Salzburg

We finally made it to Salzburg!! What a beautiful city, I truly loved it.




We started our day with the Sound of Music Tour. We met our group in Mozart Square took a small van to the BIG BUS with scenes from the movie painted on it. Was I embarrassed? A little. Was I excited? You betcha! I was mostly excited to see Patrick's reaction since he'd never seen the movie and isn't really into musicals (putting it mildly). Our first stop was the location for the lake. They used the gardens and lake in many scenes, but the back of the house was a different location.




Above is a picture of our guide. He was REALLY cheesy, and kind of disappointing. The funny thing was I kept wishing I could get video of him talking because his voice was so annoying...well we watched the extras on our DVD of The Sound of Music when we got back, and he's in it! Anyway, the next thing we saw was the row of trees the kids were swinging from and the gazebo, which is now closed because some old lady fell and broke her hip trying to skip between the benches. It was small and kind of lame. My favorite part of the tour was going to the lakes region and seeing some of the beautiful views from the opening credits of the movie.






We also saw the church that Maria and the captain were married in (in the movie of course). I thought the place was really creepy and gaudy in cream, pink, black and gold. I tried to capture the simple portions of the church. We had a little time to walk around the small town of Mondsee so we found a bakery where Dan finally got his apple strudel and I had the best chocolate cake!






We ended the tour in the Mirabel Palace gardens where they sang the do-ra-me song and did some prancing around the fountain.




After the tour we headed out of the city center a ways to find the apartment we rented. It was in a little neighborhood conveniently located on the bus line. We found food at a grocery store, ate in and played cards. We were also desperate to do laundry, the woman who gave us the key to the apartment told us there was a communal washer and dryer in the basement and that it cost around 10 cents. After waiting for the previous person to finish her laundry we went down and put ours in, pushed the buttons and it turned on...with no money, sweet! We couldn't find a box to put money in anyway so we figured that it must be free. We checked back an hour or so later only to find our WHITES soaked and locked in the washer. We tried and tried but couldn't get the clothes out, tempers flared (Not Dan's, he was asleep), until we finally decide there was nothing more we could do and go to bed hoping we'd find some nice person in the morning to help us out. Luckily the next morning early Noelle was down again looking at the washer and a nice woman helped us out showing us where the money box was. I guess the reason the washer turned on the night before was because there were still a few minutes left on the timer from the previous load. What is it with us and laundry in Europe? It always seems to be an ordeal.

Anyway, the next day we roamed around the city, went to the outdoor market (I continue to love the handmade wreaths), explored the some cathedrals, and did some shopping.











I loved the little iron signs that hung outside each shop.








There were horse and buggies and street performers in the main square which really added to the ambiance. I particularly loved this guy on the guitar and on another day there was a guy with a harp, but I didn't get a photo of that.





After shopping we went to meet our group to tour a salt mine. The bus ride was long, but picturesque on the way to a small town. When we arrived we had to put on coveralls to keep us from getting dirty. We couldn't stop laughing at how funny we looked!




We had so much fun laughing and taking pictures of each other that we ended up being last in line to board the train that takes you into the mine. Only a certain number of people fit on the train so everyone made it on but Dan and I. We had to wait about 10 min for the next one which filled up with us and with a whole slew of obnoxious American teenagers. The train takes you into the mountain down a dark tunnel, we looked at a display and were promptly ushered to a wooden slide consisting of 2 wood sticks that were worn down by so many butts sliding down them. It was a little scary, mostly fun...Patrick bought the photo they took of us which is basically a blackmail photo (it is truly awful!) There were a few of those slides, more hands on learning areas and a saline lake we crossed in a wooden boat (very Harry Potter).




It was really dark so the pictures didn't turn out, but it was very cool. After we thought the tour bus had left us because we didn't see anyone in our party...we actually were kind of angry and freaked out, but after 15 min. of searching for everyone we finally ran into Patrick and Noelle. After the stopped in another small town were we found a very cool cemetary. It is the first time I'd seen little gardens planted in front of headstones. We even saw an older couple tending to a grave, it was really rather sweet to see.





The next day we toured around the city some more waiting for the fog to lift, we went to the motzart museum which had fun artifacts to see and an audio guide that played a lot of beautiful music.






We also crossed the Mozart bridge, which was also in the Sound of Music. We got a little silly.






We actually got quite silly that day.






We also checked out the castle, but after seeing crazy Kind Ludwigs castles I'd call this a fortress. They had a few rooms with artifacts (snooze) then they also had some displays of torture devices, musical instruments and weapons that were cool. They even had a creepy marionette museum at the top.












We ended our day by going to the Nonnburg Abby which was where the real Maria von Trapp lived as a prospective nun. Our tour guide told us they sang every day at 5pm so we climbed some huge stairs to get there and hung around to hear the music. It was a little later than we thought, but that gave us more time to sit and relax.





We went to the last Ludwig castle on our way to one last night in Munich where we stayed on hostel row in what seemed like the international district in a hotel room that was like the Seinfeld episode where Kramer can't sleep because of the giant glowing chicken sign. It was noisy and creepy and the alarm was confusing...so we ended up not waking up until 7:30 am which was when we were supposed to be on the road. Oops! So we spit bathed and took off for the airport. With all that we were so ready to be home and in our own beds, but we really did love this trip and all we were able to see.