After sad goodbyes from Rome and Salzburg, I am back in the States. I now have a plethora of fresh topics to write about, and it will take me weeks to write about everything. For starters, since I got home last night and then slept for 14 hours, I will share with you a video and two pictures that sum up my trip.
First is a video of me throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
And here are two pictures, the first of me at the Colosseum
And me at Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg
Depending on the type of trip you will take, the amount of luggage you have will vary. We will use my upcoming trip to Salzburg and Rome as an example. I will have one suitcase to check and one backpack and one purse as my carry-ons. I could take only my big, hiking backpack, but that won’t be helpful on this trip, but it could be the way to go on yours.
What can you take on the plane?
and mascara) that will go through security must be 3 ounces or smaller and all must fit in a quart-sized bag.What I like to pack in my carry-on:
than in checked luggage. And I might need to charge something in the airport.What to pack in checked baggage:
Some packing tricks and tips:
Getting ready for a trip can be a huge ordeal. The first few times you are preparing for a big trip it can be nerve wracking. There are so many things to worry about, like what to pack, what to do about money, what to do about food, etc. But once you have headed off into the world a couple of times, packing and preparing for a trip gets easier and easier. Here I have some suggestions for making your trip a little bit easier.
Check back tomorrow for “How to pack.”
May 5 is the anniversary of the liberation of Mauthausen, 
a concentration camp in Austria. On May 5, 1945, the American military arrived at the camp, setting the prisoners free. Each year there is a remembrance and liberation celebration for Mauthausen, its subcamps and places of Nazi terror. This year is the 65th anniversary of the liberation and celebrations will be held May 8 (today) at the Gusen and Ebensee camps, May 9 at Mauthausen and May 10 at Melk.
Last year I visited Mauthausen twice, once with a friend of mine who lives in the town of Mauthausen, and a second time with my history class on the day of the celebration. The first time was particularly memorable because it was a dreary, rainy day in February and I was visiting with someone who had personal stories to tell about the concentration camp. He recounted the tale of his great-grandfather, a copper. With the ongoing war, he was short on help. After pleas to the government, he was given prisoners from the camp to help with the labor.
I did not know much about the camp before going, so when I 
encountered the room labled “Gaskammer” and saw crematoriums, I was shocked. I had not expected to see complete structures or the pipes with holes in them where Zyklon B came out. Previously I had toured the Sachsenhausen camp in Orainenburg, north of Berlin. This camp was leveled because the Nazis did not want to leave any evidence, so all that is left are small pieces of foundations and crushed crematoriums. Mauthausen, on the other hand, is mostly complete.
Mauthausen was a work camp with a granite quarry. 
In 1939, Mauthausen became a camp for political prisoners where they were worked to death. This camp is the location of the Todesstiege, or death stairs, so called because the prisoners were forced to carry large pieces of granite, often double their body weight, up a flight of stairs. Many did not make the climb. Between Mauthausen and its subcamps, about half the 200,000 prisoners were shot, gassed, worked or beaten to death by the Nazis. (In this photo the steps begin at the center right of the photo and can be followed below the trees.)
For more information about the camp, check its website (in English, but if you can read German, the German version is much more informative) or its Wikipedia page.
My second visit was very different from my first. It was a day 
of joy, with former prisoners, some of the American liberators and diplomats from each country that could have had a prisoner in the camp marching in a parade. I write could, because prisoners from the Soviet Union were listed as only that, so there was no differentiation between someone from present-day Romania or Ukraine, for example. The Italians were the most memorable group from the parade because they had the most people and they sang songs, probably of hope and liberation, as they made their presentation.
Also on that day we went to the Gusen memorial. Most of 
the remains of that camp have been destroyed, but two crematoriums are still standing and there is a small museum. Here we learned that our teacher’s grandfather was a member of the team that created Zyklon B. We were also told about the camp’s 
entrance gate and how it has been incorporated into someone’s house. A similar thing happened at Sachsenhausen. The guards’ houses leading to the camp entrance were not destroyed and are now also inhabited.
Seeing Mauthausen in two very different situations was quite moving. Understanding the solemnity of the situation is necessary, but seeing the survivors shows that there wasn’t only death, and that can be a learning experience, too.
Also, I took a couple videos of the celebrations that day and I would like to share two of them with you.
This first video is the opening of the parade when the flag is presented with the years when the camp was in operation.
This second video is of the Italians who were part of the parade.
