Through the Alps

Today we left the Villa bright and early at 7am. We have a chartered bus to take us through Austria which is nice not to have to deal with trains or public transportation. The ride to our first stop was absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous. We drove through the Swiss Alps from a low elevation (896 ft) at Riva to an elevation of more than 5300 feet at one point. We even drove through the snow capped part of the mountains. It was so beautiful.

Swiss Alps

Our first stop took us to Vaduz which is the capital of the country Liechtenstein. I get to mark off another country on my list. We walked down the main pedestrian street that had a bunch of markets set up with a lot of people that actually spoke English. Everything smelled good although I didn't buy anything. We viewed the exterior of the architecturally significant parliamentary building before heading off.

Landtag of Liechtenstein

The second stop took us to Bregenz, Austria just over the Swiss border. Here we saw the Kunsthaus Bregenz by architect Peter Zumthor. It is an contemporary art museum that we have learned so much about in our years in architecture school. I was very excited to see it. The downside was we couldn't see inside the rain screen layers that make this building truly unique. It was still an interesting structure but left something to be desired.

Kunsthaus Bregenz

Our third stop was in the middle of nowhere on the German-Austrian border near a town called Erl. Here were two buildings called the Passionsspielhaus and the Festspielhaus. The Passionsspielhaus was built in 1959 by architect Robert Schuller. It is a orchestra theater that looks very much like a church. It was closed except for one door was left unlocked so naturally a group of us went inside. It looked abandoned although we found a poster for a show that occurred there two weeks prior. The auditorium was pitch black and covered in sawdust and the stage looked a mess (from what I could see thanks to my iPhone flashlight). I was sure we were in a horror film. But we made it out alive with a interesting story to tell. The Festspielhaus contrasts with the Passionspielhaus very abruptly. It is all black and cuts in horizontal lines that make it very modern. It was built in 1998 by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects. This building was completely locked up so we couldn't sneak in. With that we set off.

Passionsspielhaus

Festspielhaus

We finally reached Salzburg at 7pm, 12 hours after we set out on our journey. It was a long day and one that earned us some down time. Group dinner was right after we got our rooms and it was a buffet at the hotel which was decent. Following dinner, a small group of us went to Easter Vigil Mass at the Franciscan Church. We got there just as it was beginning and it was a unique experience and one that I was glad to be apart of. While I still don't understand German I love to immerse myself in the culture.