Europe Spring 2025 - Day 4

We woke up this morning to the sound of our alarms. I had somewhere to be—Salzburg, to see my friend Magda! We had to leave early enough to run down the hill into town and catch the bus over the mountain. We went downstairs to see if they perhaps had some coffee for us. It looked dark and quiet; we were already imagining having to wait for coffee until later. Then we heard a friendly "Hallo," and the guesthouse owner ushered us into the dining room, where a breakfast spread fit for royalty lay! She made us coffee and chatted with Roel in German. The only thing I understood was, "Does your wife not speak any German?" She left us to our feast of three types of good bread, boiled eggs, cheese, yogurt, fruit, juice, and chocolate.

When the bus dropped us off in Salzburg, Roel and I parted ways. I went to the café to meet my friend Magda, who was living in Peru at the same time as me. We were good friends in Cusco, meeting about once a week or so to chat over coffee and go on adventures together every once in a while. I was very lucky to have found a friend like her. We’ve stayed in contact, and when I told her I would be in Salzburg, she said she’d love to come visit me! She lives in the German countryside, about an hour and a half away.

I walked into the café and spotted her smiling face right away. How wonderful to reunite with a friend you haven’t seen in years. I was a little nervous at first, but very quickly we warmed up and were excitedly catching up. She told me that it can be hard to return home after you’ve lived abroad because you’ve changed so much—and sometimes people don’t understand that. I think that’s one reason she and I connect so well: we’ve both experienced leaving our nest and exploring the world.

We caught up on so much over our breakfast and multiple coffees. I told her how fortunate I felt that she made the trip to see me, and she said that next time I need to come see where she lives!

Roel was right around the corner waiting for me—he had gone to the airport and picked up our rental car while I was with Magda. We were across the street from Mirabell Gardens (Sound of Music scene!), so we walked through the beautiful park. Early spring is definitely a gorgeous time to be there. The tulips were just about to pop, and all the other flowers were blooming. 

After strolling through the gardens we headed toward the old town. I looked to my left and saw a lonely, winding staircase going up. “Let’s go up there!” I said.

The staircase climbed up and up, underneath and through the ancient buildings, then along a stone ledge where we saw tiny gardens behind gates belonging to little old apartments. “Who lives there?” The views started to get impressive. Then we reached some type of monastery—the doors were closed. We headed down an old stone walkway next to the monastery. We walked along a stone wall, encountering benches and a few couples sitting and taking in the views. Across the river we could see the Salzburg Castle sitting majestically upon the rocky hill. Below, the teal-blue, wide Salzach River flowed briskly beneath pedestrian and auto bridges, cutting the city in two. I have completely fallen in love with Salzburg.

We kept walking (and I kept taking photos every few steps as the view changed, of course). Eventually, there were no more people at all—we had the fortress and the ancient stone walls with turrets all to ourselves. We imagined it in the Middle Ages and how they built the city to defend from attack. With the castle built on the hill and the towering Alps behind, it wasn’t hard to also imagine a princess and a dragon as part of the fairytale. 

After not seeing anyone for the 20 minutes—and looking up at a very steep, very tall staircase—we wondered, Are we lost? We kept thinking there would be another way down, but eventually realized the fortress walls didn’t have any weakness; it seemed we would have to go down the way we came. We found a different path that wandered through the woods, back to the monastery and the original stairs we had climbed up.

I’m so grateful to have stumbled upon a staircase that led us to a whole world we didn’t know existed up there! We wandered through more of the small, winding streets, walked out on one of the bridges over the river and got some food (the prices in Austria are great—we are pleasantly surprised!). We agreed that tomorrow we’ll explore the other side of the river and the castle on the hill.

We found our Volkswagen (my friend Magda, from the state of Bavaria, told me it’s the richest state in Germany because of Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW). It was fun to see Roel driving comfortably halfway across the world. I told him I would’ve been too scared to drive myself here. He reminded me he is European, after all. He told me that being back in Europe and traveling made him feel so in his element, that he missed this part of himself, and that it felt like home.

We arrived back at our lovely Mulahof (our guesthouse). We sat on the balcony in the sun with the snacks and wine we had picked up at the market. We relaxed, chatted, and enjoyed. Roel got ready to go across the road to the monastery for a service. As the sun dipped down behind the trees, I put on my wool socks and wrote a blog post. When Roel returned, we went off in our car to find some dinner.

Everything is working out so magically on this trip, and we are both in favor of the “go with the flow” type of travel. So rather than look something up online, we decided to drive around the lake and see what we could find. It was a gorgeous drive, and we passed underneath a tram going to the top of a mountain that we want to check out!