I’ve been caught up planning my trip to Rome. It is almost out of control because there are so many things to do and eat in so little time. For those of you who have followed my travels, you know that the food I eat on a trip usually is not too special. I often bring a meal or two and snacks with me, just to save money. 
But that’s because there often isn’t local cuisine that is particularly enticing to me. Like in London, I was there for five days and had only two meal ideas: fish and chips and a meat pie. In Amsterdam, all I wanted were Stroopwafeln, which I purchased at the grocery store. In Greece, though, things changed. I had already eaten all of the food I had with me and we failed at finding a grocery store in Athens. So we ate out, and that was a wonderful. I tried so many new foods and everything I had was delicious.
I know Rome will be just as tasty as Greece. Actually, I think it will be even tastier because I am a fan of Italian food. I am so confident in Rome’s food that I doubt I will take more than a couple of granola bars and trail mix with me. Like sights, eateries are quite abundant in Rome. With two full days, a night and a morning in Rome, I do not know how much time I will have to see Rome because there is so much food I want to eat. I am looking forward to the many varieties of pasta, particularly gnocci, which is a lunchtime special on Thursdays, and lucky for me, I will be there on a Thursday. I also want to have pizza and definitely lots of gelato, particularly tartufo (death by chocolate) from Tre Scalini.
I stumbled upon the NYTimes’ Frugal Traveler’s post about Rome, and he seemed to have the problem that I am encountering. His goal was to see three things each day, and he would be happy. I don’t think I can aim so low, because I know I wouldn’t be happy with only six sights, but I will try to relax and enjoy myself and savor my food.
In addition to reading about food and restaurants in Rome, I have spent much time learning about the sights. I have my list narrowed down to a respectable number of locations. I often try to see as much as I can in a big city, but I hope to plan a lighter schedule, allowing mostly for more food but also some wandering.
My preparing has led me to many outlets for information. First, I began with my well-worn and well-read Rick Steves’ Europe 
with a section on Rome (I have a special tip with a guidebook of many places, most that you aren’t stopping at. Just rip out the section you need. Why take the whole book when you need only Amsterdam or only Dubrovnik and Split? It really lightens the load!). Then I checked out all the books from the library about Rome and have currently completely read three and perused a fourth. I also purchased a book that comes with a map. I have also been in search of suggestions of what to do with two days in Rome, self-guided walks, maps, bus schedules, translators, phrasebooks and audio tours. Back when I went to Paris in 2007 I followed Rick Steves’s Paris guidebook solely. For 10 days, Rick, as I usually refer to him and his guidebook, treated me well. It taught me a lot, but since then, I have learned to broaden my horizons. Frommer’s, Fodor’s, Lonely Planet, Let’s Go and DK Eyewitness Travel all have good suggestions, as well. And each guidebook I have used for this trip has a different suggestion for the best two days in Rome. With all of their help, I really think I will have the best possible (for me) two days in Rome.
What, you might ask, will I do with all this information? As I read, I 
compile lists and copy pages of information I find worthy that isn’t in my Rome Day by Day and Rick’s Rome, both of which I will take with me. Like everyone having a different two best days in Rome, everyone has a favorite pizzeria and a favorite lookout and a favorite gelato. In the end I might not follow any of my guides, but at least I am prepared because Rome in two days is a daunting task.
One of the things I learned from Rick is that he has free audio tours on his website. I am not a big fan of tour groups or tour guides because they often are incessantly dull and you don’t know that until after you have paid for the tour. But with his audio tours, I can test them out first to decide if it will be useful and then I can put it on my iPod touch and take this free and useful tour with me. I will be doing this in Rome. Rick can be cheesy in his descriptions of things, for instance, when he’s describing a figure in St. Peter’s Basilica, he says this man has his mouth open like he’s ready to sing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music.” Terrible, but I did laugh. And I know I will at the end of the tour I will know more.
Another useful stop when I was searching for information was the iTunes Store. Here I downloaded (all for free, though there are many apps that charge a fee) games to play on the plane, a flashlight, a pedometer, the CIA World Factbook and many apps specifically about Rome. Some are just a basic version of a bigger and better app that isn’t free, but all in all, I found a lot more electronic things than I expected and most of them have been useful.
Really, I don’t expect most travelers to plan like this. I do because it is what I enjoy. Preparing is almost as fun seeing the sights.
