Salzburg, Austria
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2008
1
16
31
Trip End
May 28, 2008
Salzburg,
Austria
Friday, April 18, 2008
Alpine Hills
. While waiting, we admired the neighborhood: the lovely view of the Alps and the...is that a bunny hut? Yes indeed, it is a hut crammed to the gills with five-dozen rabbits. Some are tiny cute bunnies others are full blown fuzzy gray rabbits. "She probably eats them," I said. Karla looked at me in horror. This probably ruined her whole day. "No she doesn't," she snapped back at me but I could see the waves of doubt passing through her mind. Undoubtedly we'd touch on this again. I'm sure any meat in her breakfast would be well-inspected. A shuttle van picked us up and drove us to the main bus. The driver asked if we were honeymooners, I wanted to say we were actually pre-divorcees but I didn't think that would be funny to Karla after the rabbit comment. So I kept mum. Most of the people on the tour bus were over 40 and female. You can't imagine my relief when the bus driver said that the bus was stocked with beer for purchase. Did I mention that the bus had a giant mural of Julie Andrews and the kids on the side of it? And large yellow letters announced that we were on the Sound of Music tour and there was no denying it. First we saw the lake, the house, and the gazebo where the song "sixteen going on seventeen" was done. We also saw the church in Mondsee where the wedding scene was filmed. The tour guide has us all singing along to the soundtrack as we cruised through the hills and Karla was in a complete state of euphoria the whole time
Back of Salzburg fortress
. For more details on where we went, what we saw, what scene in the movie it related to, what Julie Andrew said when she stood here and the expression on each child's face: ask Karla. Four hours, two beers and an apple strudel later, the tour buss pulled back into Salzburg. We walked around the palace gardens, Karla singing the "Do, a deer" song and dancing around the Pegasus fountain. All this solfedge worked up an appetite so we had dinner on the rooftop café by the river. This had been quite an eventful day considering 24 hours ago we were in Romania. We made our way back the B&B and watched CNN because it was the only thing on in English. Day 51 - It was nice to have a bed that didn't poke you in the back with it's springs. Breakfast the next morning was awesome. The coffee was real (no flavor crystals here) and the host made us scrambled eggs. I had forgotten but Karla made a point to ask about the bunnies in the cages. The lady said that they were only breeding rabbits and Karla breathed a sigh of relief. I was going to pipe up and note that she probably just says that to keep guests from feeling bad but I decided to just quit while I was ahead.
In Salzburg, we crossed the river to the old town and visited the church of St. Rupert and St. Virgil. I guess if you are a no name saint you have to share your church with someone else, whereas St
Beer hall
. Stephen gets two churches all to himself. I'm sure there are some pissed off saints up there somewhere but they'll have to get in line. Salzburg literally means "high salt fortress," which is exactly what it has. A large fortress on top of a large hill painted white so you can see it from far away. Until 1950, Salzburg was an independent church-state ruled by the archbishop-prince. We took a funicular up to the palace and explored the grounds. This palace had been under construction for 700 years and was one of the best preserved in Europe. We looked at all the rooms and visited the chapel. The ticked included an audio guide for the fortress. Audio guides have been a life saver on this trip because the displays are usually in the local language and the audio guide explains what we're looking at. There's usually a smart sounding British guy doing the narration so I feel like I'm in an Oxford lecture hall. After walking all over the fortress we went back down the funicular for lunch. A brood of children were swamping the fanicualr entrance. A man with a double stroller was attempting to take pictures of three of them, give his wife instructions, and hold the stroller at the same time. "OK, hurry up kids, we've only got 4 hours left before we catch the train."
'oh god, American tourists!' I thought to myself, trying to imagine what this place was like in the summer when it was crawling with American families with their Rick Steves guides and high ambitions to take pictures of everything each city has to offer in only one day
Beer halls
. The wife of the man was in the funicular waiting area, also with a stroller. Jesus Christ how many kids do they have? One....two...three, we counted as they got in, five....SIX! and a bun in the oven. 'Wait a minute, I bet dollars to doughnuts that these tourist are Mormon' I thought as we steered clear of their cabin. Apparently everyone felt the same because the first car had about 15 people the second had 12 and the last one contained only the 8 Mormons. I could hear their conversations from where we sat. "Mommy what's that?"
