My first memory of Austria was boarding the overnight train through Germany from the Czech Republic. My family, quite the overpackers, had 8 suitcases for the 4 of us (plus laptop bags and purses) and a stressful lack of experience with public transportation. My father, always in control but...overcautious when it came to travel warned us that the train would only stop for a few minutes before taking off, regardless of if all the passengers successfully boarded or not. This struck fear into the hearts of us ladies as we pictured one of us being left behind at the station after frantically trying to load all of our luggage and persons onto the train.

When the train finally did arrive, we rather spastically tried to hand these huge overweight suitcases one of my parents who was on board (while the other waited on the platform just in case one of us kids got left behind, of course). As you probably guessed we all made it on the train and soon found ourselves in two tiny sleeper compartments. This was quite the experience coming from the US and never having ridden a train before! It was also quite daring of my parents as thus far we had flown every leg of our trip. I don't remember much else besides customs coming to stamp our passports in the middle of the night.

Once in Salzburg we appreciated the home of the Sound of Music, one of my dad's favorite movies, and the beauty of the landscape.

We tried Sachertort and my sister and I got our own hotel room for the first time ever! We were warned against showing our credit cards too flippantly as they would have the numbers stolen by wiley and extremely talented thieves. This was also the first hotel I ever stayed at where the keys were actual keys and not keycards.