And for those who are curious, here is my arsenal of Roman travel guides:
For an Easter holiday, my parents and I went to perhaps an unlikely destination: Louisville. In actuality, though, it was a great destination at this time of year. Spring had sprung, the air was fresh, Churchill Downs was (and still is) getting ready for the Derby on the first Saturday in May and tourists were few and far between. And in one day and two nights, we saw everything we wanted to. With numerous activities for both children and adults, all kinds of cuisine and museums about sports, art, history and science, everyone could find something to do (or eat) here.
This Top 5 is my five favorite moments from our trip. I’ve picked this theme because we ventured from the tourist path and had a couple of off-the-beaten path adventures.
A local chain restaurant famous for its barbecue was filled 
with locals and the food was covered in delicious barbecue. The inside of the restaurant was designed like a feed store. What made this meal even more memorable was that we selected the location on Dixie Highway because we thought it would be closest. Alas, we were wrong and it took 45 minutes to get there.
When we travel, the driver gets to pick the music. I was driving the final leg into Louisville, so when I needed something new to listen to, I thought I would search for a radio station. WFPK was the first one I found and it has left a lasting memory. We don’t know if the music that was playing was typical Sunday night music or just and Easter special, but the first song we heard was “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord,” bluegrass style. It was a lot different than the version I sang in church on Palm Sunday. As the songs continued, it was like I was transplanted to “O Brother Where Art Thou,” which is what I was secretly hoping for on this trip south.
3. Glassworks
Because I love all things glass, a tour of Glassworks, 
a glass blowing, architectural glass and flameworking center, was a required stop and the original inspiration for the trip. The museum was small but informational and had stops at each of the studios so visitors could watch glass being made. We watched an artist make a plate, and cleanly removed the final punty (the metal stick you hold while shaping the glass), but then almost dropped it while walking it to the annealer where it would cool down. After a couple juggles of a 900 degree piece of glass, he recovered it.
I had noticed on the map that an area of Louisville is 
called German Town. Because I also love things German, I searched online for a German restaurant and found three. Flabby’s is one of them and it’s where we decided to have dinner. A little scary from the front, Mom wasn’t sure if she wanted to go in. After talking to a young man on the street, we decided it was safe. It was almost a dive but it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. German beer was on tap, Schnitzel, Bratwursts, Sauerkraut and pretzels were on the menu and ketchup wasn’t served with the meal. The decor was classic, with a reindeer head mounted on a wall, lots of old photos and newspaper clippings and a wind chime made from beer cans. The food and beer were everything I wanted them to be, and we all left happy and full. And a warning from my father: Beware. The dark mustard is a tad bit spicy!
Churchill Downs is a necessary stop even if you don’t know 
anything about horses and horse racing. We were able to walk right into the complex, but because we wanted a tour, we headed to the gift shop. Now that the Kentucky Derby Museum is open, tours are run from there. We took the basic tour, which took us to the track and through part of the stadium. We also were taken to Millionaire’s Row to look down onto the track and infield because we had extra time. The view from there was spectacular, especially because the stadium was empty. I love experiencing empty stadiums. And we learned 
about the tickets, and no one has ever been turned away from the stadium on Kentucky Derby day. There is an unlimited number of $40 general admission tickets that give you the honor of standing in the infield where you really can’t see much but you can say you were there. We went in the afternoon because we were worried about morning showers, but before 10 a.m. is the time to go if you want to see horses practicing on the track.
Other sites of interest in Louisville include Flame Run Glass, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, Muhammad Ali Center, Speed Art Museum, Old Louisville historic area, Louisville Science Center, Fourth Street Live! and Frazier International History Museum.
This month’s Budget Travel was filled with dream trips. These trips, usually to exotic and far-away places, often seem impossible to accomplish. But BT’s collection of dream trips are “50 totally doable adventures.” With this collection serving as my inspiration, I have created my own list of dream trips.
Some other places in the U.S. that are appealing to me include California, with its redwood forests and wine making and coastal drives, Portland, Ore., and Portland, Maine.
And with this list, it would only be fair for me to mention the dream trips I have already completed. Perhaps my first dream trip was to Chicago in 9th grade when my parents made many accommodating stops for me to see Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, including his house and the Robie House on the University of Chicago’s campus. On a separate trip we went to Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, two more homes he designed. My summer in New York City was also a dream trip because it taught me to love Brooklyn, where I found one of my favorite places: the Brooklyn 
Heights Promenade. It was also a dream trip because I was able to see so many shows on Broadway. My other dream trips include my nine months in Austria and trips to Venice and Murano to see 
glass blowing, Athens to see the Parthenon, Santorini to see its cliff-side towns and volcanic-rock beaches, Delft to see the Vermeer museum and Royal Delft pottery, the Hague to see “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” and Keukenhof to see millions of tulips.
