Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sights and Sounds of Salzberg

So in the morning we arrived in Germany, were there for maybe 15 minutes and then got on a train to Austria. We go into Salzberg and stored our bags in lockers at the train station. I know it's a silly thing to be excited about but the locker was big enough to fit all three of our bags and only cost like $6 to rent all day. The first thing we did was go eat. We went to a bar because it was basically the only thing open near the train station, mind you it was about 10 in the morning and we ordered breakfast. While trying to order we realized that we knew even less German than we did French. Considering my best friend is a German major I think it's safe to say I totally fail!
After breakfast we figured out how to use the ticket machine for the bus, seriously not very easy and then we got on a bus to the old part of Salzberg. The city is absolutely beautiful. Very fairytale-ish. We walked around a little and then got on the trolly up to the Fortress. So this trolly basically goes straight up the cliff, it's awesome.

The Fortress is kind of like a little town, there were different buildings.

but the best part about it was the view. As for the most beautiful places we went our whole trip this was the top. Just absolutely amazing, pictures do not do it justice at all.
One of the fun things in the fortress was the marionette museum. Liz and Joe got creative while taking pictures :) everyone that was in the room was busting up laughing.
After we came down from the fortress we walked around the city some more.

They had an open-air market with tons of stuff but most importantly they had these huge soft pretzels, they were awesome. They also had a water spout with the best water I've ever had in my whole life!!!

Then it was time for the sound of music tour, so we went to the new side of town to get ready to get on the bus. While we waited we had sausages that were really good.
So the tour was really fun I loved it.

I learned tons of fun stuff about the movie and got to see all the places they filmed it. Our tour guide lady was pretty cute and fun.
We started at the house they used to film the back of the house scenes. Interestingly they didn't use the same house for the shots of the garden as the actual back of the house, they are two different houses. So the first one we saw was the garden view, with the lake.

The next place we went was the house they used for the front of the house, the back of the house and the scene with the bikes and climbing trees. we decided to skip like she does at the beginning of the movie.

Then we went and saw the Gazebo from the movie. This was my favorite basically because "you are sixteen" has a special place in my heart.

After that we went to see the church that they used for the ceremony at the end. We stopped on the way to see some of the beautiful lakes that are there. Seriously if i could build a vacation home anywhere in the world I think that would be a strong contender.

Then we got to the town with the chapel.

We decided to eat before going in the church since most people were going in the church first. We had the best apple strudel in the entire world!!! it was so darn good. I'd go back to that town just for the Apple Strudel!
That was our last stop on the tour and then it was time to head home. Did I mention that we sang songs from the whole movie any time we were on the bus! Best. Tour. Ever!
After the tour we went back to see some of the other sights from the movie and took pictures at them.

At this point we were dead tired! absolutely exhausted but we had to get something to eat. SO we walked back into the old part of town and funnily enough ended up in front of Mozart home, so we took a picture.

We decided to eat at this hole in the wall type place. The guy running it was wearing lederhosen but not as a costume, they were obviously his actual work clothes because the leather was all worn. It was awesome. We also had a really awesome dinner of sausages, pizza and wiener-schnitzel which was really really good.

After dinner we just walked around the town some more. Then I had to go to the bathroom so we walked around more to find one. We walked in a lot of circles in Salzberg. We finally found an open bathroom in the Music school. We also found awesomely comfortable bean bags that we sat on until we decided wee should probably leave before they threw us out.
After that we went back to the part of town where the train station was.

We ended up back at that same bar that we went to for breakfast and we got some dessert, while killing time for our train. Sadly our train wasn't coming till 1am and by this time we were already so so exhausted! we spent the rest of the time just sitting at the train station. We did see a lunar eclipse while we were sitting there but we were almost too tired to even think that was awesome.
Finally our train came. Sadly this time we had to share our compartment with another guy and he was not very nice. He didn't speak any English and he was just unpleasant. But I guess you win some and lose some right! It was the longest day of our whole trip but it was amazing seeing the sights and the sounds of music of Salzberg.

1 comment:

  1. Elly I just read this! Thanks for the mention- I'll take care of the German next time ;) Having been to Salzburg and having spent a lot of time in Bavarian/Austrian culture, it was fun to read your impressions. So glad you liked it. We'll get to our world tour someday. And we'll make out all the time! ;)

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