June 30, 2013.  Just finished a champagne brunch at the White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang Austria.  We got here by driving from Lake Bled to Bad Ischl and Hallstat.  Hallstat was a wonderful little village in the lake district of Salzburg.  St. Wolfgang is close by Hallstat.  Yesterday we took a ferry to St. Gilgen and watched scenery straight out of the Sound of Music.  The mountains surrounding the lake are quite tall, I think 7500 feet, and the lower slopes are covered by pine and white birch tree forests.  Then, there are those beautiful green pastures that remind you of the opening scenes in the Sound of Music.  We have been looking for Julie Andrews, but have not seen her.  The hunt for Julie Andrews will continue.  Today we are going to mass at St. Wolfgang church which was started in 976!!   They say they incorporate pagan rites into the service to remember the past.  I am thinking virgin sacrifices, but Rita has told me not to get my hopes up.  In St. Gilgen we saw the home where Mozart’s sister lived.  I am sure we are going to hear more about this Mozart fellow in Salzburg!   We have had a rash of emails from our friends this week.  It was really nice to catch up with all of you.  Thank you for thinking of us.  It is nice that out of sight does not have to mean out of mind!   Rita continues to be a good driver.  I have only been lost twice as navigator which is slightly better than “Betsy” our GPS who has been lost three times.  We watched a wedding reception in St. Gilgen yesterday.  Yes, it was probably a slow tourist day, but it was very interesting.  All the guests wore traditional Austrian costumes.  It was lovely.  Rita acquired an ear ache on June 20th.  We are hoping to get it checked in Salzburg.  It is not really painful, but a nuisance.  And, it interferes with her hearing which makes for some pretty funny conversations between the two of us since my hearing is not terrific.  Today is our friend Jodi Barth’s birthday.  Happy Birthday Jodi.  Love and miss you.  By now we are sure that you have deciphered our blogs to know that I write the factual ones and Rita writes the humorous ones.  Sorry, travel does not change basic personalities!  The white horse inn has a swimming pool and hot tub that floats in the lake.  We were in the hot tub yesterday for about 2 hours.  It really drained all my strength out of me so I fell asleep and we missed dinner. I am bad!   First meal we have missed on the trip, but who is counting.  That is all for now.  Got to go to mass and check out the pagan rites.  More to follow.  We will post new photos later today.  Tomorrow we leave for Salzburg.  Love and miss you all.  It is great to have so many friends follow us and email us.  –Norm

Woke up to this view Monday, had to say goodbye and get going to Salzburg.

View of the homes on the lake while boating to St. Gilgen from St. Wolfgang. Not much development here.

Seriously???

We ate at a gas station. Not really… it used to be one. This place had great food. The Austrians really know how to recycle their buildings.

St. GIlgen

Our boat we took from St. Wolfgang to St. Gilgen. Nice ride.

Cool house in St. Gilgen

Now the wedding party have all gone inside to start the reception. Pretty place.

People from the wedding we watched, hanging outside for cocktail hour after wedding and before reception.

Mozart’s sister’s home in St. Gilgen

We are trying to duplicate the photo on our website found on the “Where are we going ?” page titled “White Horse Inn, St. Wolfgang, Austria”. We thought this building was the White Horse Inn, but found out it wasn’t. There are several of these pictures we took to see who took the best one.

Another one of the picture in the travel magazine… is this a match?

Picture #2 – yes or no?

View from the deck of our room.

St. Wolfgang from the lake. We are staying at the White Horse Inn, the red building in the background, but our room is right here on the lakefront, in the yellow building.

This is the view of the pool, hot tub and lake swimming area. The large pool at the end is solid stainless steel, kept at 86 degrees year round and is floating in the dock, next to it is the cold lake plunge pool, and the little pool under the flags is the hot tub. All floating. Pretty cool.

On our way to St. Wolfgang, still looking for Julie Andrews.

The White Horse Inn, it includes the green covered building and when you walk under the tunnel it leads to restaurants and shops of the hotel.

This is Hallstat, we were amazed once again at its beauty.

The other side of Hallstat, Just breathtaking.

Homes of Hallstat…..

Here’s my “Happy Meal”… Happy Hallstat people for sure!

Norm kept asking me to pull over while I was driving 80 so he could get a picture of the “BRA” sign. I couldn’t hear him half the time and the other half of the time I thought he was crazy… who ever heard of a bra sign???? Finally, I figured it out, stopped, and Norm got his picture.

We believe this means “walking path” and that it is not a CRIME SCENE….

Wonder what a schmuck is in Hallstatt!? Actually it is a decoration… So Norm is a decoration here in Hallstatt!

You may have to double click on this one… it’s a warning for a waiter with drinks crossing sign.