What dream trips have you taken? What is still on your list?
I’m always excited about planning trips, but my friend Holly, who blogs about thrift, just wrote about making summer travel plans. Check out one.thrifty.wife here: Warmup prompts vacation agenda. She blogged about day and weekend trip ideas in Indiana and Michigan. I’m still working on my list (I have a lot of info about Columbus, Cincinnati and caves to still go through), but at some point I just need to stop and made a roundup of what I’ve found so far.
So below, you will find a list of some of the places in Ohio I have thought sound interesting. You may notice that this list does not include too many sights along the Lake Erie coast in the Sandusky area. That’s because I have already been to many of them and I would like to broaden my horizons, not keep going to the oldies but goodies. That doesn’t mean, though, that I won’t spend my July weekends on the beach at Mitiwanga Park in Huron.
Like me, you probably didn’t know where all of these cities are. I have created a map for you: Ohio trip ideas. I’ll keep updating it to get the actual places on it. Right now, it has only cities marked.
From this list you can probably gather the types of trips I like — glass museums and displays, German food and culture, hamburgers and hot dogs, diners, ice cream, cheese and collections of really random things, like the whistle factory or a collection of swallowed items at the Allen County Museum. So if you know of places where I can see or eat any of the above, let me know. And if you’ve been to any of the places I mentioned, let me know if they are worthwhile, especially Chillicothe and the Tecumseh drama, because that’s top on my list.
In Salzburg, music can be found everywhere. That’s a good thing, because “The Sound of Music” was filmed there. Take this tour of the sights by song, and you may just find yourself singing a tune or acting out a scene or two.
Visitors to Salzburg should be aware that Austrians generally are not familiar with “The Sound of Music.” They know of it, but do not know anything other than it brings the city lots of tourist dollars. The movie is the story of an Austrian nun who was a governess to a Naval officer widower. They marry but do not stay in Salzburg for long. When Adolf Hitler comes to power, the von Trapps decide to flee. The movie tells the story of Maria von Trapp through song, and here are twelve places in Salzburg inspired by those songs.
“Maria”
Maria von Trapp’s actual abbey is in the Altstadt neighborhood of
Nonntal, with Nonnberg Abbey on the Mönchsberg mountain just below the fortress. Enter the abbey through a wrough-iron gate and open intricately carved wooden doors into the nave. It’s chilling and peaceful and almost always tourist-free. Outside, admire the Alps to the south.
“I Have Confidence”
Strut across Residezplatz to the Residence Fountain with a giant 
Triton and horses and confidently splash your hand in the fountain. Here, you can take a Fiaker ride, and the horse-drawn carriages and drivers have not changed much in the years since the film. The cathedral is also located here, at Domplatz. Its soaring ceilings with hundreds of murals and the five organs are a sight to see.
“Sixteen Going On Seventeen”
The gazebo used in the film during this scene with Liesl and Rolf
and later in “Something Good,” the love song between Maria and the captain, was shipped back to Salzburg after filming was complete in Hollywood and placed in the gardens at Schloss Hellbrunn. Take Bus 25 to get here to visit the ample grounds at this palace of Markus Sitticus, one of Salzburg’s former prince archbishops. After touring the trick fountains that spray water at unsuspecting guests, walk down Hellbrunner Allee to see Schloss Frohnburg, the palace used in the film as the front of the von Trapp house.
“Climb Ev’ry Mountain”
To climb the mountain the von Trapps climb to escape 
to Switzlerland, ride the same Bus 25 to its final stop at the Untersbergbahn in St. Leonhard, a small village just outside of Salzburg. The cable car takes riders up 2.5 kilometers to a height of 1776 meters. The summit is another 196 meter climb. If the von Trapps would have climbed this mountain to escape (they really took the train to Italy), they ironically would have been headed in the direction of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany, one of his main work stations during the years of the Third Reich.
“My Favorite Things”
Maria takes the children into town after they sang 
about their favorite things. One of their stops is at the Universitätsplatz market. Area farmers bring their produce, cheese, sausage and desserts to this market every day except Sunday, so this square bustles from early morning until early afternoon with residents shopping for organic goods and tourists admiring the wide range of colors, sights and smells. Shop around for a picnic lunch and then cross Mozartsteg, a white metal bridge used in the movie, and pick out a spot on the grassy Salzach riverbank to eat and rest like the locals.
