Last weekend Stephen and I took a last minute trip to Salzburg, Austria!
(Was that your guess?) We had talked about going for about a week, but we didn’t know if Stephen would get the time off. Then on Thursday, he came home from work proudly reporting that he didn’t have to go in on Friday or Monday. Long weekend! That’s just the right amount of time to make the 3 and a half hour drive to Salzburg and stay a few nights.
I was highly disappointed that we didn’t get any new stamps in our passports; we just drove right across the border with no fanfare. (Although, I am glad we avoided the hassle of a border crossing!) For a while we weren’t even sure if we were still in Germany or if we’d crossed over. (We saw a sign about 1000 meters after that discussion.)
The best thing about Salzburg: looking at all the old stuff!
We kicked off our Saturday explorations by walking through the decorative tunnel carved right in the mountain leading to Old Town Salzburg. I love how functional things (like tunnels) are made beautiful in Europe.
The numero uno site I wanted to see here was the Mirabell Garden.
We had to walk a couple km to get there, but it was a trek so worth it. Best garden I’ve seen yet. I loved the statues, the flowing flower designs, the fountain. And part of The Sound of Music was filmed here! (“Do Re Mi” my friends! Jumping up on the stairs! That was here!)
Once we crossed the garden we looked back and got an incredible view.
You can see the gardens, the fortress in the distance, the river, and all the old buildings in between.
About the time we were done at Mirabell, the rain picked up. We didn’t let it damper our spirits. We were only in Salzburg for the weekend, and we were determined to make the best of it!
We walked right through Mozart Platz, we walked on by the very big, very old church, and made our way to the Festung (Fortress) Hohensalzburg.
We spent a lot of time here. We walked around the entire outside, looked out on the city, and then we ate lunch here. (Penne pasta for both of us because we needed energy!) Then we took the audio tour so we could see the inside of the Fortress. (There was a torture chamber that we really wanted to see, but it turns out no one was tortured here. Let down! It was just used to hold torturing devices.)
After taking the festungbahn (fortress tram) down the mountainside, we went off in search of more food.
Macaroons for her:
Apple Strudel for him:
We walked down a fantastically crowded street that Stephen dubbed Diagon Alley (a la Harry Potter). There are over 900 shops and restaurants squeezed into little ol’ Salzburg. If I was more of a shopping woman, I would have been in shopping heaven. Alas, I’m more of a look around and eat woman.
The last stop of the day was Hellbrunn Schloss.
It was used by Markus Sittikus in the 1700’s as a day house. (He’d visit it during the day and return to Salzburg in the evening. The house doesn’t even have any bedrooms!)
You may also recognize it as the front of the Von Trapp house in The Sound of Music. (It’s not the real house and they didn’t do any shooting of the inside, to my knowledge.) The outside of the house has multiple pools, gardens, and green pastures. My favorite part was the pavilion:
16 Going on 17! Leisl dances in the pavilion in the movie. This is the real deal, although this isn’t where it was originally located, it’s locked to the public so you can’t go in, and interior shots of the pavilion were filmed in Hollywood. I still thought it was cool.
We finished up our day with dinner at a place called Gasthaus Wilder Mann, a traditional Austrian restaurant. Bavarian food ain’t really my style, so I didn’t love it, but Stephen really enjoyed it. (He gobbled up his schnitzel and fries and washed them down with two big ol’ beers. When in Austria!)
That was our entire Saturday. On Friday and Monday we took two separate trips up the mountains to see the Eagle’s Nest (Hitler’s vacation retreat in Berchtesgaden, Germany.) I’ll give you all the deets on that tomorrow.
Any other Sound of Music fans? I sang the songs the entire weekend!*
My dear lady, HOW do you remember all this stuff? Do you take notes, have a stellar memory, look it up later, or…? Cuz I’d be like “aaaand here’s an Austrian building. It’s yellow.” hahaha
Thanks for sharing! Austria is one of my favorite ski destinations although after a week on the French side, I was ready to head to a German-speaking part.
The Sound of Music stuff was easy to remember because I’m obsessed!
the other stuff was committed to short term memory. Ask me a week from now when the fortress was built, and I’ll draw a blank. But for now, it’s all in ma’ noggin!
I’d love to ski there some time. The mountains are ridic!*
So beautiful! It looks like you two had a great time. I’m not a huge Sound of Music fan (I know!) but I do recognize the gazebo thing from 16 going on 17. Pretty cool!
I know this will sound strange to most people, but I love that always seems so gloomy and overcast where you are right now. Yep, I’m moving to Hawaii and I love gloomy, cloudy days more than anything else.
I like the gloominess, too! I feel like it gives the photos a moody look that I love! Less lovable: the wild woman hair I was rocking all day after getting caught in the rain. Oh well!*
Hmmm, Apfelstrudel. This might be the best thing ever invented in Austria. That and Wiener Schnitzel. By the way, if it’s not made from veal, it’s not Wiener Schnitzel, but Schnitzel “Wiener Art” which means Viennese-style.
