Salzburg is a beautiful city and we were able to spend three days there. Our hotel was on Getreidegasse, a pedestrian walkway and one of the most famous shopping streets in Salzburg. The shops were small with wrought iron signage that added to the street’s charm. Salzburg is the birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart – he was born in 1756 in the yellow house pictured below. His home was also on Getreidegasse Street. Mozart’s musical talent emerged at a young age. …
We were next headed for Salzburg, but stopped in Innsbruck along the way. We were able to spend the morning exploring. Innsbruck is the capital of the state of Tyrol and lies beneath the Alps. It is the fifth largest city in Austria, but its history and charm are still very much part of its character. Innsbruck was home to Emperor Maximilian I in the late 1400’s and in its more recent history, hosted the Winter Olympics (both 1964 and…
On this day of our tour we would see natural beauty and an architectural wonder. We began our day by heading for Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. We first took a cogwheel train to Lake Eibsee. A cogwheel train has a third rail with “teeth” that allows the train to handle a steeper grade. When we got to Lake Eibsee, we took a cable car to the peak of Zugspitze. The first picture below is of the cogwheel train. …
We drove from Munich to Oberammergau. Along the way, we saw houses with beautiful paintings on them. The technique used is like that of a fresco where paint in applied to wet plaster. As the plaster and paint dries, the paint becomes permanent (can’t be dissolved by water). Paintings like these are referred to as Luftlmalerei. They became popular in the 18th Century and were used to convey one’s wealth. Many of the houses around Oberammergau have paintings related to…
Munich is a very easy city to get around. The town square, Marienplatz, was within walking distance of our hotel. It has served as the center of Munich since 1158. Years ago, markets and tournaments occurred here. Today, it is a common gathering place and also the site of Christmas markets during the holiday season. The Mariensäule is a Marian column which was originally built in 1638 to commemorate the end of Swedish occupation following the Thirty Years’ War. A…
The next night we would stay at Banff Springs Hotel. Along the way, our first stop was to see Athabasca Falls which is within Jasper National Park. Athabasca Falls is in the upper part of the Athabasca River – we had gone rafting on the lower part of the river during our stay in Jasper. While the water doesn’t have the greatest drop, it is considered a powerful waterfall because of the amount of water funneled through relatively narrow openings…
We left Lake Louise and headed for the Jasper Park Lodge via the Icefields Parkway. The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks are a UNESCO World Heritage Site both because of their beauty and fossils that can be found in the area. Our drive took us into Yoho National Park, Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. The drive was one of incredible scenery with snow-covered mountains, glaciers, beautiful blue lakes colored by glacier sediment, and waterfalls. The next pictures were taken…
My husband and I woke up early in Kananaskis and took a walk after breakfast. We were treated to beautiful views and saw a doe and her fawn on our walk. And then we were off to Lake Louise, but with some incredible stops along the way. One of those stops was Emerald Lake which is in Yoho National Park in British Columbia. The lake was named by Tom Wilson, a Canadian guide, who found it by accident in 1882….
We took our first Tauck tour, the Best of the Canadian Rockies, in 2009. We arrived early so we could explore Calgary and chose a tour date that would allow us to be in town for the Calgary Stampede. The Canadian Pacific Railway has its headquarters in Calgary. It is also known for the hotels it established to promote ridership on their passenger trains. We stayed at two of these, Chateau Lake Louise and Banff Springs Hotel, during this trip….
Queenstown is known as the Adventure Capital of New Zealand (and some say the world). There are all kinds of possibilities – mountain climbing, rock climbing, jet boating, kayaking, hang gliding, tandam paragliding and bungy jumping. In fact, commercial bungy jumping got its start in Queenstown in 1988. We rode on the Skippers Canyon Jet Boats. We began our day as we traveled through Skippers Canyon to the launch area. The drive through the canyon was incredible – it was…