“Do-Re-Mi”
Mirabell Gardens, the most iconic sight in the film,
is where the children run through gardens singing, along with dancing through a vine-covered tunnel, tapping dwarves on their heads, skipping around a fountain with a Pegasus statue and end the song running up a set of steps. The view from these steps is outstanding — flowers lead to fountains which lead to baroque buildings ending with a direct view of the Festung.
“The Lonely Goatherd”
Visitors to Salzburg have two opportunities to see performances of their favorite “Sound of Music” songs. Tourists can see a marionette version of the production at the Landestheather or attend a dinner theater performance of songs from the movie, along with opera and Mozart pieces, at the Sound of Salzburg Dinner Show at the Sternbräu restaurant.
“Edelweiss”
Maria and Georg, along with the children, sang 
“Edelweiss” on the stage in the Felsenreitschule as their final song before leaving Austria to escape the Nazis. The hall looks just as it did in the film, so the Nazis standing in all of the arches surrounding the stage and an audience full of Austrians singing along are easily envisioned. Tours of the three-hall performance complex are available daily at the Festspielhaus at 2 p.m., with added tours at 3:30 p.m. in June and September and also at 9 a.m. in July and August.
“So Long, Farewell”
The cemetery at St. Peter’s Church is filled with plots
for Austrians (and one American) marked by black, iron crosses and decorated with flowers and candles. The graves are extremely close together and rents are due every ten years. When rent isn’t paid, the grave is dug up and someone new is buried. At the edges of the cemetery are gated graves that were used as the basis for the graves the von Trapps hide behind at the beginning of their escape from Austria.
It’s the final installment of how I suggest planning a trip. This part is You want to see a handful of sights far apart but close enough together that you want to combine them all into one trip.
This type of trip is the hardest to plan. It involves the most options and the most planning. I took two of these trips while I was in Europe last year. The first one was a trip to the Netherlands, so that I could see Delft, the home of Johannes 
Vermeer, the painter of “Girl with a Pearl Earring“; Mauritshuis, a museum in The Hague, the home of “Girl with a Pearl Earring”; and Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden famous for its tulips, in Lisse. I had to make this trip in March, April or May so that I could see the tulips, because Keukenhof is open for only two months. Fortunately, the Netherlands isn’t that far from Salzburg and getting there wasn’t too costly or time consuming. They also have an exceptional train system, so getting around was exceedingly easy (and having a European bank card made it even easier). Since I would be flying in and out of Amsterdam, and a hostel there was cheaper than staying in The Hague, I opted to spend a week between the two cities, tacking on trips to Ann Frank’s house and the Rijksmuseum, the home of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.
Maybe the thing that made this trip come together so nicely was that I really planned ahead. I had my flight and rooms booked in January. One of the hardest things for this trip was the guidebook that I had with me had only Amsterdam in it. That meant I had to do almost all of my travel research on the Internet without any sort of guide. I spent countless hours researching each potential component, weighing admission fees, travel length and time, and travel fees. I didn’t know much about the things I wanted to do, let alone their location. The more I read, the more I wanted to do. I found out I could rent a bike to ride through the bulb fields in Lisse. I read about Alkmaar and its cheese market. I found out that Stroopwafeln (caramel filled waffles) were first made in Gouda, and that Gouda is pronounced incorrectly here. Listen here: How to pronounce Gouda. As you can see, finding things to do in the Netherlands wasn’t difficult. I went from three things to do to a much longer list, having to pick and choose.
That is the problem with this kind of trip. Sites to visit can spiral out of control and at some point you just have to say, this is all I can possibly do. Even then, you can’t gauge how tired you’ll be or if you’ll get sick or if there will be weather problems or if you love something so much that you will spend many more hours than planned there. I didn’t go to Alkmaar, even though it was on my schedule, 
and I scrapped Gouda before I left Austria. Even without those components, I just remember that I accomplished the three things I set out to do on that trip, and everything else was just an added bonus. I cherished the time I spent seeing so many Vermeer paintings and surrounded by millions of tulips.
And that’s the point of traveling. It’s not how many countries you’ve been to or how many iconic things you’ve seen. Traveling should not be a checklist, and even I have a hard time remembering sometimes. You should take time to enjoy where you are and what you are seeing. That is what I want you to remember when planning any type of trip, but this kind especially. Don’t ever plan a trip thinking its your last. Remember that you can go back and if you do not, you will see something equally as amazing somewhere else on some other trip.
travelin' the globe 
