#saltzkammergut

[random-act]

I'm daydreaming about my time in Austria 🇦🇹 I love the people, land and culture. Words seem small. Sending love and gratitude. 🌸🌿💕 🕊 #randomact #flowersforthepeople #painting #streetart #flowers #uplift #beautify #inspire #goodlife #lush #dreams #love #gratitude #saltzkammergut #austria #steirmark #vienna #watercolor #gouache #timelapse #painting (at Los Angeles, California)

[sabbaticallife84]

Hallstatt on my bucket list

I took a bus, then a train, then a boat to get to the town of Hallstatt. We all had masks on on the bus. I wasn’t sure if we would have to, but we did. And they had to be the special kind, like N-95 but different. You can’t wear the cloth or home made masks in Austria. 

  I was really excited to see this town. I have been meaning to go there for the last year, based on some gorgeous National Geographic pictures I saw on Instagram. National Geographic really has my number...

 In my mind, it was this far off place that I didn’t know if or when I would ever see it. But then I found out that it was like only one hour or so away from where my Aunts’ house was in the Saltzkammergut. 

I got my cell phone back, after I forgot it in Vienna and I was so happy. I took a lot of pictures. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have my phone/phone camera for two full days and It was good for me. I was much more present. I don’t have as many pictures of the beautiful Alps..but the pictures I have in my mind are priceless. The things I really saw, took time to look at, will hopefully stay with me. Sometimes when we take pictures, we aren’t in that moment anymore. Just taking a copy of that moment into the future, to try to hold on to it, forever. 

Everything in Hallstatt was beautiful. It was definitely touristy. Apparently there is a identical Hallstatt town replica that was built in China. So this town is much beloved by Asian tourists. All the signs in Hallstatt are in like 4 or 5 languages, so you know it attracts many different tourists. 

 I took some great pictures and I ate some delicious food. I had to have the classic Schnitzel again, at the “Grüner Baum” (The Green Tree). I was sitting on deck over looking the lake and it was really beautiful. The weather was a little tricky and it did rain a bit. But I sat under a covered patio and I had my rain coat, so that was good. I looked at all these cool houses and buildings where the townspeople grew fruit trees right up their houses. So you could reach out your 2nd floor window and pick a pear or apple right off the tree, growing up the house. The quiet of the town and the closeness to the lake was really magical. The glassy water reflected the town and the swans and everything, perfectly. There was an old salt mine up on the hill/mountain above the town. And there was sort of a tram/train thing you could take up the mountain to go look at the salt mine. Apparently, 3,000 years ago, the Celts discovered salt in the mountains above the town, so Haal or Hall means salt in Celtic. That is how the town got its name. Also the Saltzkammergut name has to do with the salt. 

I didn’t go up on the tram or visit the salt mine because eventually I had to get back to the boat, the train and the bus that I had planned to take back. Also the prices weren’t low in the town of Hallstatt, since it is world renowned. The tram thing and the salt mine had separate, not super cheap prices. Also, as a child of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, I know there are some things I wouldn’t do in the mountains that are just very touristy things. I sound weird or spoiled but I just have seen people come to the Rocky Mountains for my whole life, so I get it. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go back there and do that. I just didn’t want to do all that stuff by myself, at that moment. 

Then I took the boat back to the train station, took the train to Bad Ischl and then I took the bus back to St. Gilgen. It all went well. All in all, it was a good trip! 

“Go where you feel most alive.” -Unknown

“We have nothing to lose and a world to see.” -Unknown

[favoritescene]

Saltzburg. 2018.

[opaguy]

Autriche, Saltzkammergut, Halstatt

[vanlifebot]

@alanheath: Red evening sky on #Wolfgangsee @Saltzkammergut @LetsAustria from #SanktGilgen. https://t.co/h8VYlao0IR #vanlife @Austria_UK

from http://twitter.com/alanheath via IFTTT

[random-act]

My second attempt at #timelapse ... and oops, I bumped the camera. I'm totally in love with #Austria 🇦🇹 Here I am painting a little #watercolor #gouache #saltzkammergut 😊 🌻 #randomact #FlowersforthePeople #UpliftBeautifyInspire #Uplift #Beautify #Inspire #Flowers #Beauty #Inspiration #goodlife #lushlife 🦋 (at Los Angeles, California)

[random-act]

I ❤️🇦🇹 #saltzkammergut #Austria #love #grateful #travel #holiday #watercolor #gouache #painting 🌻 #randomact #FlowersforthePeople #UpliftBeautifyInspire #Uplift #Beautify #Inspire #Flowers #Beauty #Inspiration #goodlife #lushlife 🦋 @planoly #planoly (at Los Angeles, California)