Oh, and don’t let any Austrians catch you call their food Bavarian. I think they don’t take too well to that
The pictures look gorgeous, Austria is definitely on my go-to list. I hope I can take any kind of vacation rather sooner than later, but I’m afraid I won’t be so lucky. Glad you enjoyed your trip.
And I’ve never seen The Sound of Music.
After pushing “publish,” on this post, Dyephen immediately pointed out my incorrect use of “Bavarian.” whoops! I guess I haven’t picked up on the nuances yet because Austrian food and Bavarian food seemed the same to me! (Maybe its like the difference between Mexican food and Spanish food, which I can definitely tell apart. Similar but not the same!)
As for the movie, if you like musicals, it’s one of the best and worth a watch!*
I can’t believe how AMAZING your pictures are even when it was so dreary out. So pretty! Love love love the pictures.
I totally started laughing at your “let down!” comment about no one being tortured in the chamber. It reminds me that last week I told my husband that when we are in Austin in January, I want to see the U of T tower because people committed suicde off of it. < — going to hell for that.
So, how are you guys getting along with the language barrier and whatnot? You're eating out at a lot of places, so I assume you're doing ok.
How did I not know that about the UT tower? Freaky!
The language barrier is okay. It’s usually easy at a restaurant because I use the same phrase to order a drink everywhere (“Ein Fanta, bitte”) and I can point to the food I want in the menu. And more often than not, the Germans speak English.*
Good to know! My friend moved to Germany like, 2 years ago, and he’s fairly fluent now. He said it was hard at first.
Where’d all your pictures go in this post. I came back to show them to my husband but I can’t see them anymore. Unless it’s just my work computer?
Not too sure about the suicides, but there was a gunman up there who shot and killed many students, can’t remember the year that that happened.
Now I have the “I am 16 going on 17″ song running through my mind. I love the Sound of Music! And every picture I’ve ever seen of Austra makes me want to go there! Looks like you had a fabulous time. I continue to be so envious of all your travels!!!
I would have been so disappointed at not getting a passport stamp, either. The darned EU has eliminated a lot of potential stamps for us travelers. Grrr!!!!
Yay….Sound of Music sites!! So jealous you got to visit…but at the same time, glad you did! It makes me so happy to see you and Stephen spending time together after all your time apart!
Thanks, Susan! It really is a treat to spend so much time together. One of the nice things about me not having a job is that I’m home all day, and Stephen comes home after morning PT for breakfast, and later in the day for lunch. Bonus time together!*
Sound of Music is one of my all time favorite movies! It came on every Good Friday when I was a child, so last time we went to Venice, I decided we HAD to make the trip to Salzburg. I wad so proud of myself for finding us a great deal on train tickets and buying them in Italian, right there in front of my spanish-speaking husband (touche’!) Then about halfway to salzburg
…Oops! (dang phone!) So halfway there, it hit me…the tickets were not round trip, and in my excitement I had forgotten to buy us return tickets! Let’s just say I wasn’t so proud of myself then, especially since I don’t know a word of German, and the return tickets purchased in salzburg cost a small fortune. I loved Mirabel and the fortress. My favorites were the church, the river, and the cemetery. And the street with all the shops and wrought iron signs. Wish I could go back someday!
Oh no! What a trip! At least you can look back and laugh about it now!
Does your head go spinning with all the different languages that you know? I took three years of high school Spanish (aka I have a very basic ability to speak it) and now I’m learning conversational German. Sometimes when I don’t know the right way to say something in German, I throw in a Spanish word. (For instance, I say mas for more since I don’t know how to say it in German. Oops!)*
Not spinning exactly; although my head does spin for plenty of other reasons! …it’s more like just knowing several words for one thing, or more than one way to say the same thing – tomato, tomoto… Any yes, you are so right about throwing in words from one language when you don’t know the word you are trying to say! I am fully convinced that my brain (don’t know about anyone else’s!) is divided into 2 compartments: native language and other languages. Whichever “other” language is the strongest at the time tries to come out when you switch to other language mode. For example, I was better at French back in grad school, and I remember trying to talk to one of my Spanish-speaking students at a picnic, and French kept trying to come out. Then one day last year, I was in the zone, intensely explaining something to one of our Spanish-speaking students, when a Chinese student asked a question. I started answering her in Spanish and then stopped myself; the kids thought that was hilarious that I was trying to speak Spanish to her! I really wonder what it’s like to know 3 languages really well, and if that ever happens when both the foreign languages are equally strong….Maybe you can teach us some German on here as you learn it! Miss you!
I went to Salzburg a few years ago and we actually did the Sound of Music tour. If you go again I highly recommend it. I had an absolute blast in Salzburg and can’t wait to get back. I LOVE all your pictures.
I have heard nothing but good things about the SOM tour! I was tempted, but Stephen wasn’t feeling it. The other thing I wanted to do but we didn’t: Salt Mine Tour. They even have you put on a mining suit. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Too bad it was 4 hours long. I don’t want to spent 4 hours underground when I’m only there for a weekend.*
So cool getting to somewhat live The Sound of Music! What a cool experience! Absolutely loving getting to live through you with these experiences! <—-will probably repeat that a lot!