Austria

[LA Ute]

This one's for PAC. We spent 8 days of our vacation in Austria, where PAC baptized hundreds back in the day. The main reason for the trip was to visit my wife's family in the wake of her mother's passing last December. (Mom was an Austrian immigrant to the US and all of her nuclear family remained behind.) We spent time in Salzburg, Vienna and Burgenland (the state just south and east of Vienna, where Mom was from.)

PAC, after a few days in the rolling pastoral hills of Burgenland I've decided that if Europe were Middle Earth, the Austrians would be the hobbits. Well-organized, amiable, laid-back, neat, tidy and clean, good cooks who enjoy a good time. What do you think?

EDIT: Here's the wienerschnitzel I was served in Vienna. Our host insisted that I try some and took us to Figlemuller's, reportedly the place to get the dish.



As you can see, the portions are, ah, liberal. I made it halfway through this one before I was done. It was unremarkable. I enjoyed the goulash and the apple strudel much more.

[Katy Lied]

crap that's the biggest wienerschnitzel I've ever seen.

[byu71]

On our Europe trip we visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Austria and Switzerland were my favorites with Austria edging out Switzerland. On our way up to Hitler's Eagle Nest we passed a US base and could see a beautiful golf course amongst the tree's.

Biggest dissapointment was the French Riviera. Monte Carlo was pretty cool though.

[LA Ute]

crap that's the biggest wienerschnitzel I've ever seen.

Oddly enough, no one in the restaurant seemed overweight. Neither did the Viennese generally. Maybe only dumb tourists eat that much.

[TripletDaddy]

dumb thread. next time just send a PM to pac.

[Applejack]

On our Europe trip we visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Austria and Switzerland were my favorites with Austria edging out Switzerland. On our way up to Hitler's Eagle Nest we passed a US base and could see a beautiful golf course amongst the tree's.

Biggest dissapointment was the French Riviera. Monte Carlo was pretty cool though.

You preferred a golf course and various Hitler sites (birthplace/Eagles Nest) to the French Riviera? This is the craziest post you've ever made!

[LA Ute]

On our Europe trip we visited England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Austria and Switzerland were my favorites with Austria edging out Switzerland. On our way up to Hitler's Eagle Nest we passed a US base and could see a beautiful golf course amongst the tree's.

Biggest dissapointment was the French Riviera. Monte Carlo was pretty cool though.

Our cities this time were Paris, Venice, Salzburg and Vienna, along with all the D-Day Normandy beaches and a bunch of great little towns in Burgenland, Austria (hobbit land). Paris was the most stimulating, Vienna the most pleasant and intriguing, and Venice the most fun. Salzburg was pretty and pleasant. Normandy moved me the most and left the deepest impression. We didn't make it to Berchtesgaden (sp). At that point I was kind of tired of Hitler. Now, however, I'm reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich because of the stories I heard about the Anschluss from elderly Austrians. I read The Longest Day on the way to France. That added a lot to the Normandy visit.

[MarkGrace]

dumb thread. next time just send a PM to pac.

Never forget.

[creekster]

crap that's the biggest wienerschnitzel I've ever seen.

That's what she said!


(Sorry; it just seemed to work there for some reason; but I feel sort of cheap)

[byu71]

You preferred a golf course and various Hitler sites (birthplace/Eagles Nest) to the French Riviera? This is the craziest post you've ever made!

I think I said biggest dissapointment. My guess is that since you are surprised at that statement, you haven't been to the French Riviera.

Anyone here go to the French Riviera for the first time and not have been highly dissapointed?

[LA Ute]

dumb thread. next time just send a PM to pac.

PAC's a generous guy. He won't mind others chiming in with their own Europe experiences.

[byu71]

Normandy moved me the most and left the deepest impression.

I can still recall my visit there and I was a Jr. in High School We (my uncle and I) had driven down from Paris. The cliff's the beaches and then the rows and rows of crosses.

It was during the Viet Nam war and a lot of the French would come up to us and start on us for being in Viet Nam. Before visiting Normandy I would try and ignore them. After visiting Normandy I would tell them they were ingrates and they should be kissing Americans butts for saving theirs.


Good thread by the way. Thanks for starting it.

[LA Ute]

I can still recall my visit there and I was a Jr. in High School We (my uncle and I) had driven down from Paris. The cliff's the beaches and then the rows and rows of crosses.

It was during the Viet Nam war and a lot of the French would come up to us and start on us for being in Viet Nam. Before visiting Normandy I would try and ignore them. After visiting Normandy I would tell them they were ingrates and they should be kissing Americans butts for saving theirs.

Good thread by the way. Thanks for starting it.

I posted this on Facebook near the end of our trip:

For the first time ever we visited France. One item on our must-see list was Normandy and the D-Day memorials there. We spent an entire day at all those sites. My overwhelming response is one of awe, and my my advice to every American is to see those sites if you can -- the younger the better. Our 17 year-old daughter calls our Normandy visit her favorite day of the trip.

Just before leaving home in the USA I downloaded Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day. Reading that before and after the visit to the memorials really set the stage for me, intellectually and emotionally. While riding to and from Normandy, I watched this PBS video linked below (available on iTunes), which consists of interviews with veterans of the invasion. It was hard for me not to tear up while watching those men tell their stories - especially after touring the cemetery at Omaha Beach.

This year being the 70th anniversary of the invasion, there was a lot of attention paid to it. At the main museum in Caen (built, with a sense of irony, I think, atop the bunker used by the German command) there was a large crowd, most of which seemed to be French. There are International Peace Gardens behind the museum, and it is very well done, quiet and designed for contemplation. I think they were added for the 50th anniversary in 1994. We saw the gardens last.

Inscribed in the marble by the American reflecting pool and waterfall were two lines. The words were hard to make out, so I got down on my knees and read them slowly to my family:

"From the heart of our country flows the blood of our youth
Given to you in the name of freedom."

By the time I got to the last 5 words I was too choked up to read them aloud.

Anyway, if you haven't been, go. I'm going back someday with my older sons.

[old_gregg]

I can still recall my visit there and I was a Jr. in High School We (my uncle and I) had driven down from Paris. The cliff's the beaches and then the rows and rows of crosses.

It was during the Viet Nam war and a lot of the French would come up to us and start on us for being in Viet Nam. Before visiting Normandy I would try and ignore them. After visiting Normandy I would tell them they were ingrates and they should be kissing Americans butts for saving theirs.

did you offer to share some of your FREEDOM FRIES with them?

[byu71]

did you offer to share some of your FREEDOM FRIES with them?

I was a superbly conditioned athlete in high school. Greecy food was out of the question.