in Hong Kong before that) and loved it again this time. Great hiking, great food, great friends.

First up was the train ride from Trondheim. I mean, who knew you could catch a train from Trondheim, Norway, due west to Edsåsdalen, Sweden? Ok, you can’t, but you can get a train to the nearby town of Åre, a ski resort of some 3,200 people. After our experiences in Norway so far we were a little leery of the trip, which would require a train change when we got to the Swedish border, but it was the perfect European train ride we love: comfortable, fast, and timely. With great scenery as an added bonus.

Yup, reindeer. We did a long hike up to the peak of a mountain behind their cabin. Lars was surprised that we didn’t see any reindeer, but then when we stopped for lunch near the peak four of them came by, circling the little alpine lake where we sat. I’d never seen reindeer in the wild and was wildly impressed with their beauty and majesty. And I particularly appreciated their willingness to walk along the ridge so we could get this great view.

Once there we did the things one does in the Swedish mountains in the summer: we hiked, we ate, we poked around in Åre, we went to the biggest waterfalls in Sweden, we watched reindeer gambol about, we watched Shideh cook for us. Anticipating our imminent return to Manhattan after one last stop in Stockholm I found myself wanting to hold onto every quiet, peaceful, cool, empty moment there. I love New York and I love our home there, but I know that in a few days a Swedish mountain retreat will feel almost unimaginable.

Shideh and Mark high up in the mountain, with Lars off in the distance. On the very right of the picture you can vaguely see the houses way down in the valley where we started.

Mark on the hike. The weather would alternate between overcast, windy, cold, and wet and then – always briefly – a bit of warm sunshine.

When Lars suggested going to the waterfall I thought it would be … OK. I mean, we’ve seen a lot of waterfalls. This one was pretty great though and definitely worth the trip.