[sabbaticallife84]

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul” -John Muir

   My aunt and I got up and got out of the house for our drive to the mountains or Saltzkammergut, or the Austrian Lake country. I have to give my aunt a lot of credit because she just had a total knee replacement. She is walking and getting her strength back and doing physical therapy. The drive for us to the mountains, was to a town called St. Gilgen, where my aunt has an apartment and it would be a three hour drive. We were definitely going to take it at our own pace and stop every so often so my aunt could get out and walk and move her leg and such. We stopped at this one gas station and it was so immaculately clean. You could literally eat off the toilet seats, not that you would.. You had to pay like 50 cents to get into the bathroom, but you got a ticket that came out and you could use that for a 50 cent discount in the gas station. Weirdly enough this gas station had fresh baked rolls, hot leberkäse in three kinds: Chili, cheese or regular and more food. I got a regular leberkäse on a semmel and it was delicious. From the gas station! We also got some waters, I got a cola and some delicious Kinder Schokolade and we were good to go. 

   My aunt has a very sexy jet blue mustang convertible and because of her knee, I was driving it. I got to drive this awesome car into the mountains, and my aunt kept encouraging me to at least go the speed limit. I was definitely driving like a grandma. Who knows, maybe some of you would say I do that normally, any way?.. I would go too slow in the left lane, my aunt would remind me to change lanes. LOL. I am a grandma driver, what can I say? 

  Driving into St. Gilgen was very beautiful and picturesque. There were lakes, green rolling hills, and mountains. I found out that you can see this town in the opening credits of the ‘Sound of Music’ and the bells you hear in that movie, to remind Maria of mass, are the bells from the St. Gilgen church. It is really amazing. I was driving into the Sound of Music, basically. 

We went to dinner at this sweet, family run restaurant called Brunetti’s. The restaurant is named, like a lot of things in this town, for the famous people that would come and stay in this town for their vacation or holiday. Now in the case of the Brunetti’s, I believe their family came here and stayed here. But don’t quote me on that. We ordered delicious Austrian food. I got schnitzel with Spätzle and mushroom sauce. I have been wanting it so badly and they made it for me! I asked them to change one meal around for me to get it that way and they did it. It was so accommodating and sweet of them. You could tell they know my aunt and were a friendly establishment to do that for me. I have seen on more than one menu here, “No changes, no substitutions”. We drank this delicious white wine and ate this heart warming food. My aunt stepped out to make a call and I ordered the Apfelstrüdel with Schlag (apple strudel with whipped cream) and it was amazing. It had this thin flaky crust with creamy apples and raisins, warmed and it melted in my mouth, it was delicious. My aunt got back, we paid and then headed back to the apartment. 

  We had a day of travel and we definitely needed to put my aunts’ leg up. I had forgotten my cell phone in Vienna, but luckily my aunts’ partner was coming up from Vienna to join us the next day and he would bring my cell phone.

“Live your life by a compass, not by a clock” -Stephen R. Covey   

[favoritescene]

Salzkammergut. 케이블카 라운지.  Austria. 2018.

[random-act]

Clematis... remembering summertime in Austria 🇦🇹 🌸 #randomact #flowersforthepeople #painting #streetart #flowers #uplift #beautify #inspire #goodlife #lush #dreams #sumertime #austria #saltzkammergut 🌺

[random-act]

A day, picturesque, in every way. When it can't be more perfect, it gets more perfect. #061817 #june182017 #thedayafter #wedding #hangover #rosecoloredglasses #summeroflove #anotherdayinparadise #lovlove2017 #johannesandkathl #wruss #Austrianwine #austria #wolfgangsee #watercolor #gouache #watercolorpainting #colour #iloveaustria 🦋 #randomact #flowersforthepeople #painting #streetart #flowers #uplift #beautify #inspire #goodlife #lush #dreams #original #artlives #saltzkammergut

[random-act]

I love swans... remember the ugly duckling? Here's to all the late bloomers. #Grace #Grateful I ❤️🇦🇹 #saltzkammergut #Austria #love #travel #holiday #watercolor #gouache #painting 🌻 #randomact #FlowersforthePeople #UpliftBeautifyInspire #Uplift #Beautify #Inspire #Flowers #Beauty #Inspiration #goodlife #lushlife 🦋 @planoly #planoly (at Los Angeles, California)

[favoritescene]

Saltzkammergut, Austria. 2018.

[favoritescene]

Saltzkammergut. Austria. 2018.