Gardens, Dwarves, Beer and Music
Today our big adventure to Mirabellgarten (the Mirabell Gardens) turned out to be much more exciting than we expected. As we roamed through the flowers, fountains, and statues, we came upon a music group from Milton Keynes, England. They were giving a free performance in the middle of the gardens. We stayed to listen to the music, and truly enjoyed the concert. Kendra was excited to see their string quartet play a piece by Beethoven, however she was sadly disappointed in their performance, as it was not up to par according to her standards. That fact that I noticed they were out of tune signified just how dreadful they sounded. Given that they were clearly young teenagers, we cut them a little slack; and despite the one poor performance, we enjoyed the orchestra’s concert.
We decided to walk to Augustiner Bräustübl Kloster Mülln (St. Augustine’s Beer Garden). As we left the Mirabell Gardens, we stumbled upon some interesting statues depicting rather maniacal-looking dwarves. We snapped some pictures, and then crossed the river on a footbridge. Kendra wasn’t quite sure where the beer garden was, so we wandered a bit before I pulled out the map. With directions in hand, we made our way to an old church, founded by Augustine monks in 1621, that has since been renovated into a massive outdoor eatery. We met up with three friends – Julie, Kristy, and Carolyn. They had already scored a table, so Kendra and I went inside to grab some wiener schnitzel, pommes-frites, and beet salad. As I waited for our order, Kendra went back outside to get us some beer. Unlike a bar or pub, at the beer garden you pick a stein from shelves on the wall, purchase a ticket, and then go to the wooden keg of the beer of your choice. The man at the keg takes your ticket, fills your stein, and sends you out into the garden. The “garden” is actually a huge terrace covered by trees with a hundred or so tables with chairs strewn atop the gravel on the ground.
We had a lovely time, with the conversation mostly centered around engagement stories, as four of the five of us are engaged, and the remaining one, Julie, is already married. After dinner, Kendra and I headed back to the dorm so she could get some reading done.
I spent the entire adventure keeping my eyes peeled for Rick Steves, a travel writer who has a television program that airs on PBS. I love his work, and as I was surfing the web yesterday morning, I came across his blog for this summer: Blog Gone Europe. I almost fell off my seat when I read that he was writing from Salzburg, and that the last entry had been written on July 17th! He is staying very close to our dorm, so needless to say, I was hoping to get a glimpse of his production crew in action. Although we didn’t run into Rick personally, we did see some folks with a camera at the Mirabell Gardens, and I wonder if they were collecting B-Roll (extra footage used over interview footage or in conjunction with narration) for his show. I guess I will find out next season…
My eyes will most certainly stay peeled tomorrow!
