We skipped a day of blogging because yesterday, Wednesday July 13th, ended up being extremely long and did not end with convenient internet. Then, because of our long Wednesday day and night, Thursday, July 14 was a relatively short
day. We’ll try to describe in order the best we can and let you know when we switch days as each day also takes place in a different city—actually, different countries!
Europe definitely got a few points on Wednesday morning because we slept in until 10:00. Although, both Beth and I decided we deserved a few points because neither of us are normally able to sleep in until 10:00 anymore. Sigh, adulthood. Our sweet hotel owner, Antonio, knocked on the door at 10:00 and told us it was time to check out. Despite our slightly late check out he still allowed us to store our luggage at his hotel until 8:45 p.m. We had to pick up at this time to walk to the train station. Our tour around Florence started with a walk past Santa Maria Novella Cathedral—the church in the plaza about fifty meters from our hotel. We didn’t go in because, unlike every other church in Italy, they charged an entrance fee.
We continued on to the Academy Gallery, which houses the original “David” by Michelangelo. While waiting in a short line we met four college students from Texas—one who graduated from Stratford (the high school about three blocks from the school Beth and I teach at!). What a small world. Once inside we took several walks around David—he deserves the hype that has been built up around him in the art world. The veins in his hands and the curves in his knees are incredibly realistic. According to a small plaque near the statue Michelangelo found the piece of marble in a “scrap” pile and asked the Medicis if he could use it. To think, one of the more famous pieces was not even commissioned by a wealthy patron. Beth and I both agreed that this was our favorite collection of art—we love sculptures! In addition to sculptures they also have a large collection of paintings that are fun to look.
After a pizza (with eggplant! Beth is so brave in her eating habits; she had never had it before! Mmmm) we decided we
needed something else to do with the rest of our day. We looked at the tour book and decided the Galileo Museum might be interesting—it was also in the right neighborhood we were walking in and air-conditioned. This was our favorite museum of the trip so far! We both decided that we need to somehow take our ninth grade students on a field trip to this museum as it has an interesting, and beautiful, history of geometry, astronomy, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, and the art of war. Basically the Medicis were looking to not only improve the city of Florence with art and architecture but they also wanted to expand their power abroad. A deeper knowledge of all of the above would help them achieve this so they invested in it. As a geography teacher I should probably be a little more interested in globes, but I’m not. I teach it, but it’s not my favorite topic we cover in class. These globes were AMAZING and would make anyone want to know more about how they came to be. I’m pretty sure my kids would agree. Beth is now inspired to teach a unit on the geometry of war—can you see a ninth grade boy who would not be interested in that? So maybe we won’t be approved for a trip to Florence but perhaps we can finally bridge the cross-curricular gap we have had between math and the other ninth grade core classes. Okay, enough teacher talk. Back to the gelato and wine…
After an excellent last meal and gelato in Florence we picked up our luggage and walked to the train station to catch the 9:52 p.m. train to Innsbruck, Austria. We invested in a sleeper car for four, which was a wise decision for several reasons. 1) We got a little (very little) sleep. 2) We were not in a six-person sleeper car. Sleeping with a ceiling and or bed that close to your face is not ideal. We’ll leave it at that and I am sure Beth can tell you in person someday my reaction to our accommodations last night. We changed trains in Innsbruck and by 7:00 a.m. we had arrived in a chilly Salzburg. Beth and I were feeling pretty groggy and disgusting at this point and went in search of our hotel. Luckily this
hotel is run by sweet Austrians who rushed to get our room ready while we had a cappuccino in a nearby cafe (the best of our trip! But not too effective on our sleep-deprived selves.).
After a load of laundry (1 pt us—we were in need of some clean clothes), a shower, and a short nap it was already 1:00 p.m. We set out for a walk around town and passed Mozart’s birthplace (we skipped this and went to his residence later based on our books recommendation) on our walk through the old city. We then stumbled on a path that led up the Monchsberg; this is what we think the large hill is called that we climbed up
based on our map. We reached the top, which also is home to Salzburg’s Modern Art Museum, and found scenic views of the entire city and surrounding countryside. We had a good view but sadly our pictures did not turn out as well as the actual view because of a decent amount of cloud coverage. Sad for you, but now you have to go to Salzburg to see it in person :).After our hike (which was longer that we thought it would be because of some wrong turns) we went to Mozart’s Residence. We paid for the audio tour and both really enjoyed the descriptions, which included Mozart’s music in the background. They played some of the pieces he composed at eight years old. Wow. Both Beth and I wondered how it was our students, at fourteen, can’t even remember to bring a pencil to class, and Mozart would play the piano by invitation for kings and queens. We kid. We love our students, but seriously, bring a pencil to class.
We ended our day very early today because we both accidently fell asleep in the short movie about Mozart in the last room of his residence. Its not that we were not interested, we were just so tired, it was dark in the theater, they were playing nice calming Mozart music in the background, and this particular part of the tour was in German. The combination made it too much to resist a short siesta. We randomly went into a restaurant on the way back to our hotel and it was great. We feel that Austria will be a culinary delight as well. Pork chop with tomato, cheese, mushrooms, bacon all on top of a hash brown patty. Mmmmm. We are pretty sure it was fairly local too. None of the other customers were speaking any English.
Now we are headed to bed after our long days. We need to rest up because tomorrow is the Sound of Music tour. To say we are excited is an understatement. The hills are going to be alive with US.
Choos (sp?),
Beth and Jesse
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