On the other side of the lake, we drove into a tiny town called Saint Wolfgang that looked like a Austrian town straight out of a fairytale. We passed a dimly lit but still-occupied restaurant. That’s the one! We shared a lovely dinner. This really feels like our honeymoon.

Europe Spring 2025 - Day 3

This is the day we made the journey from Basel to Salzburg by train! It was a beautiful ride. The route took us through southern Germany, which was abloom with flowering trees and green hills. We glimpsed German cities like Stuttgart and Munich from the train windows. We changed trains twice, and both times it was very easy. All in all, it was about 7 hours by train. The first two trains we were on had cafés, so we were able to get coffee! The last train we took, from Munich to Salzburg, became increasingly more beautiful as we got closer and closer to the Alps. We could see them from far away—glacier-topped peaks—and then, all of a sudden, when we arrived in Salzburg, we were right there beneath the towering mountains. I wrote in my Notes app on my phone, “When I'm in an alpine environment, something in me comes alive.”

We arrived just a few minutes too late to pick up our rental car (we had realized this would be the case already, so we weren't disappointed). We found the bus to St. Gilgen, and then the views continued to stun us as we went up over a mountain and then descended upon a gorgeous large alpine lake. Did I mention yet this is where parts of The Sound of Music were filmed? It's absolutely stunning.

We got off at the bus stop and realized we didn't have a way to get to the guesthouse we were staying in up the hill. It could be easily walked without luggage, which we later did. We asked at the nearest hotel to help us find a taxi, and we met the most charming Austrian man who told us about the slow ways of life here in the Austrian countryside. He kept referring to Salzburg as the "big city" and said that everyone knew each other here and took care of each other, and that Sundays are the day when everyone goes to visit the grandparents and eat together, so almost nothing is open. He waited for us to make sure there was someone to let us into our guesthouse.

I'm calling it a guesthouse because I don't know what else to call it! It's not a hotel—it's actually someone's family home, and they run a very, very small bed and breakfast here. We are getting a real, authentic experience. She doesn't speak English, but luckily Roel's German is pretty good—better than I ever knew, and I think he's even surprising himself.

After checking out our room, we walked across the road to the monastery where David Steindl-Rast lives. If you haven't watched his interview with Oprah or one of his talks, he's really incredible. He even lived at a monastery in Sonoma for many years, which we also have visited! We looked around the tiny, tiny town and around the grounds of the monastery. Then Roel quickly told me to come with him because he could tell a session was in service. We quietly entered the dimly lit room full of candles and a few pews, where the monks and visitors were meditating. The monks then began singing and chanting, and then they bowed and left the room—and we caught a glimpse of Brother David. At 98 years old, he is still living the life of a Benedictine monk. Our guesthouse owner had told Roel that morning, “When you meet Brother David, no words are necessary—he simply shines.”

We saw on the bulletin that there was another evening service at 9 p.m., and we agreed to return after dinner. Since we didn’t have to carry our luggage, we decided to walk down to the lake and the town of St. Gilgen. We were stunned with lake views and snow-capped mountains on our way down. Being Austria, of course there was a lovely sidewalk next to the road that carried fast cars, and it was all very walkable and easy.

We noticed that many of the lakeside homes looked empty. We thought we probably came here during the off-season—not skiing time, but not yet summer, when people would go swimming in the lake. It's the perfect time to be here—hardly touristy at all. We feel like we found a hidden gem!

We walked into the sleepy town and encountered two restaurants: one lakeside and one that looked super cozy inside and had the smell of a wood-burning stove. We chose the latter and entered a cozy pizza restaurant. I got arugula and parmesan pizza and tried a Stiegl, a traditional Salzburg beer. The waiter was a Hungarian man who spoke impeccable English. Roel got to talking to him—as he does—and he told us he loves living here, how safe and welcome he feels.

After dinner, we made the walk back up the hill to our guesthouse and the monastery. It was hard not to fall into bed and pull the warm covers up, but instead, we buttoned up our coats and walked to the monastery. We were the first ones there. We walked into the dark room. I spent time in front of a fountain I had seen earlier. It's a large boulder with a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus on top. On the boulder, water is slowly falling down—weeping, like tears—falling into a small pool of water where candles are floating, and the stone behind the pool is shimmering. It was one of the most mystical and beautiful experiences to witness.

Brother David was not among the monks at this late service—at 98, I’m guessing he was already in bed! The monks’ chanting and reciting of prayer in German really set a contemplative mood, in which I found myself drifting between meditation and the dream world. When the service ended and the candles were blown out, then we finally did get some real sleep!

