You can't go to Austria and not go to Salzburg, especially if you're into music or into the Sound of Music. So off to Salzburg we went. We lucked out that our hostel was right on the way to Old Town from the train station so we could drop our things off before heading into Town. Since we had Rick with us, we followed his walking tour through the Old Town. Salzburg is made up of little squares that are all connected so we followed our way through them Each square had some sort of bizarre statue or something significant that stood out and each square was very different.
Some highlights of the walking tour included the Salzburg Cathedral, which was built in 14 years, St. Peter's Cemetery where they modeled the scene in Sound of Music where the Von Trapps hide from the Nazis in the final scene. There was a bit of rain that luckily didn't get us down and went away by the time we made it to the market. There were long narrow streets that led to squares that were full of carts with food and groceries. We got some kaserkrainer (hotdog stuffed with cheese) for lunch as we continued wandering through the streets. Each shop used a wrought-iron sign, including the McDonlads, and including the Mozart House (where he was born- his residence was across the river next to the Sketch Bar).
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| cemetery where Mozart's wife and Haydn's father are buried |
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| Constanza Weber's grave |
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| festive Old Town |
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| Salzburg Cathedral- built in 14 years! |
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| Wonder Woman- I did keep thinking the guy ontop was real... |
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| old car wash for HORSES |
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| St. Peter's Cemetery |
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| plots in Salzburg are rented for 10 years |
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| famous wrought-iron signs |
After lunch, we hiked up to the Salzburg Castle, which was fantastic. I didn't agree with the way they did their audio/guided tour but it didn't matter once we got up to the tip-top and had some gorgeous views of the town and the Alps. It was so windy and a bit foggy but the next day ended up being worse so we lucked out on that respect. I could have stayed up on that top platform all day- the views of spectacular. The castle also had a few museums- one didn't have a lot captioned in English so I didn't follow but the marionette museum was creepy in any language. Creepy was fascinating, of course.
Day 2 of Salzburg was All Sound of Music, All the Time. The night before, the hostel previewed the movie at 7 pm in the dining hall and we sat with a bunch of internationals watching the classic film. I'm not sure if anyone else had seen it before, but everyone knows how much we have seen it and certainly kept a quiet commentary running the whole time. The following day, we went on the Sound of Music tour that took us to places where the movie was fimled outside the city The day before we had wandered the paths above the city where Maria teaches the kids to sing (the part where they do the "So Do La Fa Mi Do Re..." part) and the little abbey where the real Maria was a novitate (and in the movie where the kids come to tell Fraulein Maria that she didn't say goodbye). Today we headed out to the house where some of the filming was taking place.
We also got to go to the "Water Palace" (called that by me because the seats at the outside dining area would get wet and if the bishop/prince hadn't stood up, you couldn't stand up so people would sit there in the water. Hardee har, if you're not soaking wet. The best part of the palace, of course, is that it's the final resting place of the Gazebo. Unfortunately, you can't go inside because an old lady went int, jumped around, fell and got hurt so they closed it up and locked it. Come on, lady.
The big stop outside of Salzburg was Mondsee. We wandered around the little town first and then headed into the church, which was the location for the Captain and Maria's wedding. Although they had actually gotten married in the little abbey we had seen the day before, but for filming, they wanted a bigger church to get that sweeping shot of the long train and dress. The church was beautiful, although painted pink, and of course there was a nativity scene still set up (it wasn't Epiphany yet). We also got some apple tart and whipped cream at a little shop, which was delish.
The tour ended up at Mirabell Park where the majority of Do-Re-Mi was filming, including the running through the archway, the dancing on the fountain and the steps at the end (my favorite part of the whole song). Part of the charm was taken away by the pelting rain but just being there was enough!
We wandered around a little while longer but it was really pretty wet so escaped into the Town Museum where we got a history of Salzburg as well as a really great downstairs exhibit that was all about landscapes. Usually landscapes can get boring pretty quickly but these landscapes were so vibrant, both those that were painted and those that were photographed. There were also some interesting stories about Austrian explorations. Because it was still wet, we headed back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and head home.
I will say this, I will never watch the Sound of Music or listen to Mozart the same again. Thank you Salzburg!
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