Rather than relax and recover the day after the wedding like we probably should have, Rosa and I decided to start tackling some of Europe and the World's "Biggest" attractions - and not biggest by the most crowded, but biggest in actual terms of size. We're Americans so we always have to go big, right? Needless to say, two straight days of hiking around the Alps left us extremely tired, so we're a day late on the updates.
The highlights of the last 48 hours?
A hike down into the town of Mittersill from the castle for a relaxing morning on the square... then the tallest Waterfall in Europe and a 90 minute, 1200 foot hike to the top of it... and wrapping up the evening with a walk from the castle up to the bride and groom's "hideaway" to share some pictures and a glass of wine. It was about a 10 mile day with 2,000 feet of elevation change.
Yesterday (Monday) we hit the world's largest ice caves... which I thought would have been buried down in the mountain... but instead was another drive/hike up another 1,600 feet to the entrance, a freaky 50 degree cable car ride up the side of a cliff, and then an hour plus tour and 1400 steps up through the cave system. No photos were allowed, but you should really check it out here and then click on Gallery in the left hand side.
After the ice caves we were all super-hungry and hit a Chinese restaurant with a lunch buffet... oh yes, Chinese in Austria.
And finally, last night we ended up in Salzburg, a beautiful small city. We were a little knackered to do any hardcore sightseeing, but fortunately it's only a short walk anywhere in the city, including northern Europe's largest Renaissance fountain (which we sat down in front of without even realizing),and we took the tram to the Festung Hohensalzburg, the largest intact castle in Central Europe. It sits on a huge cliff and overlooks the city and the surrounding countrside. We'll definitely upload some more photos soon.
A few funny things heard the past couple days:
"Holy waterfall, Batman!" - Rosa's first view of the falls.
"I'm not a quitter" - Rosa as we reached to the halfway point of the falls... and see how much further we have to go.
"Excellent... in the genuine sense." - what Matt's sisters say so that everyone knows they're NOT being sarcastic (because most of time they are).
more to come...
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