Europe Spring 2025 - Day 2

Our second day of our Europe trip was a big one! We started out getting a ride to the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam from Gerbrand at 4:30 a.m. We said "see you soon" to Lida, who woke up early to see us off! We caught our plane to Basel, Switzerland without a hitch. The plane was pretty empty, so I got to lie down across the seats and catch a few more minutes of sleep while in the air. Roel woke me up just in time to look out the window and catch a view of the snow-capped Alps! 

We landed in Basel and took the free bus to the main train station. With a wooden ceiling and paintings of the Alps, it really felt like we were in Switzerland. We had a delicious breakfast at a cafe next to the station. Then we stored our suitcases in the luggage lockers at the station so we could head off unencumbered to Dornach by tram, which is a nearby town where the Goetheanum is located. As two Waldorf teachers, the Goetheanum is like the mecca of Waldorf for Roel and me. It is where Rudolf Steiner lived and had the first conversations about Anthroposophy, the wide-ranging philosophy on self and soul development from which Waldorf education springs.

But before we arrived, we got off a few steps early from the tram and had a lovely walk through a small Swiss village. We came across a beautiful church that we went into—ornately decorated, it felt closer in style to ornate Italian churches than the stark interiors of the Protestant churches of the Netherlands.

We finally meandered our way to the Goetheanum, which was a spectacular sight to behold. Set atop a hill, surrounded by green hills where sheep and donkeys were grazing, sits a completely unique, imposing building. Surrounding the Goetheanum are lots of other buildings all designed and built in unique styles. Later in the day we had a tour, so we wandered around on our own first for a while, visited the bookstore where I found some lovely books and paintings to bring back home, and then visited the local biodynamic/organic market and had a picnic in the grass on the grounds.

We met the biodynamic farmer of the Goetheanum, who was a Dutch man from Friesland. Roel mentioned my last name was Postma, and he asked if I had visited Friesland yet to get a feel of my ancestors. Not yet! 

We then had a tour from a lovely South African Anthroposophist. I was most struck by the Red Window, which I was not allowed to take photos of, but is a massive stained glass triptych depicting the development of a soul. It really resonated and could summarize Anthroposophy in a way. 

We also got to see an enormous 3D model of the original Goetheanum, which, made of wood, burned down in the early 1920s only a few years after being built. While still unique, organic, and abstract, it was more classical and inviting than the current Goetheanum. Steiner said the first Goetheanum could be built anywhere, and when faced with redesigning the second Goetheanum, he wanted something to reflect the local landscape as well as the changes in society after World War I, saying that nothing was the same again and that new consciousness needed to be reflected. What resulted was a building made of concrete—the largest in Europe—with angular, organic shapes. Our guide told us we could think of it like a human head: the front of the building was inviting and full of windows and was where we took in the world with our senses, while the back of the building was like our skull, closed off and where we do our internal thinking.

I was obsessed with the stairway—there was a spiral stairway, but not completely round, more angular—that was painted in colors ascending from pink to red to orange to yellow, all blended together in the lazure style that is so common in Waldorf schools. At the very top was blue. It was so beautiful. Then the massive Representation of Man wooden sculpture that Steiner worked on with another woman until his death—it's still unfinished—but it represents the polarities in humans: the idealism and striving (which we need in life but don't want to get carried away with), and on the other hand, what pulls us down to practicality and everyday form. As a human, we must balance between these two, so the man has one hand reaching up and the other down. I appreciated "Cosmic Humor" rendered above the man as an extra add-on—it was literally added to balance the weight of the statue to keep it from toppling over—but I think it can also be appreciated that sometimes in life, we just have to laugh about it all.

After the lovely tour I wanted to find the copper shop Roel had told me about. He brought me back a beautiful copper bracelet from this tiny shop two years ago and told me about the eccentric man who made the jewelry and copper Eurythmy rods for Waldorf schools worldwide in this tiny, Hobbit-like workshop. We found it right before closing! I picked out a beautiful silver bangle-bracelet (apparently they also do silver).

Then it was time to take the tram back to Basel, which we hadn't explored yet! First, we picked up our luggage from the main train station, checked into our hotel, freshened up, and then took the tram to the city center. The city was full of trams and, as most everywhere in Europe, getting around was extremely easy. And as long as you had a lodging reservation in the city, the public transportation was free. 

We walked to a beautiful overlook of the Rhine River—wow, what a big, beautiful river. On the opposite bank, we saw tons of people lounging by the river. We walked to a busy pedestrian street in the center, got dinner, and then walked around the cobblestone streets of the old town. By this point, we were both feeling very tired after a wonderful and full day, so around dusk, as the sun started to set, we made our way back to our hotel for some hot showers and a good night's sleep.