Guten tag (good day)!
We're in Austria right now in a beautiful little village called Mauterndorf which is in a valley about an hour south of Salzburg. We've come here to find a house that my Austrian ancestors lived in. It is very scenic around here, huge mountains everywhere. This first photo shows a stunning view of a lakeside village we came across just south of the Italian/Austrian border. Now that was a marathon drive. We left Verona, Italy at about 11am and after a couple of major traffic jams along the highway and deciding to take a detour through the mountains which close to doubled our driving time (well worth it though) we arrived here at about midnight. Before Verona we were sunning it on the gorgeous Cote d'Azur of Provence. So we managed to get in a couple more Mediterranean swims before we leave. Swimming in the Med alone is worth coming back for, we'll return before too long, I hope!
Gee we lucked it with the accommodation here. We're staying at a really nice and cozy ski chalet. Below shows a photo of the foyer with Soph and Connor picking from a bowl full of lollies. The house was built in 1550 and believe or not the couple who own it spend their winters in Australia, near Seal Rocks!
This photo shows Connor at our front door here in Mauterndorf. We even have a 10th century castle at the end of road, as shown below. The village was built from the proceeds of a toll that was paid by traders travelling for centuries between Vienna and Venice. And interestingly Herman Goring, the head of the German Luftwaffe in WWII, spent his childhood at this castle and tried unsuccessfully to flee there at the end of the war.
The night after we arrived in Mauterndorf we headed down to the village "vollmondnacht" or "full moon night" party. Below shows "Teja & Gunther" playing some tunes and those two blurs in front of them are Soph and Connor dancing away, much to the guy on the right and a bunch of local's delight. Sophie even asked me (for the very first time) for a dance, I was chuffed. It was a lovely, memorable night.
So this is where my ancestors, the Gernhoefer family lived, as shown below. It's now a guest house and that's me with Soph and Connor in the front yard. My great, great grandmother was Anne Gernhoefer. In 1732 the family, who were Protestant were told amongst many others to either become Catholic or leave. They left and walked through a winter to East Prussia, present day Poland. From a google search I did on Salzburg....
"In early 1732 King Frederick William I of Prussia accepted 12,000 Salzburger Protestant emigrants, who settled in areas of East Prussia that had been devastated by the plague twenty years before" .
The Gernhoefers were a part of that very brave group of 12, 000 people.
We drove up a nearby mountain to look down at the lush green valley where the Gernhoefers lived. The house is situated close to the middle of the photo.
This is where we stayed in Nice. It was a charming ground floor apartment with really high ceilings, in a late 18th century mansion built by a Russian family. Below shows Jane next to Black Betty, who was fully packed, with us ready to head off to Verona, Italy.......
We took the coastal road from Nice to Monaco, it was stunning. I took this picture looking back at Monaco. It's amazing how much is built into this tiny little country....
And when we arrived in Verona, our overnight stopover on route to Austria, we excitedly took our bags up to our B&B, showered and headed out to explore this beautiful city. I took this photo as we walked over a bridge into the "old town", it shows the "Ponte Scaligero" which is attached to the "Castelvecchio" ...
Here's a photo of an interesting wall in the 14th century Castelvecchio. I took it with the iPhone whilst on my morning walk the next day...
Back to that night, here is Connor and I in front of the ancient Roman gate to the city, the "Porta dei Borsari"....
A bit further on I snapped Sophie taking a snap of me with the "Torre dei Lamberti" tower and a full moon in the background.....
And here is the full moon again shining above Verona's grand Roman Amphitheatre. They have opera every night here during summer, save that one for next time...
This is the window of the butcher shop across the road from where we stayed in Verona, obviously not shy about the culinary delights of horse meat.....
This was taken on the day of our last swim (this time around) in the Mediterranean. Those pebbles on the beach there at Nice are not that easy to walk on.....
But it's definitely worth it, the water is so blue and inviting. Here is Soph and I having a swim, Soph becoming more and more confident in deep water, catching little waves into shore....
We finally made it to Saint Paul de Vence a well known village just inland from Nice. Ok there were tourists everywhere but it is still definitely worth it, kind of perfect in a medieval hill top village kind of way. Here it is with the blue sea of the French Riviera in the distance.....
As we walked into St Paul some people were having a game of boules next to a bar, a classic French scene....
As a reminder of how old St Paul is I snapped this old stone sign above one of the doorways. Way back in 1224, The Count of Provence Raymond Bérenger V came to thank Saint-Paul de Vence for its loyalty and stayed in the original "keep" or castle tower of the village.
Connor saw me drinking from a fountain there so up he hopped to take a drink himself...
Jane and Soph in one of St Paul's little character filled alleyways, Connor's hat featuring at the bottom of this photo....
Soph and Connor playing in what looked like some sort of medieval setup for grinding grain maybe ??
After a morning walk I'll typically do some stretches. This morning in Nice Sophie decided to do some stretches with me, as shown below. This was taken just after Connor jumped on me, as he tends to do when I'm stretching...
