Monday morning, just as we promised, we didn’t go anywhere. Well, the whole family didn’t. Chris and I left the kids watching tv and went to do some grocery shopping. It is always fun to buy food in a foreign country. They just have so many different things than we do, even though the border is only an hour from our house. Chris was especially happy about the Golden Grahams, and naturally we bought lots of Mozartkugeln. 🙂
So, about the rental house. Chris started looking for places to stay back in March. He found what seemed like the perfect one, on the river, walking distance to downtown, and large enough for our whole crew. He emailed them about the availability of dates, and then heard nothing for three months. By the time they got around to telling him they were booked, most of the other places in Salzburg were taken as well. GRRR! He briefly considered spending an obscene amount on a different house, but I talked him out of it. We could have flown to America for just a little more, and I couldn’t justify a one week vacation with that kind of price tag.
Instead, we widened our search. Rather than looking near Salzburg, he just went with the region. Then he looked even further outside and found the place we eventually stayed at. Only problem is that when we arrived late Saturday night, we discovered that the last time it had been renovated and decorated was circa 1974. And there was some sort of funky natural gas smell emanating from the basement. In short, the kids and Chris were less than impressed. I thought it was fine, and the smell in the upstairs part totally reminded me of my Grandma Lasko’s apartment in Coronado. Not bad, at all, just unique.
There was a bit of complaining and mumbling for a day or two, and then they all got used to it. It wasn’t so bad that it ruined our vacation, but it certainly wasn’t as nice as the place we stayed in Provo last summer. Want to see what all the hubbub was about?
This was the living room, with it’s small tv and old fashioned furniture. But as you can see, the size of the tv didn’t stop anyone from watching it. 🙂 And Noah lined up all our shoes so beautiful there, so we weren’t tripping over them in the entryway all week. Thanks, buddy!
These stairs originally must have had no handrail at all. Because the one that is there now is made of PVC pipe, seriously. The people that own this house, also own a large, very nice hotel in the village. We think this was their actual house, and when they made it big, they decided to keep it and rent it out, after they made a few, very small alterations. We are just glad our apartment doesn’t have death traps, I mean stairs, like these.
The view out from the balcony and down in the yard was gorgeous, though. It was such a lovely area, we never got tired of it.
Chris never got over being skeeved out by this bathroom, either. ha! The bidet on the other side was a nice touch , though. NOT! The kids found it first when they explored the house while we unpacked the car. They thought it was a little kids’ sink, like at IKEA. Um, no, and please don’t go near it ever again.
This is the girls’ room, down in the basement. We asked about the gas smell, and they said that they were aware of it, but the repairman said it wasn’t dangerous. We just kept the door to the heater room closed, and the windows in their room open a lot. No one died, so I guess it was okay.
There was this fun table in the boys’ room that was very convenient for day long gaming sessions. There was almost always a game of Settlers going on for the entire week we were there. Like I said, a perfect vacation.
This house also had some unique art on the walls.
That evening, we had had enough of staying indoors and decided to drive over to the lake and take a little stroll. We don’t really do hikes, but we do enjoy leisurely strolls through pretty scenery! As we got closer to the water, we heard beautiful classical music. Turns out a youth orchestra was visiting from England and was giving a concert.
The music, combined with the amazing scenery was absolutely magical.
And then it got even better. Up ahead we spied two darling little girls in full on Dirndls, just walking along and being cute. What a perfect Austrian moment.
Do you see them up in the left hand corner? We didn’t want to take a closer picture, it seemed too paparazzi-ish.
After we had walked for a bit we found a public entrance to the lake. Of course, we decided to just put our feet in to cool off.
But the water was so refreshing, and the lake stayed shallow for so long, that soon, the kids were soaked up to their waists.
We only got them to finally come home, by promising that we would come back the next day. Better prepared with swimsuits, this time. 🙂