How can something new be old? Or something old be new?
Well, the medieval old town of Frankfurt was one of the best-preserved old towns in Central Europe.
But, in March of 1944, it was almost completely
destroyed in a WWII bombing raid.
In 2012, after decades of rubble, the city started the recreation of the historical old town. It was completed in 2018.
The new old town now combines historical architecture with modern design to blend with the remaining historic buildings.
To put Austria’s size into North American perspective, it is slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina in the US and slightly larger than the country of Costa Rica.
By contrast, Canada
is the world's second-largest country with a total area of approximately 9,984,670
square kilometres (3,855,100 square miles).
Canada's only land border
is along the southern part of the country. And our only neighbour is south of
that border.
We can drive in
Canada for days without ever crossing a border or leaving the country.
Not so in Austria. We decided to go for a “country drive” on another rainy day. We crossed 3 borders in less than 2 hours.
Not surprisingly, Salzburg’s name and prosperity go back to the centuries-long international trade in, what else, but, salt.
Salt was so valuable that it was dubbed "white gold".
The income from the salt trade enabled the ruling prince-archbishops to build an affluent city.
Salzburg was also called the "Rome of the North" because of its Italian character and numerous churches.
We haven't been getting the best of weather with low clouds obscuring the tops of the mountains a lot of the time, but when it hasn't been raining, and especially if the sun has been shining, we get out there!
We find that starting at a higher altitude we have to "work a lot harder" getting up the steeper inclines.
That's our story and we're sticking to it.
We have decided that it has nothing to do with getting older and not being as active as we should be.
But getting out there to enjoy the scenery is definitely a motivator to push ourselves.
This brings to mind the iconic movie "The Sound of Music" that takes place in Austria.
As an aside, much to John's horror, my sister Marie and I love to belt out Sound of Music songs while we watch the movie.
It really is probably not a pretty sight, nor sound, because not only am I parking challenged, I am also musically challenged!
Having tin ears, I can't hear where Marie's singing talents lie.