We had a lovely drive one day all the way south along the coast to Cannes. It was a real eye opener, so much wealth, so much natural beauty, and at the same time it has all that history! This photo shows Antibes across the bay with it's ancient town walls and towers.
We had an afternoon swim at Cannes, and when in Rome do as the Romans do....., so we went to a beach club and enjoyed the glitzy atmosphere, it was fun!
Here is Jane and I relaxing together in our deck chairs, for about fifteen seconds before kid duties called us off to the water's edge, we didn't mind at all though :)
On the way to Nice, just after we left Martin and Roxanne's (M&R) place, we drove through a favourite little stretch of ours lined with plane trees, very French....
And also on the way to Nice we made a point of visiting the well known Gorges du Verdon. Below shows the pretty little village of Moustiers-Saint Marie you drive through as you approach the Gorges from the west....
This is the entrance to the Gorges de Verdon with the Lac de Sainte-Croix in the foreground, what a sight it was....
The Gorges are absolutely spectacular, this is a must see if you are in this part of France....
Picnic time, and what a place to picnic, one of the best...
This photo shows one of the viewing platforms at the Gorges, the blue waters of the Verdon river way, way below....
Before we left The Luberon we enjoyed catching up with our friends we met when we were living there through winter. This included our Apt walking club buddies pictured below. Maite (bottom right) had invited us around for aperitifs and then invited a few other walkers around so they could catch up with us too, it was a really nice night...
And before we left we also visited some of our favourite villages included Saint Saturnin-les-Apt pictured below. It reminded us how nice it was to be here during winter when we kind of felt like we had the place to ourselves. There were heaps of tourists in Saint Saturnin that evening but the beauty of Provence in summer is exceptional and there are so many places where you can still feel like you're the only ones there,..... like M&R's place for example.
Speaking of M&R's place, we are going to miss their grand maison and its huge kitchen, pictured below, with windows that overlook the little green valley below. I think I was just about to whip up some pancakes for breakfast, Sophie showing off her "Ariel" princess doll...
And here is another of our favourite little villages, Villars, which is about 8km from where we lived in Rustrel. That's the Grand Luberon mountain in the distance..
Arles is one of our favourite cities in all of France. We got to see a show in the Arles Roman Amphitheatre about life in the Carmague. This Rhone River delta area has its own distinct culture with its wild white houses and black bulls as shown below, it's fascinating....
And here is Soph and I after the show in front of the 2,000 year old Arles Amphitheatre, definitely one of the finest examples of Roman architecture we've seen on our "Grande Vacance"......
We're in Austria right now in a beautiful little village called Mauterndorf which is in a valley about an hour south of Salzburg. We've come here to find a house that my Austrian ancestors lived in. It is very scenic around here, huge mountains everywhere. This first photo shows a stunning view of a lakeside village we came across just south of the Italian/Austrian border. Now that was a marathon drive. We left Verona, Italy at about 11am and after a couple of major traffic jams along the highway and deciding to take a detour through the mountains which close to doubled our driving time (well worth it though) we arrived here at about midnight. Before Verona we were sunning it on the gorgeous Cote d'Azur of Provence. So we managed to get in a couple more Mediterranean swims before we leave. Swimming in the Med alone is worth coming back for, we'll return before too long, I hope!
Gee we lucked it with the accommodation here. We're staying at a really nice and cozy ski chalet. Below shows a photo of the foyer with Soph and Connor picking from a bowl full of lollies. The house was built in 1550 and believe or not the couple who own it spend their winters in Australia, near Seal Rocks!
This photo shows Connor at our front door here in Mauterndorf. We even have a 10th century castle at the end of road, as shown below. The village was built from the proceeds of a toll that was paid by traders travelling for centuries between Vienna and Venice. And interestingly Herman Goring, the head of the German Luftwaffe in WWII, spent his childhood at this castle and tried unsuccessfully to flee there at the end of the war.
The night after we arrived in Mauterndorf we headed down to the village "vollmondnacht" or "full moon night" party. Below shows "Teja & Gunther" playing some tunes and those two blurs in front of them are Soph and Connor dancing away, much to the guy on the right and a bunch of local's delight. Sophie even asked me (for the very first time) for a dance, I was chuffed. It was a lovely, memorable night.
So this is where my ancestors, the Gernhoefer family lived, as shown below. It's now a guest house and that's me with Soph and Connor in the front yard. My great, great grandmother was Anne Gernhoefer. In 1732 the family, who were Protestant were told amongst many others to either become Catholic or leave. They left and walked through a winter to East Prussia, present day Poland. From a google search I did on Salzburg....
"In early 1732 King Frederick William I of Prussia accepted 12,000 Salzburger Protestant emigrants, who settled in areas of East Prussia that had been devastated by the plague twenty years before" .
The Gernhoefers were a part of that very brave group of 12, 000 people.
We drove up a nearby mountain to look down at the lush green valley where the Gernhoefers lived. The house is situated close to the middle of the photo.
This is where we stayed in Nice. It was a charming ground floor apartment with really high ceilings, in a late 18th century mansion built by a Russian family. Below shows Jane next to Black Betty, who was fully packed, with us ready to head off to Verona, Italy.......
