It’s official – we’re going back to Europe in the spring!

Here’s the plan:

• Day 1: Leave Seattle
• Day 2: Arrive in Vienna
• Day 2 – 5: Vienna
• Day 5 – 7: Hallstatt
• Day 7 – 11: Salzburg & Bavaria
• Day 11: Return to Seattle

Why Austria, you ask? 

While Italy was an easy choice – it was at the tippy-top of both our travel lists and we began saving for the trip pretty much as soon as we returned from our honeymoon – our next location was more of a question mark. Apparently, “the rest of Europe” wasn’t a realistic goal for one visit. :)

Back in summer 2012, we were beginning to consider options for our 2013 trip and briefly considered returning to Europe. While I’d be perfectly happy visiting Italy again, Brendan has this thing about trying new places. (Even though I was willing to compromise and visit different regions of Italy.) The new deal is that we can return to Italy when I’m fluent in Italian. Little does he know I’m getting Rosetta Stone and should be fluent in no time. Ha!

Anyway, since deep down I agree the point of travel is to expand your worldview and experience new things, I was willing to concede that a return trip to Italy may not happen in the near future. Brendan loves mountain vistas and was interested in checking out New Zealand (“it’s where they filmed Lord of the Rings!”) or the Alps in Switzerland. After nixing New Zealand/LOTR because of the epic plane ride (any flight over 12 hours nearly kills me), I was in the process of nixing Switzerland/Alps because of the steep cost of everything when I stumbled on this picture of Hallstatt, Austria:

Nestled in the Salzkammergut Region (also known as the Lake District), Hallstatt looked like a picture-perfect alpine village. It checked all the boxes: historic village center (me), a range of hiking options (him), and relatively easy access to mountain vistas (us), like this one:

Hallstatt was also a reasonable train ride from both Vienna and Salzburg, the latter of which would be a good home base if we wanted to take day trips into Germany's Bavaria region. I knew of Salzburg from its Sound of Music fame (it’s the home of the real Von Trapps and filming location of the movie) and Vienna is well-renowned for its music and art. A Vienna/Hallstatt/Salzburg+Bavaria itinerary seemed like the perfect mix of city/country and nature/historic sites.

So while we ultimately tabled this trip idea in favor of Hawaii, Austria was very much on the top of our minds when we recently began thinking about our next adventure. After getting OK’d for the vacation time (thanks, bosses!), we made the plunge and secured plane tickets & hotels!

Until next time… Auf Wiedersehen!