Always Charlotte!

It always seems that Charlotte is the destination I'm always delayed in. I looked out over the runway last week and it brought back memories of this past winter when we sat on the runway for hours awaiting our turn to be deiced with a mini garden hose and an ice scraper. Weather, plane shortages, misplacement of flight crew... You name it, I've seen it in Charlotte.

Now we sit on the runway, away from the gate in a line of planes backed up to Georgia, waiting patiently for a storm to pass over us. The sound of a torential downpour beats on the roof of the plane, resounding with deafening "ting" noise as it hits the metal roof, meanwhile, 40 some passengers sit ereeily quietly as one lone workaholic beats out a rythm on his laptop keyboard.

It's 9pm, 2 hours after we were supposed to have originally departed... And here we sit.... In Charlotte, dear Charlotte....

Slowly Posting Salzburg

I'll slowly finish posting all my Salzburg pictures.... Here are some from the bed and breakfast we stayed at -- the infamous VonTrapp House. It belonged to the VonTrapps until, in 1938, they walked down to the railway station about a block from their house and took off to Italy when things started getting tough in Austria. Almost immediately, Himmler took over their house and made it his own until 1945. The white wall you see running around the house was built by labor camp workers - it remained even after Himmler had left. After the Germans were defeated the US gave the house back to the VonTrapps who gave it to the Catholic Church who turned into a missionary house and just gave it up to be used as a hotel in 2004. Its a pretty interesting place and its kind of cool to be in the house the VonTrapps were in. They tried to keep renovations so that they retained original floors and such. Its actually a beautiful place!

Unfortunately, I think we must have gotten the scullery maid's room up in the attic... pretty tiny....
A glimpse of our "comfortable" room... we were assured of this many times by our host.... Oh, in case you think the rest of the room is behind the open door -- its not -- that is the room. SCULLERY MAID!....

I was quite confused about the room with the private bath that I had reserved, until I was quickly reassured that we did indeed have a private bath ... oh, the confirmation didn't mention that we had to go out and down the common hall to get to our "private" bath....
The staricase in the entryway with the VonTrapp kids staring down at you...

The front entry door.

We came out the first morning and were taken aback to see little bunnies all over the lawn. I found it quite interesting and tried to sneak up on them to get a picture... but the closer I got, the more I realized that these weren't your average bunnies. On looking across the lawn at the shed, you could see several open cages. Which brings me to my next statement -- we never did eat dinner at the Villa Trapp....

Cute little bunny -- I believe this one is called...HOSSENPFEFFER....

Another Monday Back At Work

Here I am back at the train station on Monday morning, waiting for the train that will take me to the plane that will take me to the car that will take me to the road that will lead me to my work week. At least, I get to start off my staying at my aunt's in Greenville, SC :) Otherwise, its a pretty bland week of work in Atlanta.

I'm still trying to find the time to get on the blog and download the rest of my Salzburg picts!

Stinky Saturday

Well - I got to go home and stay home for a day. Friday was all mine, except I had the fam over in the evening for dinner and to partake of the wonderful Sacher Torte that I had brought back from Vienna - it had to be eaten within 3 weeks or it would go bad, so it was a must....

Then, I had to go to bed early so I could get up for a flight on Saturday -- Saturday!!! morning! We had a vendor fair/sales meeting we had to do in Orlando and I refused to spend Friday night so I was scheduled on the 6:20 a.m. flight out of O'hare. Only thing is - I took some cold medicine the night before and so when my alarm went off early Saturday morning, I didn't go off... I didn't wake up until about 30 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave. Eeek -- I ran around and just got to the airport but I missed the 9 a.m flight as it was oversold. The meeting started at 1pm so I figured if I didn't make the 10 a.m. so I could get there by 1:20 pm, I should just chuck it. My boss was telling me just forget it, but I could hear in his voice that he was really ticked and so I figured I was just going to pray and take a leap -- I did get on the 10 a.m. flight. I made it in by 1:30 and I got over to the convetion center by about 2 or so in order to be part of the crazy sales meeting. It was so loud and overrun -- I don't know exactly what we got done, but I was there!