We took the coastal road from Nice to Monaco, it was stunning. I took this picture looking back at Monaco. It's amazing how much is built into this tiny little country....
And when we arrived in Verona, our overnight stopover on route to Austria, we excitedly took our bags up to our B&B, showered and headed out to explore this beautiful city. I took this photo as we walked over a bridge into the "old town", it shows the "Ponte Scaligero" which is attached to the "Castelvecchio" ...
Here's a photo of an interesting wall in the 14th century Castelvecchio. I took it with the iPhone whilst on my morning walk the next day...
Back to that night, here is Connor and I in front of the ancient Roman gate to the city, the "Porta dei Borsari"....
A bit further on I snapped Sophie taking a snap of me with the "Torre dei Lamberti" tower and a full moon in the background.....
And here is the full moon again shining above Verona's grand Roman Amphitheatre. They have opera every night here during summer, save that one for next time...
This is the window of the butcher shop across the road from where we stayed in Verona, obviously not shy about the culinary delights of horse meat.....
This was taken on the day of our last swim (this time around) in the Mediterranean. Those pebbles on the beach there at Nice are not that easy to walk on.....
But it's definitely worth it, the water is so blue and inviting. Here is Soph and I having a swim, Soph becoming more and more confident in deep water, catching little waves into shore....
We finally made it to Saint Paul de Vence a well known village just inland from Nice. Ok there were tourists everywhere but it is still definitely worth it, kind of perfect in a medieval hill top village kind of way. Here it is with the blue sea of the French Riviera in the distance.....
As we walked into St Paul some people were having a game of boules next to a bar, a classic French scene....
As a reminder of how old St Paul is I snapped this old stone sign above one of the doorways. Way back in 1224, The Count of Provence Raymond Bérenger V came to thank Saint-Paul de Vence for its loyalty and stayed in the original "keep" or castle tower of the village.
Connor saw me drinking from a fountain there so up he hopped to take a drink himself...
Jane and Soph in one of St Paul's little character filled alleyways, Connor's hat featuring at the bottom of this photo....
Soph and Connor playing in what looked like some sort of medieval setup for grinding grain maybe ??
After a morning walk I'll typically do some stretches. This morning in Nice Sophie decided to do some stretches with me, as shown below. This was taken just after Connor jumped on me, as he tends to do when I'm stretching...
We had a lovely drive one day all the way south along the coast to Cannes. It was a real eye opener, so much wealth, so much natural beauty, and at the same time it has all that history! This photo shows Antibes across the bay with it's ancient town walls and towers.
We had an afternoon swim at Cannes, and when in Rome do as the Romans do....., so we went to a beach club and enjoyed the glitzy atmosphere, it was fun!
Here is Jane and I relaxing together in our deck chairs, for about fifteen seconds before kid duties called us off to the water's edge, we didn't mind at all though :)
On the way to Nice, just after we left Martin and Roxanne's (M&R) place, we drove through a favourite little stretch of ours lined with plane trees, very French....
And also on the way to Nice we made a point of visiting the well known Gorges du Verdon. Below shows the pretty little village of Moustiers-Saint Marie you drive through as you approach the Gorges from the west....
This is the entrance to the Gorges de Verdon with the Lac de Sainte-Croix in the foreground, what a sight it was....
The Gorges are absolutely spectacular, this is a must see if you are in this part of France....
Picnic time, and what a place to picnic, one of the best...
This photo shows one of the viewing platforms at the Gorges, the blue waters of the Verdon river way, way below....
And this is another gorgeous little village, "Trigance" which sits on the eastern side of the Gorges....
Before we left The Luberon we enjoyed catching up with our friends we met when we were living there through winter. This included our Apt walking club buddies pictured below. Maite (bottom right) had invited us around for aperitifs and then invited a few other walkers around so they could catch up with us too, it was a really nice night...
And before we left we also visited some of our favourite villages included Saint Saturnin-les-Apt pictured below. It reminded us how nice it was to be here during winter when we kind of felt like we had the place to ourselves. There were heaps of tourists in Saint Saturnin that evening but the beauty of Provence in summer is exceptional and there are so many places where you can still feel like you're the only ones there,..... like M&R's place for example.
Speaking of M&R's place, we are going to miss their grand maison and its huge kitchen, pictured below, with windows that overlook the little green valley below. I think I was just about to whip up some pancakes for breakfast, Sophie showing off her "Ariel" princess doll...
And here is another of our favourite little villages, Villars, which is about 8km from where we lived in Rustrel. That's the Grand Luberon mountain in the distance..
Arles is one of our favourite cities in all of France. We got to see a show in the Arles Roman Amphitheatre about life in the Carmague. This Rhone River delta area has its own distinct culture with its wild white houses and black bulls as shown below, it's fascinating....
And here is Soph and I after the show in front of the 2,000 year old Arles Amphitheatre, definitely one of the finest examples of Roman architecture we've seen on our "Grande Vacance"......
"Auf wiedersehn" or bye for now. Looking forward to our first wiener schnitzel, I think tonight's the night!
Hope all is well with you, best wishes from
Jane, Sophie, Connor and me.
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