So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen Salzburg

Our most recent destination, Salzburg, Austria, has had Jeremiah and I singing songs from the Sound of Music movie for the past two days! Salzburg is well known for this movie and also because it is where Mozart was born and spent his early childhood. So there is a lot of musical history woven into Salzburg that Jeremiah and I definitely enjoyed, among other things!

Our train ride from Munich was beautiful. Hills and green and cute homes, sprawling farms. I am listening to a book on tape (thanks Emily!) so I get to enjoy the scenery as I enjoy a good book. It's perfect! We arrived from Munich in the evening and found our Airbnb home. A very nice, spacious room on the top floor of the man's home, backing right up to beautiful green mountains. Salzburg is more hilly than any place we'd been to so far. The mountains are covered in trees and, while we were there, low hanging clouds. Though we had wished the skies were more clear during our time there, we couldn't complain about the nearly perfect temperature!

Our first day there we decided to do a Hop On Hop Off tour that was audio guided. There were two different audio tracks, the City Information Track and the Sound of Music track. When we first got on the bus we rode the hour loop straight through listening to the city information track. This way we could just get a good view of the city and learn more about it and its history. Then we rode back through listening to the Sound of Music track and jumping on and off the bus at whatever stops looked most interesting. We spent the whole day doing so! We got to see Old Town Salzburg that had this amazing fortress at the top of a hill overlooking the town. We also went into a couple of gorgeous churches, passed by Mozart's birthplace and home, and went in and out of shops. We opted out of going into Mozart's homes and decided it was enough for us to just say that we saw them! We made a quick stop at the castle where the patio and lake scenes are filmed. You can only get a look at this castle from across a lake because it is not open to the public. Another stop was at Hellbrunn Castle where the Sound of Music Pavillion is located. I was very excited about seeing this Pavillion for some reason... Too bad we couldn't run around on the benches inside it! We took a few pictures there and wandered around the castle grounds and park. As always, beautifully green! I am not getting sick of this green at all! We also made a stop at Nonnberg Abbey and were able to go inside and heard the nuns singing and praying. Really cool experience! Also, of course got a picture of the gate where the children come asking for Maria! 

Our final stop was at Mirabell Gardens. These gardens are where many of the scenes from the "Do-Re-Mi" song were shot. Jeremiah and I had a great time remembering the scenes and trying to recreate parts of the song. Subsequently, we took many pictures! I loved the tour and being able to learn both about the city, about the movie, and about the actual Von Trapp family. I think the most interesting fact I learned was that in the movie at the very end where they were hiking across the mountain on their escape, if the actual Von Trapp family had tried to escape this way they would have eventually run into Hitler's summer villa which is located up in those mountains! The actual family just got on a train to Italy! If you haven't, I would suggest learning more about the actual Von Trapp family, it's interesting to see what, from the movie, is true and what is not. Anyway, we had a really great day living out the movie and exploring Salzburg.

On our second day in Salzburg, we started out heading for the Old Town area again. On our way there we ran into this huge market! There were endless booths of cheese, fruits, vegetables, meats, breads, and flowers. It was amazing. I wanted to by all of the fruit, it looked so good. After wandering through it for a bit, Jeremiah and I thought, why not get our lunch from here? So, we tried to be confident in making our purchases like the locals and found some salami, a baguette, a hunk of Parmesano Reggiano cheese, and a 1/2 kilogram of cherries. All of it was fresh and absolutely delicious! We found a spot on the Salzach river and enjoyed our fresh purchases. Turns out it was enough for dinner too! That may have been my favorite meal so far, probably partially because it was so fun to purchase from the market. Most of the day we just spent walking around the city, we walked halfway up to the fortress on the hill to get a nice view of the city, around the parks, across Mozart's foot bridge (everything is named after Mozart), and sat for a couple of hours in the park just reading and enjoying the day. I love these slower paced days where we can just stop and enjoy the city and its beauty. 

Tonight we are going to experience our first (and only) overnight train on our way to Interlaken, Switzerland! Wish us luck!