Needless to say, I'm now headed home via - my dear beloved Charlotte. :) I flew from Orlando here and then will connect to Chicago. Incidentally, I have to work in Atlanta next week and so I was going to stay an evening or two with my aunt, so I'll have to fly back to -- Charlotte.... Whenever I have to come here, I come here in excess.

I'm still pretty stinky feeling. My ear wouldn't pop on the plane from Orlando to Charlotte and I had this little panic attack as I was sandwiched in by the window surrounded by all these people in these tight seats. I honestly wanted to like run down the aisle of the plane. Thats how I know I'm not feeling well, when flying actually really bothers me. My ear finally popped and I definitely felt better. Now, if I could just get rid of all this gunk in my head... Blech.

Good night on Saturday!

FYI -- Look two posts below and there are a few pictures that I posted from Salzburg....

Blogging In Budapest - Sick In SanAntonio

So, after blogging away in Budapest, I'm coming up short - and sick - now. I got home from Budapest on Monday evening and Tuesday evening I was back on a plane to San Antonio. Calvin was so ticked at me that, while I was packing my bag Tuesday afternoon, he pulled everything out and sat on it with his head in my suitcase. Poor baby - he doesn't know what's going on...

To my knowledge I've never gotten jetlag, and this time was no exception. However, I came down to tx and busy busy as well as the 90 degree weather - my body is spazzing now and I woke up with a head cold. I muddled through 3 accounts today but my head is foggy so I'm looking forward to getting on that 5:30 flight and heading home. I'll have Friday at home and then I've got to head down to Orlando on Saturday for the day... I think I'll just be the "pretty", dumb (or just pretty dumb) blonde on Saturday at the product show as I'll be useless by then....

Happy Thursday!

Here are a few pictures from Salzburg. This was our first day or two -- I'll post the others later...

The path up to the Castle on the Monchsburgauzug Trail

Viewing Salzburg from the Castle

The Abbey that Maria VonTrapp was at ... not as grand as the movie!

On the Monchsbergausug Trail

This was one of the original walls from the 1600s.

This is supposed to be the best hotel in Austria.

Viewing the Old and the New Towns

We found these walking trail "men" to be quite amusing....

The Sacher Hotel in Salzburg - the original is in Vienna.

In the Sacher Hotel ....

Eating Sacher Torte... Yum!

This was in Mozart's birthplace.... This is a letter from Mozart announcing the birth of their first child.

View from Mozart's house into the courtyard.

Pretzels and Mozart Balls (yes, thats what they're called)

St. Peters Cathedral where Mozart played most of his compositions and "worked".

This was a Bishop's house in the center of Salzburg .... A Bishop! It was crazy huge!

This was us tripping around and singing "Doe A Deer"....

Does this look familiar? Rewind those videos and watch Maria and the kids running around Salzburg....

This was a wood carving on the side of a shop

The view from the St Peter's Restaurant where Mozart and his family often ate... I think they've remodeled a little since then???

Wienerscnitzel

Good old Austrian Roast Pork and Bread Dumplings

We had to order this one 25 minutes beforehand. Its a Salburg original - a mousse thing. You had to have 2 people to even order it and it came out with 3 big mounds on the plate which they then put on the dessert plates. It had some kind of cranberries in the middle and there was raspberry sauce on the side. It was all together WAY too sugary - literally you could feel and taste the sugar. We ate very little, but we had an experience!

Salzberg at dawn from the Bristol Hotel rooftop bar.

Walking to mass Sunday morning in the rain

What we heard Sunday morning - if you were able to listen to the recent post recording, this was it.

We then had coffee at this little restaurant - once again, Mozart used to partake of coffee here as well...

The Salzberg Cathedral

This was the cutest little stuffed airedale -- I went in to have a look -- 186 euros!!!!! I think it was probably actually once a live airedale????

This was an archbishop's house outside of the city center.... Hellbrun

Hangar 7 - owned by the creator of Redbull

Then we drove over to Vienna for dinner... this is Schonbrunn on the way in ... this is one of the most beautiful places in europe I think!