"Dad, where are we going next?"
"mommy, what's this do?"
"Ouch, Dad she pushed me!"
"mommy!"
"I'm tired, I want to go home"
"Mommy!"
"shhh, The train leaves at 5:30."
"Home to the hotel, or home to Provo?"........
AH HAH! Provo, Utah
Beer wash and keg
! Who called it! I could only imagine what an experience Europe would be if all of your tickets had to be X6 for all the kids. The funicular reached the bottom and a whirlwind of Mormon children and strollers streamed from the station. "Come on kids, we're going to the Mozart house." Oh shit! The Mozart house, but that's where we're going......Plan B, eat lunch then go to the Mozart house. They probably have 3 other things scheduled to do before taking the train to the next unlucky city, to I'm sure they'll be in and out of the Mozart house in an hour. We ducked into an Irish pub and had a pint to lower my blood pressure.
After lunch we went down to the birthplace of W.A. Mozart. It was a tall building on the main street just one row back from the river. The Mozart family lived on the second floor but the whole house had been converted into the museum, gift shop, and restaurant on the ground floor. It was neat to see some actual artifacts owned by Mozart. There were two of his violins, several tickets to his concerts, some locks of hair, and even his tobacco box, presented to him by Louis XIV when he and his sister gave a concert at Versailles. Some modern artist must have been commissioned during the renovation of the house because the rooms were decorated in strange themes, one room was stark white and had blue seagulls flying toward a window that had been placed facing the interior of the hosue
Ceiling of church
. One room had constellations on the floor and a map of the city on the ceiling. All of the pictures in the room were mounted upside down. I read in the guide book "This room is to symbolize Mozart's struggle with conformity and how he turned music upside down with his....blah blah..." Look dude, whoever you are, an upside down room and dyed blue seagulls have nothing to do with Mozart. Go paint a Jackson Pollock and get over yourself. Slightly disappointed, we crossed the river to the house where Mozart lived as a young child before he set out on his own and ended up in Vienna. This was much more like I had expected. A museum with artifacts, copies of letters and original manuscripts, Instruments similar to the ones Mozart would have played, and an overall chronological narration of his life. Nothing had to be hung upside down or dyed blue. The next stop was the Nonnenberg Abbey, the abbey from the Sound of Music but not featured on the tour since it was in the middle of town and easy to access on foot. The abbey itself was closed, but we could walk around the grounds and see the chapel. Karla kept saying, "and this is where she walks out with the suitcase and guitar, and this is where the Nazi car is parked later in the film." I'm really glad that she's enjoying this, but I really don't remember that much from the movie, I'll have to watch it again and see if I recognize all the places. After the abbey, we walked along the river to a little place our tour guide had told us about on the Sound of Music tour
Do-re-mi stairs
. There were 42 churches in Salzburg, but one of them, had a beer hall attached to it! This I had to see. Sure enough, behind the church tucked away from all the action of the city was an authentic Oktoberfest style beer hall where they sold beer by the liter, pored it from wooden kegs, and sold sausages and schnitzel to go along with it. Underneath a picture of the crucified Jesus, dozens of happy Austrians drank away the evening without having to worry about being interrupted by tourists. I tried to stay low key but I had to have a few pictures, I was greeted with scowls from locals who obviously didn't want their favorite watering hole to be spoiled by throngs of touring families. I can't blame them, and their secret is safe with us (I have confidence nobody reads my blog that carefully). I bought a 1-liter stein because the concept was so novel to me. It weighed about 3 pounds and probably cost me $40 by the time I shipped it home, but I don't care, it has memories attached to it so it's worth it. And how many people can offer you a liter of beer when you go over to their house. Now I can! 
