Friday, July 15, 2011: “The Hills Are Alive!”

Day 8: Salzburg

Today’s entry will be slightly less writing (we think, as we start) and more pictures than previous posts. We didn’t see as high a volume of sites and places, however, we covered a much larger distance than normal because we were in a motorized vehicle—what a nice break for our legs! As Beth and I sat down to plan this trip we both acknowledged our love for The Sound of Music and decided that Austria would be a cool place to go for this reason. As we did more research we of course found many more places to see and things to do, but it was our starting point. Today we traveled with Galinda (Lindy) on “Bob’s Special Tours: The Sound of Music”. Do not let Bob’s name fool you; despite having a very American name, the tour itself was rich in history of the city of Salzburg, facts and myths about the movie, simply breathtaking sites of Salzburg and its surrounding lake district, and strudel. We went into the tour expecting a little bit of cheesiness, but walked away with a better knowledge of the city than we would have ever managed on our own walking tour. Our legs were also grateful for a day riding in a van to various parts of the region. As we head to bed early a second night in a row we are both feeling the effects of busy travelling.

Our tour with Lindy included two homes used to create the von Trapp home for the film, multiple churches used to create the abbey, and several gardens, fountains, bridges, and alleyways of trees used to create the scenes of Salzburg. We both knew going into the tour that the story of the von Trapp family had been changed slightly for the film, however, Lindy let us in on a lot of differences between reality and the movie. Lindy made it sound as though many American tourists are disappointed to hear the truth. Beth and I were both fascinated with the true story of the von Trapp family and the WWII history she included in her descriptions of the time period.

We ended with a tour of the Salzburg Lake District, which includes seventy-two lakes (of which we saw five). The water color was a perfect blue that our cameras captured fairly well. As we traveled through this area we also saw the huge and modern Red Bull headquarters—interesting fact neither Beth nor I were aware of, Red Bull was started in the Salzburg Lake District. Bizarre that such an impure substance would come from such a pristine and natural area.

Lindy dropped us off at the Mirabell Gardens (famous for the fountain, gardens, and stairs that Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp children sing through). To both of our mothers: do not fret, we took a lot of pictures of the gardens for you. Dale, you will have to see Salzburg simply for this garden (although you will tear up when Lindy plays “Climb Every Mountain” as you drive through mountains). These gardens were amazing and will be beautiful to you even if you have never seen the SOM.

We ended our day with a different stroll across the river and through the old city. We came across the Kapitelplatz, a busy plaza with a huge chessboard and pieces, an interesting gold sphere (modern art designed for the city), and lots of small shops and musical groups scattered throughout a market. All of the music groups were fantastic and even lulled Beth and I into another public nap on a bench in the sun (my brother is rolling his eyes at me right now; he always laughs that I can sleep just about anywhere). After our siesta we decided to find a bier haus for dinner and headed further into the old city. We came to the entrance of a cathedral we had no intention of finding and both looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to go in, what is one more? We both agreed after seeing this one that whenever in doubt if one should go into a cathedral or not, one should simply go in. This was my favorite one so far: Salzburg Cathedral. Not a difficult name to remember and we realized after looking at our map it is the huge green dome in many of our pictures of the skyline of the city.

We had another filling meal to end our day: Wiener Schnitzel. Traditional and good. Tomorrow we are planning a day trip to Berchtesgaden, Germany and Hitler’s Eagles Nest (his alpine retreat). It could be a bit of an adventure as we are depending on public busses to get us there and we have not seen as many signs in English on this leg of our trip. We’ll let you know how it turns out.

So long, farewell, goodnight!

Beth and Jesse

P.S. Look for the bonus post today! It includes a video of Jesse’s Alpine luge ride (the Mountain Bobsled) and Beth’s write up of the event! (because we feel that Jesse may leave out a few entertaining details about the way it all happened if she types it herself :) )