We ate the free breakfast at the JHB again, then stripped the beds, packed and loaded car, and drove back into the city. This time we found free street parking right next to our destination: Mozart's Wohnhaus where W.A. Mozart lived most of his childhood while working for the archbishop in Salzburg. While waiting for it to open, we walked through the now empty Linzer Gasse again and found an open Bäkerei cafe and got croissants for the kids and macchiatos for J and me.
Then we wandered back through sprinkling rain to the Wohnhaus museum. We got audio guides for the kids and spent nearly 1.5 hrs perusing the exhibits. Quite interesting! Such a tragic life, but wow, was he an intense personality.
We walked from there to the Schloss Mirabell and wandered the gardens where Maria and the van Trapp children danced around the horse fountain singing Do Re Mi...
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| Street entertainer blowing huge bubbles... There was intense "discussion" about whether GE should be allowed to pop them. |
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| Well, that little girl just popped one! |
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| Can't help herself! |
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| Playing with the settings on my camera... |
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| The budding photographer hard at work! |
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| "Mom! Stop taking pictures of my taking pictures!" |
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| Her very willing muse! |
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| The infamous fountain! |
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| Getting my camera to focus on the foreground... |
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| Not quite "grown up" yet... This one still likes to get wet, muddy, stained, and indulges her curiosity. |
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| The ceiling of an outdoor walkway at Schloss Mirabell. |
Yesterday I'd spontaneously decided to try to get in touch with one of my dad's contacts from the Rif Hallein refugee settlement of Nazarener (not American Nazarene, but an Apostolic peace church that also sprang from the Anabaptist movement in Germany) from my dad's years working with the alternative service program, Pax (in the 1960's). Gusti was a boy when my dad and a bunch of other Mennonite young men helped build homes for their displaced church community in southern Germany and Austria. Here's a little out-take from an email my dad sent me explaining the history:
"These Nazarener were/are related to Apostolic Christians in the US, an Anabaptist conservative denomination with roots in the radical reformation in Switzerland like Amish and Mennonites. The forefathers of the Salzburg group migrated down the Danube to Serbia near Belgrade 200 years ago and settled in German speaking villages like the Mennonites in the Ukraine. As pacifists, many refused to join the Nazi army and served time in jail during WWII. Gusti’s grandfather served 8 years in jail. After the war, as Germans, they were persona non grata and had to flee for their lives. Gusti’s mother and her siblings told us harrowing stories of fleeing across the Alps into Austria. All of the 10 or so families had such stories to tell. Once in refugee camps, the Austrian government put them in vacant facilities around Austria. Our people [Mennonites] were put in Nazi army barracks in Salzburg near the Bahnhof. We Paxers lived in these barracks, too, while we built the houses 10 kms south of the city. As non-citizens they did not qualify for bank loans to build their own houses. Their church leaders in Vienna learned about MCC Pax and approached Peter Dyck about sending Pax boys to do the labor. Their church headquarters in Zürich arranged for loans to buy materials, and Church World Service gave them some 12 acres of cheap rocky land along the Königseeache and Salzach rivers. 15 years after the war, these families got their own houses and a church in Rif."
Gusti and his wife, Renate, invited us to their home for lunch on Saturday so after our morning adventures in Salzburg we drove to the little village, Liefering, on the outskirts of the city. Renate had made Schnitzel, potato salads, and Apfelstrudel with coffee. YUM! They reminisced and we tried really hard to understand their Austrian dialect!! Oooch.
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| Gusti showing us pictures of the house the Paxers built for his family in Rif. |
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| The photo album that the Pax boys made for his family when their house was finished. The young man in the lower center photo is my dad. |
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| Dad, hard at work! This is where he learned his stone laying skills which serve him to this day. |
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| Re-making those connections... I've found it incredibly informative to my own understanding of my parents and who they are to make these sorts of connections, even if it means going out of our way and stretching us a little. Worth it every time. |
After visiting over coffee, we finally rallied the girls for another road trip. This time, for Wien (Vienna)...
Google search for the win! I had searched for the standard sort of youth hostel and stumbled across another listing for hostel closer into the city center. Hostel Ruthensteiner, is a traveler's friendly, family-run overnight accommodation tucked into one-way streets near the heart of Vienna. We thought we were getting 2 rooms, one with a bath. I'd assumed the kids could just come to our room to use the bath and shower if they didn't feel comfortable in the shared room. When we checked in, we found out they'd reserved an apartment for us with kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 2 rooms with a view of the garden and quiet inner-facing side with no street noise!
It's just a short U-bahn ride to the center of the Altstadt. We did a grocery store raid for our dinner and stocked up for Sunday and Monday breakfasts and Sunday supper too! 40€ for 4 meals for 5 people. Steal! We enjoyed a quiet evening "in" after our Salzburg adventures and road travel.
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