Christmas has come and gone, the corn is finally off, and winter is undecided as to whether it will stay or go. In no time at all, the sap will be drip-dripping from the spiles, and the steam will be billowing out of the sugar shack as the sweet maple aroma fills our farmyard. Time, like the ants in that little song, keeps marching. And though Europe is beginning to feel like a distant memory, it is in remembering that we can reach backward in time. Taking out the memories and unwrapping them is a re-savouring of a time well-spent, and time is spent well in re-savouring!
After our time in the quaint but awe-inspiring Assisi, we headed north into Austria. Seeing the snow-capped Alps for the first time was surreal. We spent a day in Vienna where we had coffee in a coffee shop that was frequented by the likes of Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven, and spent the evening at a symphony performance. We gaped at the church of St. Stephen’s with all its intricacies standing in the old city centre and listened as the bells tolled from its bell towers. We did a walking tour of parts of the old town and saw the Spanish Riding School that we read about in our homeschooling days where the Lipizzaner horses are trained. We toured the royal apartments of the now obsolete Habsburg family, and heard the sad tale of Sisi, the young girl who married the emperor, and, not unlike royal stories of our day, was overwrought with the expectations of life in the royal court and lived a sad and misunderstood life. We ate schnitzel (but not with noodles) and strudel (Apple? Yes. Crisp? No.). The almost full moon shone over us as we wandered through the streets back to our B&B, but we saw no wild geese flying with that moon glistening off their wings.
Fred the farmer amazed at the height of the corn in Austria 
St. Stephen’s in Vienna
Spanish Riding School 
Wash sets displayed at the royal apartments 
Vienna under a full moon 
The white ball at the base of the tower is turned manually to show the phases of the moon. Here it is almost full. 
We did. After Vienna, we went on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. We boarded a bus full of strangers and bonded by enthusiastically singing the SofM songs. It sounds cheesy I know, but, in fact, it wasn’t. It was pure fun. Our jovial tour guide kept things life-filled and moving. He sang with gusto, as did the off-key, older gentleman in the seat ahead of us. And it was all good. We sang together as we drove through the beautiful Austrian countryside to the village of Mondsee to see the chapel where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were married. We ate wieners and more apple strudel (crispier this time and drenched in a delicious vanilla sauce). We heard about the filming catastrophes and challenges that happened on set of this beloved movie. My sister and I even skipped down the path singing “I Have Confidence in Me” just like Maria did in the movie when she first came to the Von Trapp family. We concluded the tour with a stroll through the gardens that were featured in the film and by posing with one of the stone dwarfs that the children are seen with in the movie.
After wandering the streets of Salzburg and doing a quick tour of a fortress set high on a hill overlooking the city, we found a small grocery store and proceeded to fill a cart to overflowing with bread, wine, cheese, meat, yogourt, granola, chocolate, and just about anything else that struck our fancy as we wandered up and down the aisles. Somehow, we managed to get all of that packed into the already full”boot” (also affectionately dubbed the car’s booty) of our car, using every available nook and cranny including the space around our feet in the back seat. My sister and I don’t travel light, but we do travel with an adaptability that comes in handy at a time like that.
Once again, we hit the road and headed to a small Austrian village of Mittersill where we had booked a chalet for a few days in the mountains. The drive itself was beautiful. Dusk was deepening as we rounded the last switch back before the chalet. A ridge of mountains stretched majestically across the valley, and as we eased our way up the last climb, that same full moon crested the peaks and shone down on us once more.
While at the symphony in Vienna, a couple sitting behind us offered to take of a photograph for us when they saw us taking a 4-person selfie. My Fred, being who he is, struck up friendly conversation with them. We learned they were from Australia and taking an extended trip through parts of Europe. The next day, seated at an outdoor cafe at Mondsee while on the SofM tour, who do we see but this same couple. They joined us at our table. Then, back in Salzburg, as we walked to the fortress through the old town, we met up with them randomly once again.
They say it’s a small world, and that we’re only six degrees removed from any given person on the planet. I don’t know if that is a fact, but I do know that the same big moon shines down on us all whether we’re in Austria or Canada, whether we’re commoners or royals, whether we sing off key or on. It may be a small world, but there is room for us all, all of us, as we go “marching one by one, two by two, three by three…” in our time.